Over the centuries, boards, committees and commissions have been some of the most commonly used mechanisms to expedite decision making. Kings, parliaments, municipal and local governments, and professional guilds made use of them to overcome their inherent problems. Kings have needed to listen to voices other than their own to wield their executive power, and parliaments, municipal and local governments, and professional guilds listened to and applied many different opinions to perform their functions.

The workshop had two objectives. The first was to examine how boards, committees and commissions were used as working committees in the initial stages of analysis and the ways they were brought into the crux of the discussion. The second objective was to formally analyse them as decision-making mechanisms and in terms of how they were used politically to give priority to certain opinions over others.

The workshop, sponsored by the Study Group of Institutions and Modern Catalan Society and the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, gave historians and legal experts from different Catalan, Spanish and European universities and organizations the chance to present their research findings in this field. Dr. Martí gave the presentation “Novenas or Committees of Nine in the General Council of Catalonia in the Second Half of the 17th Century”.

Eduard Martí has a PhD in History from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and is the Assistant Dean of the UIC Faculty of Communication Sciences. He is the author of the book La Conferència dels Tres Comuns (1697-1714). Una institució decisiva en la política catalana (The Conference of the Three Ruling Powers (1697-1714): A Decisive Institution in Catalan Politics), published by the Ernest Lluch Foundation in 2008, and La classe dirigent catalana, els membres de la Conferència dels Tres Comuns i el Braç Militar (The Catalan Ruling Class, the Members of the Three Ruling Powers and the Military), published by the Noguera Foundation in 2009. Dr. Martí's books examine the history of Catalan institutions in the 17th century and the nobility in recent centuries. He also helps edit the collection Record Books on Lot Drawing Elections in the City of Barcelona (1498-1713), which is coordinated by Eva Serra.