The object of study of the present doctoral thesis is the Barcelona City Council between the proclamation of the Republic and the beginning of the Civil War. The Catalan capital had more than a million inhabitants, representing 36% of the Catalan population, being also the most populous city in Spain. The institution was undoubtedly the most important administration in Catalonia and the second in the state only behind the state administration, especially in the pre-autonomous period, but also when the Generalitat de Catalunya was launched, with a clear symbolic value. but focused on achieving the transfers to begin to develop autonomy and that enjoyed a smaller budget and staff than the local administration of Barcelona. The thesis focuses mainly on historical sources, the documentation generated by the council itself and the contemporary press, delimited by four large blocks, beyond the introductory framework and various annexes. A first block explains the resistance to the changes that the new republican leaders intend to apply, with the opposition of sectors benefited in previous periods such as the big companies that monopolized basic services for the population, the collection of taxes to the richest or in the church, the attempt to purge the staff, where it can be concluded that the change of rulers led to a replacement in the leaders of the political administration but not in the power structure, with great opposition and as in cases such as electricity companies, in the face of a lack of alternatives, the monopoly was maintained despite the new regime. The second block is a chronological account of the evolution of the council majority, the main events, crises and controversies, the changes that cause councilors to stop taking on their council duties, as well as changes within the same formations, mainly of the Radical Republican Party, of a revolutionary profile to be part of the right-wing bloc, which helps explain the loss of the majority of the Republican Left of Catalonia, as the radicals were a necessary support.
The situation of the Generalitat de Catalunya in transfers is also analyzed and this block also provides an account of a period that has not been treated much, such as that of the managing governments (October 1934 – February 1936), with the debates. and internal disagreements, where he had habitually focused on the recomposition of the left-wing bloc, despite being little treated represents a quarter of the Republican peace period. The third is about the organization of the council and the evolution of councilors who assumed the tenures and chaired the various committees throughout the period, with constant changes due to councilors who left the council tasks, also explains the operation of the in the plenary sessions, commissions, the role of the mayor and the different positions and with a special mention to the changes produced by the Municipal Law of Catalonia and the creation of a government commission, that transforms the operation, where the plenary sessions , where any decision had to be approved so far, became monthly instead of weekly and a Governing Commission with decision-making capacity is created. Finally, we find a fourth block on the management and projects of the city council that could have transformed the city of Barcelona as it is today, plans such as a subsidy for workers in forced unemployment, the sanitation plan, the creation of dozens of school groups, a city modeled on the needs of the population and not simply adapted to try to provide the best services, the already existing debate on the creation of a Greater Barcelona, are issues, in many cases already endowed with a budget. The thesis analyzes the evolution of municipal policy in several aspects, which were left unfinished due to the beginning of the Civil War.
