Abstract
After Franco’s death, Spaniards were gripped by a mixture of uncertainty, great expectations and fear. Although an overwhelming majority hoped that a passage to a modern democratic regime might be managed peacefully, very few dared to predict the country’s political development. Everyone was aware that there existed powerful elements at the extremes of the spectrum who were unlikely to relinquish their maximalist positions. In such a context, the skill, determination and goodwill of both the main opposition leaders and the king and his government were to be crucial in accomplishing a negotiated and relatively tranquil transition. Yet the dismantling of the old Francoist apparatus and the building of a democratic system cannot be seen as purely a piece of engineering from above based on the negotiations between political elites. Important though these factors were, it was the radical cultural and economic transformations of the last fifteen years of the dictatorship which were vital.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
P. Aguilar Fernández, Memoria y olvido de la Guerra Civil española (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1996), pp. 34–5,47,56–7.
R. Tamames, La economía Española: De la transición a la unión monetaria (Madrid: Temas de hoy, 1996), pp. 103, 108.
P Heywood, The Government and Politics of Spain (London: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 37, 51; Pérez-Díaz, op.cit., pp. 21–2.
R. Gillespie, ‘Regime Consolidation in Spain: Party, State, and Society’, in G. Pridham (ed.), Securing Democracy: Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe ( London: Routledge, 1990 ), p. 126.
J. Harrison, The Spanish Economy: From the Civil War to the European Community (London: Macmillan, 1993), pp. 48–9;.
K. Salmon, ‘Spain in the World Economy’, in R. Gillespie, E Rodrigo and J. Story (eds), Democratic Spain: Reshaping External Relations in a Changing World (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 72–84
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 Francisco J. Romero Salvadó
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Salvadó, F.J.R. (1999). The Triumph of Democracy, 1975–98. In: Twentieth-Century Spain. European History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27523-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27523-6_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-63697-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27523-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)