Publications

In broad terms socialism may be defined as the extension of the concept of democracy. In other words, as the development as far as possible of democracy in the political, socio-cultural etc. fields. From the point of view of the final aim, the concept is identified with the concept of self-management. However, the response to the major question raised by the title of this publication may be set out in an endless economic, political and socio-cultural treatise.

As well as a brief definition which covers the entirety of the matter but without going into detail, it is also a treatise which is sufficiently extensive to rigorously go into the enormous content of the socialist concept, this brief text serves as an explanatory pamphlet.

Felipe González and Juan Luis Cebrián set out little known aspects of our past, discover unknown keys and express the opinions which make this book an incitement to debate. A conversation on the future between two protagonists of the transition from dictatorship to democracy. A recovering of our historical memory and a critical look at the present, this is a work with a changing perspective of the understanding of Spain, the story of two men of our time about a country which they would like to be more modern.

From the situation of the monarchy to globalization passing through the role of the armed forces, patriotism, sovereignty, the coup d´état of the 23^rd of February and the dirty war against terrorism.

The subjects covered in the six chapters of this book together with the quality of the authors lead to a review of the reforms necessary in the region to overcome the crisis, to go beyond it and look towards the horizon of the future. The reader will find contributions on the crisis as an opportunity and as a risk, on the need to find a model of growth which generates employment while at the same time redistributing income, on education, training and health as key strategic variables in the drive towards modernization and the equalization of opportunity, on energy and climate change,

on the development of the infrastructure for eliminating bottlenecks in development, on the effect of migration flows, on the challenges of physical and legal security in the light of the most dangerous threats, on the quality of democracy and the institutional reforms for its achievement and on the regional integration action which will lead to the use of the synergies for the region with such great potential for development.

More than three decades after the return to democracy and the building of the State of Autonomous Regions, two of the principle actors in the transition from dictatorship to democracy review the evolution of the Spanish political system, the distribution of powers between the autonomous regions and the central government and in particular, the symbolic duality – economic, cultural and institutional as well – between Catalonia and Spain. The reflections on this evolution which began at the height of the Cold War and in a bi-polar world, leads necessarily to the new

context of a globalized economy and a multi-polar world where Europe, Spain and Catalonia are seeking their respective places and voices. The conversations, moderated by Lluis Bassets, cover the most polemical aspects of the redistribution of economic and political power, nationalist demands and sentiments, multi-cultural and multi-lingual societies today where people with a wide variety of origins need to coexist and the problems of governing and the sustainability of future social and productive models.

The governance model for western societies is in crisis. The basic pillars which support representative democracy are increasingly called into question by their inhabitants. Many voters feel that their preferences are not sufficiently taken into account by politicians and become open to alternative means for channelling their demands; for their part, governments complain about the ever greater obstacles and restrictions which they need to overcome when they try to carry out their policies; while the founding principles of the separation of powers, majority governments and democratic accountability are increasingly being eroded.

Between spring of 2016 and spring 2017 Felipe González took over the José Bonifacio Chair, an academic programme at the University of São Paulo at the initiative of the Ibero-American Centre (CIBA). Who´s in charge here? Brings together the work of several specialists (José Fernández-Albertos, Gerson Damiani, Víctor Lapuente Giné, Ignacio Molina, Roberto Gargarella, Rafael Jiménez Asensio, Berta Barbet, Juan Rodríguez Teruel, Kelly Komatsu Agyopan, Alberto Penadés and Wagner Pinheiro Pereira along with Felipe González himself) who seek to shed light on these problems while offering solutions which are organised around the four blocks on which the Chair is structured.