Las relaciones entre descentralización y capital social: argumentos teóricos y referencia española

This work explores the existent relations between social capital and the decentralisation process, according to a discussion about the first notion and adopting its definition as a scheme of informal institutions, that induces spontaneous co-operative behaviours of the individuals. In the theoretical debate about the economic effects of the decentralisation, some relevant benefits are detailed, and also some costs. The main argument of this article is to assert that the endowment of the social capital can be an element of grand importance, in order to incline the balance toward the advantages side: In the case when, a major decentralisation realises effectively to increase the endowment of the social capital 'the fact that can be accredited to a considerate number of cases, but which is not a universal phenomenon' this should incorporate important gains, in terms of reducing transaction costs, the impulse of innovation capacity and the quality of the public politics. An argument which is contradicted with the data of the Spanish Autonomous Communities.