| Popis: |
This chapter explains the evolution of the chambers of commerce in Spain. The chambers have always faced political and associative tensions, generating tremendous internal instability, and multiple attempts to make them disappear. They adopted a public model with a mandatory fee in the early days. The Dictatorship decided to convert them into public agencies and cancel their representative aspirations. In the democratic era, several legal reforms have decreed that chambers of commerce are corporations under public law with voluntary affiliation. Pressure from voluntary business associations has been crucial in this regard. Both compulsory membership and the mandatory fee disappeared as a consequence of the economic crisis in 2010, while the role of large companies in the internal workings of chambers was reinforced. After a decade of adaptation to the new hybrid model (as public-law entities with no mandatory fee), Spanish chambers of commerce have reinforced their role as ‘services suppliers’ to local companies, and have constantly expanded the number of companies associated with them. |
