Conversations on Spain 6: Charles Powell

Our guest this week is Charles Powell (@CharlesTPowell), who is the director of the Royal Elcano Institute. We talk about all of this:

• The “Age of Perplexity”: long-term global trends, populism, technology, economy, inequality, US vs. China, Trump, the world that Spain exists within, Spain vs. other countries, other countries’ vision of Spain
• Italy and Europe: Macron, Merkel, the eurozone, Spain’s role in Europe, (the lack of) Spanish leadership in Europe, Spaniards and the European dream, political ambition in Spain, Rajoy vs. Sánchez in Europe, Brexit, would Europe survive the re-election of Trump?
• Transition Spain: 1980s, 1990s Spain vs. 2018 Spain, long-term economic and political problems and trends in Spain, trying to explain Spain to the world, the “obsolete” 1978 Constitution, inequalities among Spanish regions, recentralisation.
• Domestic challenges: Catalonia, last year’s Catalan crisis, the trial of Catalan separatists, unemployment, the financial crisis, constitutional crisis, “almost impossible” constitutional reform, regional finance, federalism, nation of nations, national identity, immigration, two-party vs. four-party politics, what to do with two million Catalan separatist voters?
• Liberal democracy: illiberal or authoritarian democracy, national populism, global structures and alliances, supranational governance, nation states, member states, sovereignty, a new international order, Dani Rodrik’s trilemma (economic globalisation, national sovereignty, democracy), pooling sovereignty,

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