Civil society and political party as power sources of local leaders in Andalusia

Abstract

This review presents a synthesis of the doctoral thesis defended with the title Leadership and local political strategies: the mayors of the Andalusian provincial capitals (1979-2011) by the author in September 2018. This work analyzes the process of construction, maintenance and loss of local power of the mayor of the mentioned cities between 1979 and 2015. The author uses a qualitative methodology based on two stages: a first, based on the historiographic method; and a second implementation of semi-structured interviews with these mayors and the subsequent production of biographical stories. Finally, the conclusion of this thesis emphasizes the importance of the power bases of the mayors and showing, two typologies differentiated according to whether their support comes more from the party structures, or from the local community.