Personal Autonomy of the Cortes Generales

Abstract

In this article we focus on one of the most important guarantees of democracy, contemplated in Article 72 of the Spanish Constitution: parliamentary autonomy, referring specifically to one of its most unknown manifestations, administrative or staff autonomy. 

The autonomy of Parliament is enshrined in the dawn of parliamentarism, within the framework of the principle of separation of powers, rising as an insurmountable wall between the executive and the legislative power, with a fourfold scope that encompasses normative autonomy, budget autonomy, organizational autonomy and administrative autonomy. The latter implies that the Chambers have their own staff, that they themselves select and organize, decisively expelling from our system the "political clientelism".

The Spanish Constitution connects with our history and recognizes, elevating it to the maximum rank, the importance of guaranteeing an absolute impartiality and independence of an independent staff for the Chambers, especially qualified, impartial and permanently linked to them, a professional organization that constitutes the Parliamentary Administration, of which its characteristics are analyzed here.