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The current crisis hit Spain severely, as shown by several preoccupying economic and social indicators. It occurred in a country that had been undergoing an important decentralizing trend that empowered autonomous communities and local municipalities. However, everything from policy paradigms to representative democracy seems to be questioned by a process that is also a crisis of credibility. This paper analyzes the impact of the crisis on Spanish decentralization and assesses the crisis of legitimacy of representative government and the relevance of emerging new social movements such as the Indignados and the Mortgages Victims Movement (PAH). The extent of the social and political changes that have occurred in the recent past is more than an economic crisis: it is a new era.