SPANISH TRANSITION

Why and How Was the Spanish Transition and Consolidation of Democracy Elite Driven Process

Why and How Was the Spanish Transition and Consolidation of Democracy Elite Driven Process

Introduction

Spain has long been held as the paradigmatic case of a successful transition to democracy. Spain had a tumultuous political history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many years of political instability culminated in a short-lived Second Republic in the 1930s, which came to a violent end after less than a decade in the Civil War of 1936-39. This was followed by nearly four decades of social peace born of a repressive authoritarian regime under Francisco Franco.

Throughout the period under consideration, including the Civil War and the transition to democracy, Spanish society exhibited three fundamental dimension of political conflict: First, the degree of regional autonomy; second, basic questions about the state, such as the rules of political representation and public choice, the status of the monarchy, the nature of the economic system, and the rights accorded various groups and citizens (stateness in the Linz and Stepan 1996 terminology); and third, the role of the Catholic Church in Spanish society.

Discussion

The Francoist dictatorship left a legacy of centralised authoritarian juridical and political regime in which power rested, in the first instance with the State, and the head of State, the king, who used these legal but extraordinary powers to return them to the people that were demanding them. From the point of view of the monarchic institution, it could be said that the King exchanged power for legitimacy, acquiring an unquestionable influence and prestige. He nationalised an institution that in 1975 had provoked a whole range of reactions including suspicion and rejection, and gave the country a stability which was founded on a respected and neutral monarchist institution. 

The death of Franco and the rise of King Juan Carlos

Its constitutional artifice was founded on a law by which Juan Carlos, as King, would be named as the Head of State's successor. The prince was a direct descendent of legitimate Bourbon dynasty, the grandson of Alfonso XIII, he was the oldest son of the Count of Barcelona Don Juan, Don Juan was the head of the Royal Household, the son of Queen Victoria Eugenia of Battemberg and served in the British Navy, he was also a convinced democrat and Franco's rival in the 1940's and he maintained frequent disputes with the dictator throughout the course of the regime. In 1948, he sent Juan Carlos to be educated in Spain and surrounded him with monarchists. In such difficult circumstances, the Prince was able to remain aloof and avoid compromising situations. When Franco died 20 November 1975, Juan Carlos was unknown to the greater part of the Spanish population including much of the opposition and numerous Francoist politicians. 

The death by natural causes of General Franco occurred in atmosphere of political tense, happening as it did one year after a record number strikes were held in ...