Spain’s 'Second Transition': Patterns of Stability and Change in the Spanish Democracy During Crisis (original) (raw)
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South European Society and Politics, 2009
This work analyses whether the first government of Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004–8) represents a ‘second transition’ in relation to the transition to democracy that occurred in Spain in the mid-1970s. After reviewing the concept of a second transition and the electoral context, the work analyses the patterns of change and continuity in the areas of public policy, political institutions and interparty politics. It concludes that while there were significant changes during the Zapatero government, they do not amount to a second transition.
Spain S Second Transition the Socialist Government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero 2011 Isbn 978 0 415 55052 9 Pags 1 19, 2011
This work analyses whether the first government of Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004-8) represents a 'second transition' in relation to the transition to democracy that occurred in Spain in the mid-1970s. After reviewing the concept of a second transition and the electoral context, the work analyses the patterns of change and continuity in the areas of public policy, political institutions and interparty politics. It concludes that while there were significant changes during the Zapatero government, they do not amount to a second transition.
From stability to change? The evolution of the party system in Spain
Party System Change, The European Crisis and the State of Democracy, 2018
Spain's party system evolved from a swift transformation during the fi rst years after democratic transition, towards increasing stability and strong institutionali-zation from 1990 onwards. Alas, the 2008 economic and fi nancial crisis aborted this smooth evolution and triggered several alterations in the Spanish political landscape. Although the institutional framework has contributed so far to limit the scope of these changes, the 2015 and 2016 legislative elections brought many novelties to the traditional patterns of partisan competition, electoral behavior and government formation. This chapter will assess how the gradual evolution of the Spanish party system experienced an accelerated mutation during the last decade, and how the economic turmoil and the institutional malaise became catalysts of those systemic changes. Party system stability was favored for years by the continuity of the institutional framework designed during the "Transition" to democracy. Spain is nowadays a parliamentary democracy featured by a combination of majoritarian and consociational institutions. These institutional arrangements were set by the 1978 Constitution precisely to avoid some of the main burdens of past democratic experiences , like low party system institutionalization, government instability and centre-periphery tensions (Gunther et al. 2004 ; Magone 2009). On the one hand, national politics is driven by strong concentration of power around the executive , and particularly the prime minister (Presidente del Gobierno) vis à vis the cabinet and the parliament. Asymmetrical bicameralism is dominated by the low chamber (Congreso de los Diputados), where parliamentary parties play a strong role favored by internal rules promoting party cohesion and the predominance of the party in central offi ce. This is also facilitated by a PR electoral system with a strong majoritarian bias due to the low magnitude of most districts, favoring the main national parties and their respective central offi ces. This institutional setting, together with the organizational evolution of Spanish parties, and the fact that the prime minister has generally been also party leader, have produced a highly "presidentialized" political system (Biezen and Hopkin 2005). On the other hand, consociationalism is strongly fueled by the process of devolution set by the Constitution that ended up in a highly decentralized state with 17 different
The unfolding of Spain's political crisis: From the squares to the ballot box
Crisis in the Eurozone Periphery: The Political Economies of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland (edited by Owen Parker and Dimitris Tsarouhas) Palgrave
Spain's economic crisis became a political crisis from 2011 when protest movements erupted in response to the direct effects of the former and the austerity regime that followed. However, this chapter suggests that the particularities of developments from 2011 are explicable not simply with reference to the proximate economic crisis, but require an examination of Spain's broader transition from dictatorship from the 1970s and its Europeanisation thereafter. Prioritising stability, that transition was built upon the marginalisation or incorporation of non-mainstream groups and the formation of a narrow two-party system. It is against this backdrop that this chapter traces the emergence of protest in 2011, the rise of separatist movements in Catalonia and the emergence of institutional challenges to the status-quo at local and national levels.
It is a widely held view that Europeanization is a gradual process of adaptation of domestic policies, institutions or political actors to European Union (EU) regulation or norms, frequently linked to democratization processes. There are, however, potential applications of the concept of Europeanization to situations of crisis when domestic agents have little room for manoeuvre; on these occasions, gradual adaptation may turn into pressures to implement EU norms or regulations and this may have disruptive effects on domestic political systems. This paper aims at illuminating these processes in Spain during the years of the Great Recession and evaluating their putative impact on the Spanish party system. The primary concern of this study is, therefore, to identify crucial steps in the processes of Europeanization of Spanish politics during the years 2010-2012; in a second step it analyses the articulation of a response to these processes by protest movements, and especially by the political party Podemos in its initial phase. A case-study approach is used to gain deeper insight into the context of Spanish politics in times of crisis. Official documents of domestic or EU institutions and various speeches of the political party Podemos are collected and examined. The results of this study suggest connections between Europeanization processes and changes in domestic party competition in Spain; additionally, it identifies Europeanization in Spain as a disruptive process favouring the emergence of anti-establishment discourses.
Times of Crises: Ideology and Party System Transformations in Spain
Partecipazione e Conflitto (PACO), 2024
The Spanish party system has recently undergone profound changes, marked by the rapid rise and decline of several political actors, such as Podemos and Ciudadanos, who challenged the imperfect two-party system that had characterised Spain since transition. This article examines how three major crisesthe global financial crisis, the Catalan secessionist challenge, and the COVID19 pandemic-, have impacted the social imaginary and created opportunities for new framing and electoral competition strategies. Our research reconstructs changes in the Spanish ideological landscape and the relative salience of political cleavages in each of these crises. We argue that they had asymmetric impacts on party politics. Antiestablishment and nationalist populist discourses were effectively used to harness and redirect public discontent against political opponents. Political parties adapted their ideology strategically. Initially, outsider parties took advantage of the drop of trust in public institutions challenging the two-party system, but in the long run, the mainstreaming of populist interpretative frames, paradoxically, ended up consolidating two antagonistic blocs and enabled the resurgence of the two major parties, the PP and PSOE, as undisputed leaders of each of them.
Spain’s ‘Second Transition’? The Socialist Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
2011
""Few would have imagined the developments and the extent of reforms that occurred under Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero between 2004 and 2008. Under Zapatero, Spain rapidly withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq, held a very public political debate on the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, passed very progressive social legislation that included gay marriage and adoption as well as a sweeping gender equality act, and expanded autonomy in six of Spain’s 17 regions. It has become quite common to refer to some or all of these developments as a ‘second transition’ that alters or revisits policies, institutional arrangements and political strategies that were established during Spain’s transition to democracy. This book analyzes the patterns of continuity and change and provides a nuanced, critical evaluation of the concept of a ‘second transition’. Three broad questions are addressed. First, to what degree do the developments under Zapatero’s Socialist government represent a departure from prior patterns of Spanish politics? Second, what accounts for the continuities and departures? Finally, the project begins to assess the implications of these developments. Are there lasting effects, for example, on political participation, electoral alignments, interparty and inter-regional relations more broadly?" Chapters by Bonnie N. Field, Omar G. Encarnación, Sebastián Royo, Diego Muro, Andrew Richards, Kerman Calvo & Irene Martín, Carlos Closa, and Charles Powell."
Transitions to democracy and internal party rules: Spain in comparative perspective
Comparative Politics, 2006
Do transitions by pact restrict access to the political system and thus reduce the quality of democracy? A comparison of legislator continuity in Spain, where democracy was established by pact, and Argentina, which had a transition by collapse, demonstrates that, while Spain had greater continuity, continuity did not compromise the quality of democracy. The mode of transition shapes internal party rules, specifically candidate selection procedures, which influence the degree of continuity in nascent democratic regimes. A second comparison of the pacts in Spain, Colombia, and Venezuela demonstrates that transitions by pact vary with respect to how pacts are enforced, with potentially significant implications for the quality of democracy.
Democracy and Institutional Development: Spain in Comparative Theoretical Perspective
2008
"""Spain stands out as a success among countries that have transited from authoritarian rule since the mid-1970s. It has achieved democratic consolidation, institutional stability, economic growth, and international significance. Despite these successes, Spain is largely absent from cross-national studies of advanced democracies; nor has existing scholarship sufficiently analyzed post-transition Spain to determine what it can teach us about comparative politics. On the other hand, the macro successes of Spain's democracy present an overly simplified depiction and prevent a more nuanced characterization of the trade-offs, strengths, and weaknesses of Spanish democracy, which are equally important for comparative politics research. This book partially fills these gaps by analyzing Spanish political parties and institutions in comparative theoretical perspective. Two primary themes unite the book and are addressed by the chapter authors: first, institutionalization and the distribution of institutionalization in the polity, and second, the relationship between institutional design and representation."" Chapters by Bonnie N. Field, Kerstin Hamann, Ingrid van Biezen, Alfred P. Montero, Lynn M. Maurer, Kerstin Hamann and Carol Mershon, Candice D. Ortbals, Raj S. Chari and Paul M. Heywood."
Political Cleavages in Spain and the 1979 General Election
Government and Opposition, 1979
THE TRANSITION FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY IN Spain has been a fascinating experience ever since the Autumn of 1976, when the Ley de Reforma Politica (Law on Political Reform) was passed through the Francoist Cortes and later through a national Referendum. Setting aside the political virtuosity of the different players involved in this dramatic experiment, three aspects of the transition have been particularly important from the point of view of a sociological analysis of Spanish politics: first of all, the ideological moderation of the electorate, which would fulfil an essential prerequisite of democratic stability; secondly, the continuities with past political cleavages between Left and Right, in spite of a parenthesis of four decades of dictatorship; finally, the threat to the new democracy coming from the political violence of Basque separatists and from the activities of Francoist groups which are also active within the army. These three dimensions can be re-examined in the...