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The Iron Triangle of Urban Entrepreneurialism: The Political Economy of Urban Corruption in Spain

Moreno Zacarés, Javier

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Abstract

Despite a cascade of corruption scandals over the last decade, the role of political corruption has yet to be accounted for in the scholarship on Spanish urban entrepreneurialism. This is an omission that extends to the broader literature on the topic as well. This paper looks at the theoretical causes of this neglect and explores ways of integrating corruption into the study of urban entrepreneurialism. To do so, it offers a systematic analysis of the role of clientelism in the political economy of Spanish inter-urban competition. Contrary to the existing literature, which at best explains away corruption as a logical outgrowth of intensified competition for real estate capital, this paper argues that corruption is rooted in a political structure that precedes the emergence of urban entrepreneurialism. This structure is identified as an “iron triangle”, a complex of colluding interests formed by the state, the real estate industry, and political parties.

Citation

Moreno Zacarés, J. (2020). The Iron Triangle of Urban Entrepreneurialism: The Political Economy of Urban Corruption in Spain. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 52(5), 1351-1372. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12637

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 25, 2020
Online Publication Date May 11, 2020
Publication Date Aug 10, 2020
Deposit Date Sep 29, 2021
Publicly Available Date Sep 30, 2021
Journal Antipode
Print ISSN 0066-4812
Electronic ISSN 1467-8330
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 52
Issue 5
Pages 1351-1372
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12637

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Author. Antipode published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Antipode Foundation Ltd.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.




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