Abstract
At the very heart of Spain’s democratization is the apparent puzzle of how this country, a paradigm of democratic consolidation among so-called Third Wave democracies, managed to accomplish this seemingly elusive feat in the absence of the civic traditions usually attached to strong civil societies. More impressive still is that since the demise of the Franco regime in 1977, Spain has consolidated democratic institutions and practices at a faster and more meaningful pace than almost any other society that in recent decades has abandoned authoritarian rule and embraced democratic governance. This long and varied roster of cases includes nations (such as Brazil) widely noted for the expansive and highly mobilized nature of their civil societies. Yet, at least within the context of the Iberian-Latin world, few nations have undertaken to consolidate democratic rule with a civil society deficit as egregious as that found in Spain. As illustrated in this chapter, neither from an historical standpoint, nor especially from a contemporary one, does Spain resemble in any significant way the models of civil society strength developed by civil society theorists.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
José Amodia, Franco’s Political Legacy (London: Penguin, 1977), p. 203.
Juan J. Linz, “A Century of Interest Politics in Spain,” in Suzanne Berger, ed., Organizing Interests in Western Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 367.
Peter McDonough, Samuel H. Barnes and Antonio López Pina, The Cultural Dynamics of Democratization in Spain (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998).
On the Spanish labor movement during the transition to democracy see José M. Maravall, Dictadura y disentimiento polftico: Obreros y estudiantes bajo el franquismo (Madrid: Ediciones Alfaguara, 1978);
Victor Pérez-Díaz, Clase obrera, orden social y conciencia de clase (Madrid: Fundación del Instituto National de Industria, 1980);
José M. Zufiaur, “El sindicalismo espanol en la transición y la crisis,” Papeles de Economia Espanola 22 (1985); Robert Fishman, Working Class Organization and the Return to Democracy in Spain (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990); and Omar G. Encarnación, “Labor and Pacted Democracy: Post-Franco Spain in Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics 33 (April 2001).
Katrina Burgess, “Unemployment and Union Strategies in Spain,” in Nancy Bermeo, ed., Unemployment in Southern Europe: Coping with the Consequences (London: Frank Cass, 2000), p. 4.
Jose M. Maravall, The Transition to Democracy in Spain (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977), p. 9.
Joaquín Estefanía and Rodolfo Serrano, “Diez años de relaciones industriales en España,” in Angel Zaragoza, ed., Pactos sociales, sindicatos y patronal en España (Madrid: Siglo XIX, 1988), p. 36.
Philippe Schmitter, “Organized Interests and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe,” in Richard Gunther, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros and Hans-Jürgen Puhle, eds., The Politics of Democratic Consolidation: Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955), 294.
Larry Diamond, Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), pp. 228–229.
On this period in Spanish history see Juan J. Linz, “From Great Hopes to Civil War: The Breakdown of Democracy in Spain,” in Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, eds., The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979).
On the CNCA see: J. J. Castillo, La subordinación política del pequeno campesino (Madrid: Ministerio de Agricultura, 1979).
Gerald Meaker, “Anarchists Versus Syndicalists: Conflicts Within the Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores, 1917–1923,” in Stanley G. Payne, ed., Politics and Society in Twentieth Century Spain (New York: Viewpoints, 1976), p. 29.
Benjamin Martin, The Agony of Modernization: Labor and Industrialization in Spain (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990), p. 215.
The classic statement on these issues is Edward C. Banfield’s The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1958).
Francis Fukuyama, Trust: Societal Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Free Press, 1995), p. 56.
See Miguel Requena and Jorge Benedicto, Relaciones interpersonales: Actitudes y valores en la España de los ochenta (Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 1988) and Félix Requena Santos, “Redes de amistad, felicidad y familia,” Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas 66 (1994).
J. Jimenez and L. Toharia, Unemployment and Labour Market Flexibility: Spain (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1994), pp. 1 and 21. For a broader view of the political impact of the unemployment crisis in Spain
see Nancy Bermeo, ed., Unemployment in Southern Europe: Coping with the Consequences (London: Frank Cass, 2000).
On religion and democratization politics in Spain see Juan J. Linz, “Church and State in Spain from the Civil War to the Return of Democracy,” Daedalus (Summer 1991); Rafael Díaz Salazar, Iglesia, dictadura y democracia: Catolicismo y sociedad en España, 1953–1979 (Madrid: HOAC, 1981);
Stanley Payne, Spanish Catholicism (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984); and Victor Pérez-Díaz, “The Church and Religion in Contemporary Spain,” Working Paper No. 19, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias Sociales, Instituto Juan March (1991).
Salvador Giner and Enrique Sevilla, “Spain after Franco: From Corporatism to Corporatism,” in Allan Williams, ed., Southern Europe Transformed (London: Harper and Row, 1986), p. 130.
On the Franco regime see Stanley Payne, The Franco Regime, 1936–75 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987).
On organic corporatism in Iberian-Latin countries see Alfred Stepan, State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979).
In undertaking this project, Spain appears to have more in common with the post-Communist world than with its sister authoritarian regimes in South America. It is generally thought that while authoritarian regimes tolerated membership in many forms of groups, Communist ones sought to repress all kinds of autonomous civil society organization and forced the citizenry to belong to mandatory, state-controlled organizations. This difference between authoritarian and communist regimes is often used to explain lower levels of civil society density in the post-Communist world than in formerly authoritarian societies (see Marc Morje Howard, “The Weakness of Post-Communist Civil Society,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 13 (January 2002), pp. 159–160). The Spanish case suggests the need to account for the peculiarity of Francoist authoritarian rule with respect to the development of civil society. It also highlights the general point that authoritarian rule can in fact incorporate social indoctrination and forced societal participation in state-sponsored organizations.
On the OSE see Manuel Ludevid, Cuarenta años de sindicato sindical: Aproximación a la organización sindical espanola (Barcelona, 1976).
For a broader view of the Spanish transition see José M. Maravall, The Transition to Democracy in Spain (London: Croom Helm, 1982);
John Coverdale, The Political Transformation of Spain after Franco (New York: Praeger, 1979);
Raymond Carr and Juan Pablo Fussi, Spain: From Dictatorship to Democracy (London: George, Allen and Unwin, 1986);
and José Félix Tezanos, Ramón Cotarelo and Andrés de Blas, eds., La transición democrdtica espanola (Madrid: Sistema, 1989).
Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 108.
Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 7–8.
Source of data: Linz and Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, pp. 108–109. For a broader view of Spaniards’ attitudes toward democracy and the democratic transition see Juan J. Linz., ed., Informe sociologico sobre el cambio politico en España, 1975–1981 (Madrid: Fundación Foessa, 1981).
For modernization-inspired accounts of Spanish democratization see José Casanova, “Modernization and Democratization in Spain,” Social Research 50 (1993); Edward Malafakis, “Spain and its Francoist Legacy,” in John H. Hertz, ed., From Dictatorship to Democracy: Coping with the Legacies of Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983); and José Félix Tezanos “Cambio social y modernización en la España actual,” Revista Espanola de Investigaciones Sociológicas 28 (1984).
See Joseph Harrison, The Spanish Economy: From the Civil War to the European Community (London: Macmillian Press, 1993).
See Paloma Aguilar, Memoria y olvido de la guerra civil española (Madrid: Alianza, 1996).
See Geoffrey Pridham, ed., Encouraging Democracy: The International Context of Regime Transition in Southern Europe (London: Leicester University Press, 1991) and Geoffrey Pridham, “The International Context of Democratic Consolidation: Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective,” in Richard Gunther et al., eds., The Politics of Democratic Consolidation: Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective.
Richard Gunther, “The Spanish Socialist Party,” in Stanley Payne, ed., The Politics ofDemocratic Spain (The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, 1986), p. 26.
Carlos Huneeus, “La transición a la democracia en España: dimensiones de una polñtica consociacional,” in Julián Santamaria, ed., Transición a la democracia en el sur de Europa y la América Latina (Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociolôgicas, 1982), p. 224.
See Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation; Richard Gunther, “Spain: The Very Model of the Modern Elite Settlement,” in John Higley and Richard Gunther, eds., Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992);
and Donald Share, The Making of Spanish Democracy (New York: Praeger, 1986).
This widely accepted account of the Spanish transition is not without its critics. See, e.g., Ruth Berins Collier, Paths Towards Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
A full examination of the politics of social concertation in Spain is beyond the scope of this book. Fortunately, this subject has generated a vast literature, a reflection of its importance to post-transition Francoist politics. For transcripts of the Moncloa pacts and other social pacts see Luis Enrique de la Villa, Los grandes pactos colectivos a partir de la transición democrÑtica (Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, 1985). For analyses of the factors aiding in the rise of social pacts and their legacies see: Omar G. Encarnación, “Social Concertation in Democratic and Market Transitions: Comparative Lessons from Spain,” Comparative Political Studies 30 (August 1997) and Joe Foweraker, “Corporatist Strategies and the Transition to Democracy in Spain,” Comparative Politics 24 (1987). For assessments of the economic legacies of the social pacts see Enrique de la Villa and Juan Antonio Sargadoy Bengoechea, “Social Concertation in Spain,” Labour and Society 12 (1987)
and Angel Zaragoza, ed., Pactos sociales, sindicatos y patronal en España (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1988).
For analyses of the end of social pacts in Spain see: Omar G. Encarnación, “A Casualty of Unemployment: The Breakdown of Social Concertation in Spain,” in Nancy Bermeo, ed., Unemployment in Southern Europe: Coping with the Consequences (London: Frank Cass, 2000)
and Sebastián Royo, From Social Democrac to Neo-liberalism: The Consequences of Party Hegemony in Spain, 1992–1996 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).
Ramón Tamanes, The Spanish Economy (London: C. Hurst, 1986), p. 230.
Nancy Bermeo with José García Durín, “Spain: Dual Transition Implemented by Two Parties,” in Stephan Haggard and Steven B. Webb, eds., Voting For Reform: Democracy, Political Liberalization and Economic Adjustment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 94.
For a broader examination of this point see: Jordi Capo Giol, “Estrategias para un sistema de partidos,” Revista de Estudios Politicos 23 (September—October 1981) and Mario Caciagli, “Spain: Parties and the Party System in the Transitionn,” in Geoffrey Pridham, ed., The New Mediterranean Democracies: Regime Transition in Spain, Greece and Portugal (London: Frank Cass, 1984).
Copyright information
© 2003 Omar G. Encarnación
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Encarnación, O.G. (2003). Spanish Civil Society in Transition Politics. In: The Myth of Civil Society. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981646_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981646_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-52686-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-8164-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)