User:Pboetser/Institute for Self-Government Studies

The Institute for Self-Government Studies (Institut d'Estudis de l'Autogovern, IEA) is a research centre linked to the Government of Catalonia and is located in the Palau Centelles building, in Barcelona. The IEA is responsible for advising, planning, promoting and participating in the supervision of actions related to the development of self-government and its institutions, and for developing research on the territorial organisation of power. Its director advises the President of the Generalitat —to whom he reports functionally— in the creation and development of the general guidelines of the Government's action in the field of self-government. The director also advises the head of the Ministry of the Presidency on the general political guidelines for governmental action in relation to the development of self-government; and defines, plans, proposes and promotes the measures, initiatives and actions of other ministries aimed at the development of self-government and its institutions.

To this end, the Institute works with multidisciplinary teams (with experts from the fields of law, political science or economics) both from a theoretical and comparative policy perspective, as well as from a perspective applied to specific cases. The Institute's research activity includes collaborations with other institutions and public and private organisations, and is also fostered by the dissemination of studies and papers, the organisation of seminars, the promotion of research fellowship programmes and the publication of several collections of books and of a biannual journal (Journal of Self-Government).

History
In 1984, the Government of Catalonia created the Institut d'Estudis Autonòmics. The first major work published by this unit was the study Comments on the Statute of Catalonia (1988). From that moment on, the Institute played a leading role in the development of Catalan self-government. During the 1980s and 1990s it published works related to autonomy and organised specialised seminars on the issue. The Institute played a key role in the elaboration and promotion of the reform of the Statute of Autonomy. In 2003 it published the Report on the reform of the Statute. Subsequently, the Institute also became a relevant actor in the debate on the future of self-government and secession processes in comparative politics.

On March 1st, 2016, the Decree 201/2016 on the restructuring of the Department of the Presidency assigned the area of competence on the promotion of self-government to this unit and changed the name of the Institute, which was renamed as Institute for Self-Government Studies. When Catalan self-government was restored after the elections to the Catalan Parliament on the 21st of December, 2017 —following the referendum of 1st October, 2017— the IEA resumed its institutional and research activities. In 2019 it published the Catalan and English versions of the reports 1) "Democracies and Independence Referendums: The Case of Catalonia" and 2) "Self-Government and Intergovernmental Relations in Today's Democracies: The Case of Catalonia".

The Decree 21/2021, 25th of May, on the creation, denomination and determination of the sphere of competence of the departments of the Administration of the Generalitat of Catalonia attributes to the Department of the Presidency the task of promoting the deployment of self-government and, to this end, assigns to it, as a body, the Institute for Self-Government Studies.