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With growing recognition of the ‘localized’ causes and consequences of climate change, cities and subnational governments have been key actors and arenas in the development of policy responses. This article examines the emergence of the phenomenon of newly evolved major role of cities and subnational governments in policy making, and the roles they have played in orchestrating the response to climate change over the past two decades. It considers how and why urban and regional governments came to be at the forefront of responses to climate change, and the political geographies of that movement. In addition, it examines the nature of urban and regional responses to climate change, and considers the tensions emerging between the rhetoric and reality of the possibilities of addressing climate change. This article concludes discussing the potential and implications for cities and subnational governments in responding to climate change.

This article examines the role of grassroots philanthropy in civil society. It explains the concept of grassroots philanthropy and evaluates whether poor people can or should be the prime movers in shaping programs that aim to change their condition. It argues that philanthropy “with, by and from” the grassroots is likely to be an important element of efforts to build the capacities and connections that are required to address social problems successfully in the future.

This chapter analyses the institutional, political, and economic determinants of the main dimensions of economic policy in contemporary Spain in the hands of domestic policy-makers: fiscal and regulatory policies. It describes its effects on redistribution, and analyses its variation across the ideological leanings of governments and across time, paying special attention to how the Spanish economy has coped with the Great Recession. The last sections advance an explanation for the main features of Spanish economic policy-making by analysing the supply-side (institutional) and demand-side (political-economy) constraints in which it operates, and suggests possible implications for how it will evolve in the near future.

In the European context, Spain is a late modernizer, which experienced a delayed educational expansion. However, after 1970, and especially after the restoration of democracy in 1978, the Spanish education system completed its expansion and modernized significantly, converging with its neighbours on most outcomes related to the quality of education. Notwithstanding remarkable levels of stability of institutional design and framework policies, it is widely believed that education in Spain is subject to constant political reforms. This is partly explained by the frequent use of education in political and electoral debates, and, particularly, by the overrepresentation in public debates of a limited repertoire of normative and organizational aspects of educational policies. While the current education system in Spain has achieved a high level of quality combined with low levels of educational inequality by social background when compared with other developed countries, there are secular problems that need to be addressed, particularly the reform of teacher selection, training programmes, and careers; modernization of school curricula; adaptation of pedagogical innovations; rationalization of retakes; and diversification of tracks to offer less successful students an alternative and prevent early dropout. This chapter describes this transformation and problematizes key educational reforms in Spain, focusing on the democratic period, using different international datasets including PISA (OECD, several years), PIACC (OECD 2016), TIMSS, and PIRLS (IEA, several years), the European Social Survey as well as several national sources of data including the Spanish General Social Survey (CIS 2013) and the Labour Force Survey (several years).

This chapter provides an overview of the emergence, consolidation, recalibration, and liberalization of employment policies in Spain. By identifying five developmental periods, it reviews transformations in the nature and regulation of labour market policies from the early 1900s to the mid-2010s. In addition, it explores changes in the territorial organization and governance of labour-market policies with a focus on decentralization, (re-) centralization, and delegation reforms. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Great Recession on Spanish labour market policies and structures, including its dualized labour market. All in all, the chapter sheds much light on the nature and changes of the Spanish welfare state since the early twentieth century.

This chapter discusses how Spain transitioned from being a latecomer to an early-adapter country in the field of gender equality and LGBTI policy. Such transformation is assessed against the type of gender regime that has taken root in the country as regards the share of women in the workforce, the degree of inequality in employment, the reach and scope of public childcare provision, the levels of women’s representation in decision-making positions and the guarantee of sexual and reproductive rights. The chapter also looks at the implementation of state feminism, paying attention to the strength of both the regulatory framework on gender equality and of equality promotion institutions. In outlining major policy advances, it also examines how the European Union and the multilevel structure of Spain have shaped gender equality and LGBTI policy. Lastly, it discusses the extent to which conservative setbacks and gendered austerity measures have jeopardized progress in these policy areas, fuelling the mobilization of the women’s movement.

Nigeria bears one of the largest burdens of HIV infection in the world. Key features of the country’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic illustrate the experiences of many low- and middle-income countries. The country’s response is the result of an interplay of policy and political commitment, the work of professionals from multiple disciplines, cross-sectoral programming, and financing from domestic government budgets, household expenditures, and development partners. Sustained progress in Nigeria’s response to HIV/AIDS requires improvements in the effective coverage of services along the spectrum of prevention, treatment, care, and support for those infected. These will also benefit from an effective health system in the context of Universal Health Coverage. Achieving sustainable financing remains a key challenge.

This chapter focuses on anticorruption efforts in post-independence Nigeria, and primarily on measures adopted since the return to civilian rule in 1999. Progress and setbacks are analyzed in relation to the politics of corruption. Historically, most initiatives by the Nigerian state to fight corruption have been judged to be ineffective and even disingenuous. During the civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, however, many Nigerians perceived what they thought were serious anticorruption efforts. This perception was embodied in the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and in its ambitious inaugural chairman, Nuhu Ribadu. Because the Ribadu-led EFCC encapsulated the successes and failures of anticorruption efforts in Nigeria more generally, this chapter examines the EFCC in considerable detail. The final section of the chapter offers a brief overview of some other recent and proposed efforts to combat corruption. The chapter concludes by offering some lessons learned.

The objective of this chapter is to trace and present the main characteristics of the public policy system in Spain, incorporating policy change over time, as well as the policy style that has characterized its different stages. The transition between Francoism and democracy generated significant continuities and discontinuities both in the decision-making processes and in the actors’ system. The full incorporation into the European Union also involved significant changes in content, processes and networks. Finally, the impacts of the 2007 crisis and the effects of globalization and technological change also generated significant disruptions that will also be incorporated. The chapter will distinguish the conceptual, substantive, and operational aspects of the public policy system in Spain, as well as the main elements of the multilevel government. This aspect is especially complex in the Spanish case, given the combination of Europeanization of policies and the very remarkable regional decentralization generated by 1980.

In the context of the Copenhagen meeting on climate change in December 2009, the world witnessed a convergence of different civil society actors who were focused upon the collective demand of climate justice. This article is concerned with how solidarities might be forged between different communities and civil society actors within the context of how injustices associated with climate change are experienced differently in different places. This article argues that a spatialized understanding of both particular placed-based struggles as well as how such struggles attempt to forge solidarities beyond the local are crucial in order to construct meaningful translocal alliances. It briefly discusses ‘climate justice’, as interpreted by civil society actors and also examines the context of a recent fieldwork on Bangladesh with a landless peasants' movement concerned with issues of food sovereignty and climate change. It further considers the potentials for constructing ‘translocal climate justice solidarities’.

The first part of this chapter describes the main features of the Spanish Welfare State, trying to place it in a comparative perspective. The second part identifies the socioeconomic and political factors which explain its evolution since the beginning of the new century to the current situation, focusing on the attempts at recalibration of the system since 2000 and the interruption of this process due to the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008. The third part analyses the main challenges that the Welfare State has to face in the post-crisis period, which include some structural problems such as its inability to address inequality or poverty during the periods of economic growth. Finally, the chapter speculates about the future of the Welfare State in Spain.