Governance, Institutional innovation and Agenda 2030: a multilevel approach to the Spanish case

Contemporary neo-institutionalism has emphasised on institutional and administrative arrangements as a significant independent variable to explain the behaviour of Public Administrations. Thus, institutional changes (planned or disruptive) are useful to explain the effectiveness of their performance. In Spain, after more than forty years since the introduction of a quasi-federal state, the multilevel regional system has developed a complex institutional configuration of vertical and horizontal coordination and governance. This paper aims to assess - through a comparative methodology - the extent to which the 17 regional governments have adopted various institutional reforms to integrate the Agenda 2030 into their governance mechanisms. The proposal aims to address this objective from the theoretical and conceptual dimensions of institutional capacity and governance. In addition, using a qualitative database with operational indicators of institutional capacity, the paper analyses the recent reforms (between 2015 and 2021) adopted to: 1) Recognize which are the most successful governance contexts for the achievement of the SDGs ; 2) Accomplish, specifically, SDG 16 (ensuring institutional levels of governance, effective, inclusive institutions and accountability) for the transversal development of the Agenda 2030