Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T14:48:29.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Transition to Democracy in Portugal and Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Extract

The relatively recent proliferation of books and articles on Spain and Portugal is obviously a consequence of the profound socio-political changes that have occurred in those countries over the past decade. The range and variety of this growth area of academic literature has been considerable. It is almost as if after more than forty years of dictatorship, everybody wanted to acquire, in a few years, the knowledge they had been deprived of before. New journals newspapers, books and booklets appear and disappear from bookstores and newspaper stands with amazing rapidity, revealing the importance of the anxieties and frustrations created by so many years of intellectual and physical repression and censorship. In the light of this publishing explosion this article will attempt to review the major contributions to the debate on the Spanish and Portuguese transitions to democracy, with the intention of delineating the most prominent issues and themes (political, social and economic) involved.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Linz, Juan J., in Graham, Lawrence S. and Makler, Harry M., eds, Contemporary Portugal: The Revolution and its Antecedents (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1979), Foreword, vii.Google Scholar

2 Livermore, H. V., A New History of Portugal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; de Oliveira Marques, A. H., History of Portugal (New York: Colombia University Press, 1972)Google Scholar; Minter, William, Schmitter, Phillippe, and Payne, Stanley G., A History of Spain and Portugal (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973).Google Scholar

3 Outstanding among other universities are: Birmingham, Liverpool, Oxford and LSE, in Britain; Yale, Columbia, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Chicago, Massachusetts, Boston, Clark, Michigan, and Texas, in the USA and Canada. Universities in Brazil, Portugal and Spain have also had Portuguese curricula in various fields. In most cases, however, interest has been restricted to one or two fields. The Iberian Centre at Oxford University is perhaps providing the impetus needed to promote an interdisciplinary approach in the United Kingdom. For details on the development of scholarship on Portugal in Europe and the United States, see: Graham, and Makler, (eds), Contemporary Portugal, Introduction, XVIIIXXIV.Google Scholar

4 Robinson, Richard, Contemporary Portugal (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1979).Google Scholar

5 Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1961).Google Scholar

6 Payne, Stanley G., The Spanish Revolution (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970)Google Scholar. He mentions the example of Thomas's The Spanish Civil War, where the estimate of the people executed by the Francoist forces went up from 40,000 in the first edition published in 1963. Payne's assessment of Thomas's book is, however, generally positive. He also agrees with the accepted view of Thomas, Hugh as ‘the most impartial general history of the Civil War’, p. 225.Google Scholar

7 For an exhaustive bibliography on Spanish socialism see Fundación Iglesias, Pablo, 100 Años de Socialismo en España (Bibliografia), (Madrid: Editorial Pablo Iglesias, 1979)Google Scholar. We do not know of any other gathering of information on Spanish socialism which is more comprehensive than this. Although it includes material in Spanish only, the amount of primary documents quoted make it irreplaceable for specialists.

8 Pintado, Xavier, Growth and Structure of the Portuguese Economy (Geneva: European Free Trade Association, 1964)Google Scholar; Hammond, R. J., Portugal's African Problem: Some Economic Facets (New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1962)Google Scholar; Baklanoff, Eric N., ed., Mediterranean Europe and the Common Market: Studies of Economic Growth and Integration (Montgomery: University of Alabama Press, 1976).Google Scholar

9 Some basic books on Portugal's colonial empire are included in the Appendix.

10 Vives, Jaime Vicens, An Economic History of Spain (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Harrison, Joseph, An Economic History of Modern Spain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1978).Google Scholar

12 See Montalbán, M. Vásquez, La Penetración americana en España (Madrid: Cuadernos para el Diálogo, 1974)Google Scholar. See also Paniagua, F. Javier, La ordenación del capitalosmo avanzado en España: 1957–1963 (Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama, 1977)Google Scholar. Social and economic indicators for Spain are included in de Miguel, Amando, La Piramide Social Española (Madrid: Editorial Ariel, 1977).Google Scholar

13 Baklanoff, Eric N., The Economic Transformation of Spain and Portugal (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1978).Google Scholar

14 Throughout this article we use the term ‘authoritarian(ism)’ to refer generally to those regimes which existed in Portugal and Spain prior to the introduction of liberal democratic political institutions. In doing so, we recognize the theoretical inadequacy of the term as against more precise concepts which encapsulate authoritarian state forms (e.g., fascism, military dictatorship, Bonapartism, etc.). However, we feel that ‘authoritarian(ism)’ is sufficient for our purposes.

15 de Lucena, Manuel, A evoluçao do sistema corporativo portugues (Lisbon: Portuguese Editions, 1976)Google Scholar. There is, however, an excellent French translation, L'Evolution du systèm corporatif portugais à travers les Lois, (1933–1971), Volumes 1 and 2 (Paris: Institut des Sciences Sociales du Travail, 1971)Google Scholar; Schmitter, Philippe C., Corporatism and Public Policy in Authoritarian Portugal (London: Sage Professional Papers, 1975).Google Scholar

16 Graham, Lawrence S. and Makler, Harry M., eds, Contemporary Portugal: The Revolution and its Antecedents (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1979).Google Scholar

17 Linz, Juan J., ‘An Authoritarian Regime: Spain’, in Allardt, E. and Littunen, Y., eds, Cleavages, Ideologies and Party Systems (Helsinki: Transactions of the Westermaark Society, 1964)Google Scholar. Linz systematically defines the term ‘authoritarianism’ as a political system ‘with limited, non-responsible, political pluralism, without elaborate and guiding ideology (but with distinctive mentality), without intensive or extensive political mobilization (except for some points in their development), and which a leader (or occasionally a small group), exercises power within formally ill-defined limits, but actually quite predictable ones’; quoted by Maravall, J., Dictatorship and Political Dissent: Workers and Students in Franco's Spain (London: Tavistock, 1978), pp. 23.Google Scholar

18 Some examples are: O'Donnell, Guillermo, Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism (Berkeley: University of California, 1975)Google Scholar and other works by the same author. Also, Linz, Juan J., ‘Opposition In and Under an Authoritarian Regime: the Case of Spain’, in Huntingdon, S. P. and Moore, C. H., eds, Authoritarian Politics in Modern Society: The Dynamics of One-Party Systems (New York: Basic Books, 1974)Google Scholar. This edition contains a number of interesting contributions on authoritarianism as a relevant phenomenon on various, and differing societies.

19 Robinson, Richard, The Origins of Franco's Spain: The Right, the Republic and Revolution, 1931–1936 (Plymouth: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970).Google Scholar

20 Robinson, , Origins, p. 12.Google Scholar

21 Cooper, Norman, ‘The Church: From Crusade to Christianity’, in Preston, Paul, ed., Spain in Crisis: The Evolution and the Decline of the Franco Regime (Brighton, Sussex: Harvester, 1976).Google Scholar

22 Jackson, Gabriel, The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931–1939, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965).Google Scholar

23 Payne, Stanley G., Politics and the Military in Modern Spain (Oxford: Oxford University Press/Stanford University Press, 1967).Google Scholar

24 Arango, E. Ramon, The Spanish Political System: Franco's Legacy (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1978).Google Scholar

25 Maravall, José M., Dictatorship and Political Dissent: Workers and Students in Franco's Spain (London: Tavistock, 1978)Google Scholar; Poulantzas, Nicos, The Crisis of the Dictatorships: Portugal, Spain, Greece (London: New Left Books, 1976).Google Scholar

26 Faye, Jean Pierre, ed., Portugal, The Revolution in the Labyrinth (Nottingham: Spokesman Books, 1976)Google Scholar; Green, Gil, Portugal's Revolution (New York: International Publishers, 1976).Google Scholar

27 Preston, , Spain in Crisis.Google Scholar

28 Robinson, , Origins.Google Scholar

29 Preston, , Spain in Crisis, Foreword.Google Scholar

30 Alba, Victor, Transilion in Spain: From Franco to Democracy (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1978).Google Scholar

31 Alba, , Transition in Spain, p. 290.Google Scholar

32 Alba, , Transition in Spain, p. 291.Google Scholar

33 Carr, Raymond and Fusi, Juan Pablo, Spain, Dictatorship to Democracy (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1979).Google Scholar

34 Fields, Rona M., The Portuguese Revolution and the Armed Forces Movement (New York: Praeger, 1976).Google Scholar

35 Faye, , ed., Portugal, pp. 1124.Google Scholar

36 Gallagher, Tom, ‘Portugal's Bid for Democracy: The Role of the Socialist Party’, West European Politics, II (1979), 198217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 See, for example, Maravall, José M., ‘Spain: Eurocommunism and Socialism’, Political Studies, XXVII (1979), 218–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pollack, Benny, ‘Spain: From Corporate State to Parliamentary Democracy’, Parliamentary Affairs, XXXI (1978), 5266Google Scholar; Díaz, Elías, Pensamiento Español (Madrid: Cuadernos para el Diálogo, 1974)Google Scholar; Morodo, Raúl et al. , Los partidos politicos en España (Barcelona: Editorial Labor, 1979).Google Scholar

38 Maravall, José M., ‘Political Cleavages in Spain and the 1979 General Election’, Government and Opposition, XIV (1979), 299317CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Story, Jonathan, ‘Spanish Political Parties Before and After the Election’, Government and Opposition, XII (1977), 474–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Tamames, Ramón, ¿Hacia Donde Vas, España? (Barcelona: Collection Textos, 1977).Google Scholar

40 Carrillo, Santiago, Hacia un Socialismo en Libertad (Madrid: Editorial Cenit, 1977).Google Scholar

41 From the plethora of texts on the strategy of the Italian Communist Party see, for example, Berlinguer, Enrico, La Proposta Comunista: Relazione al Comitato Centrale e alla Commissione Centrale di Controllo del Partito Communista Italiano in Preparazione del XIV Congresso (Turin: Einaudi, 1975)Google Scholar; and Weber, Henri, ed., Parti Communiste Italien: aux sources de L'Eurocommunisme (Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1977).Google Scholar

42 Carrillo, Santiago, Eurocomunismo y Estado (Barcelona: Grijalbo, 1977)Google Scholar. The book has been already translated into several languages, including English.

43 Alba, , Transition in Spain.Google Scholar

44 Alba, , Transition in Spain, p. 293.Google Scholar

45 Alba, , Transition in Spain, p. 294.Google Scholar

46 Carrillo, , Eurocomunismo y Estado;Google ScholarCarrillo, , Hacia un Socialismo en Libertad;Google ScholarTamames, , ¿Hacia Donde Vas, España?Google Scholar. There are numerous monographs and pamphlets which further explain the PCE's position, and some of these are included in the basic bibliography in the Appendix.

47 Sempruń, Jorge, Communism in Spain in the Franco Era: The Autobiography of Federico Sańchez (Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1980)Google Scholar. The original was published in Spanish as Autobiografia de Federico Sańchez, by Editorial Planeta in Barcelona in 1977, and was awarded the prestigious Planeta prize the same year. The book caused an uproar in Spain and the Communists reacted strongly to Semprun's accusations. ‘Federico Sańchez’ was the clandestine name used by him during the Franco years. Semprún's style in Spanish is direct and dramatic, showing his masterly capabilities as a film-script writer, which he acquired while living in exile in France.

48 Fields, , The Portuguese Revolution.Google Scholar

49 Fields, , The Portuguese Revolution, Preface, vii.Google Scholar

50 Coverdale, John F., The Political Transformation of Spain after Franco (New York: Praeger, 1979).Google Scholar

51 Coverdale, , The Political Transformation of Spain After FrancoGoogle Scholar, Preface, viii.

52 de Miguel, Amando, ‘Spanish Political Attitudes, 1970’ in Payne, Stanley G., ed., Politics and Society in Twentieth Century Spain (New York: New Viewpoints, 1976), pp. 208–32.Google Scholar

53 Porch, Douglas, The Portuguese Armed Forces and the Revolution (London: Croom Helm, 1977)Google Scholar; Harvey, Robert, Portugal: Birth of a Democracy (London: Macmillan, 1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Porch, , The Portuguese Armed Forces, p. 237.Google Scholar

55 Harvey, , Portugal, pp. 136–47.Google Scholar

56 Poulantzas, , The Crisis.Google Scholar

57 Poulantzas, , The Crisis, p. 191.Google Scholar

58 Poulantzas, , The Crisis.Google Scholar

59 Story, , ‘Spanish Political Parties: Before and After the Elections’.Google Scholar

60 For example, from participating jointly in government following the Revolution, to condemning each other in full view of the public (notably at a May rally, Day, in 1975).Google Scholar

61 Maravall, José M., ‘Spain: Eurocommunism and Socialism’.Google Scholar

62 Carr, and Fusi, , Spain, p, 251.Google Scholar