VI.

Government and Contemporary Issues

Every four years, voters in Barcelona elect a city council composed of 41 members. These council members choose a mayor from the lists of candidates proposed by the leading political parties. As the city's chief executive and administrative official, the mayor presides over both the civic government and the Confederation of Municipalities. The confederation is an umbrella organization for coordinating urban planning in the greater Barcelona area. The powers and jurisdictions of both municipal and metropolitan bodies are limited to some degree by the Catalan government, which oversees a wide range of policy issues, including regional transport, and land and water use.

Barcelona experiences many of the same problems of other modern European cities. Drug abuse and high unemployment are particularly pronounced among younger and poorer residents. Although crime rates are low by American standards, they nevertheless have risen in recent decades. In addition, the city’s financial resources have not kept pace with the growing demand for the broad range of services provided by the municipal government.

Barcelona also faces typical environmental challenges, such as controlling air pollution—caused largely by heavy automobile traffic—and maintaining adequate water quality and waste disposal. Starting in the mid-1980s, the city began to invest heavily in local infrastructure, especially in the inner and outer highway belts, to address many of these threats to the quality of urban life.