Francoist Spain: Political and Economic Structures (1939-1959)
The Francoist State (1939-1975)
New Fundamental Laws
The establishment of political laws that legally organized the Francoist state began during the Civil War and culminated in 1966 with the Organic State Law. In 1938, authorities concentrated power in the Caudillo, a position Franco maintained until his death. Franco was head of state, party leader, and generalissimo of the three armies. He was also head of government and enjoyed exceptional powers to enact laws.
Drawing inspiration from the Italian Fascist Charter of Labor (Carta del Lavoro), the regime implemented its own labor policies. In 1945, the Law of Succession allowed Franco to appoint his successor with the title of King. He also created two new bodies, the Regency Council and the Council of the Kingdom, both appointed by the Caudillo. The beginning of 1958 saw a law that strengthened the National Movement (Movimiento Nacional) as the sole political party.
Organic Democracy
Francoism rejected the democratic system, based on popular will, suffrage, and the separation of powers. For the construction of the new state, it drew inspiration from the Italian corporatist state, which organized popular participation through three basic units: family, municipality, and union. This organic system was termed “organic democracy.”
Popular representation in state institutions was regulated by the constitutive law of the Courts in 1942, a fundamental law that defined the Courts as the superior body of people’s participation in the work of the Spanish state. All representatives, attorneys, and arrays were designated by the regime.
The prosecutors were the mayors, the presidents of universities, and representatives of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. It was a corporate representation divided into thirds: the trade union organizations and the local administration. These Francoist Courts were not democratically elected and lacked authentic legislative power because it was the government agency that decided which bills could be presented to the Courts and which ones it would approve directly. The Courts were merely a collaborating organ of the state.
Territorial government power was transmitted through the old institution of civil governors in each province, who were also heads of the Provincial Movement. Each province also had a military governor. The structure of military captains general, which had been suppressed during the Republic, was reinstated. Mayors in municipalities, who were local leaders of the Movement, were elected directly by the civil governor.
Another state power was the vertical unions. The Law of Unity of the Union in 1940, inspired by the corporate model of Fascist Italy, established that employers and employees would be integrated into a single union organized by branches of production. The state exerted strong control over the working class, dictating working conditions without any possibility of collective bargaining or strikes, which were illegal. The result of this strict control was extreme working conditions that led to the maintenance of low wages and high corporate profits.
Autarky, Rationing, and Harsh Living Conditions
Autarky and its Effects (from 1939 to 1959)
One of the main objectives of the first phase of the Franco regime was to achieve self-sufficiency (autarky). Therefore, it promoted an economic policy that advocated external insulation and the replacement of the free market with state intervention in the economy, justifying this policy with fascist and patriotic rhetoric.
The autarkic policy had three main areas of focus. The first was the regulation of foreign trade. Imports and exports became completely controlled by the state, requiring administrative authorization. The second area of action was the promotion of industry. In 1941, all railroads were nationalized, forming the Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles Españoles (National Network of Spanish Railways). In 1945, the Compania Telefonica Nacional de España (CTNE) was nationalized. The Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI) was founded with the goal of producing goods not manufactured by the private sector. The state prioritized investments in sectors linked to military defense, creating major companies such as Iberia, Banco Exterior de España, Endesa, ENHER, and ENSIDESA.
The third area of state interventionism affected the agricultural sector. The state regulated the production, marketing, consumption, and prices of most products. Low official prices caused a decrease in production. Productivity per hectare declined, reaching levels in the 1940s similar to those of the early 20th century. The result was a profound economic stagnation characterized by the collapse of trade, a decline in the population’s living standards, a slowdown in the modernizing trends of the Spanish economy, and a widening of the welfare gap with Western European countries.
Rationing and the Black Market
Agricultural producers were obliged to deliver all their production at a fixed rate and price set by the administration, which was responsible for selling the products to consumers at a price that covered its costs. The result was a widespread lack of food supplies and the rationing of products considered basic necessities, which were distributed through a ration booklet (cartilla de racionamiento). Food prices below their real value led many producers to prefer hiding their production to sell it on the black market, where they could obtain higher profits. The black market affected food, raw materials, and industrial products. Black market prices were usually three or four times higher than official prices.
Harsh Living Conditions
Low salaries, high prices, and shortages of products left a sad memory of the 1940s, the years of poverty and hunger. It could be argued that the increase in the cost of living during this decade was over 550% compared to pre-war prices, and in relation to the prices of basic foodstuffs, the increase was over 700%. This caused an increase in the use of caves as dwellings (casas cueva) and the phenomenon of subletting (rellogats).
Due to cold and hunger, unsafe housing, diseases such as tuberculosis spread, and the mortality rate reached 18.7 per thousand, with infant mortality at 143 per thousand. Vegetative growth decreased, and life expectancy in 1945 stood at 47 years for men and 53 years for women.