Franco’s 1967 Organic Law: Spain’s Regime
Classification
This is an expository and political source text. The recipient is the public, and it is national in scope. Its author is Francisco Franco, an Africanist general who had a major intervention in the revolt of July 1936. He was named generalissimo, and at the end of the war, he established a dictatorship until the end of his days. The text is set in 1967, a period of economic development in the Franco regime.
Item Analysis: Organic Act of the State
Ideas:
- Culminates law institutionalizing the state.
- Characteristics of the nation, and the state is a kingdom.
- The indivisible sovereignty of the state.
- Talks about the figure and functions of the head of state.
- Appointment of a chief of government, and the condition should have Spanish nationality.
Review
This text is located in the 1960s, a period of great economic development of the dictatorial Franco regime. This dictatorial regime was imposed by Francisco Franco after his victory in the Spanish Civil War, thus having all the powers of the state in his hand, which he limited when he wanted.
The most representative ideological components of the Franco regime were:
- National Catholicism: Imposed a radical Catholic mentality.
- Militarism: Reflected the authoritarian regime, and the army was the core of the national essence.
- Central Nationalism: Eliminated the concept of the nation for the historic drive.
- Cooperativism: Based on national fascist syndicalism, which only had a single union, the most important of Francoism.
The most important support of this scheme were the Falange, the Church (which enjoyed great social and economic power during the dictatorship), the army (which participated in the administration), the oligarchy, the peasantry, and the petty bourgeoisie.
From the first moment in which he established the dictatorship, Franco refused to establish a constitution. Instead, a series of laws were enacted that appeared as the system needed to achieve the institutionalization of the state.
The first such law was enacted in 1938 before the end of the war and was the Labor Law that named the only vertical union as required and set the foundations of the economic organization of the new state. It also stipulated that work was a right that the government should guarantee.
The following law was the Constitutive Act of the Parliament, passed in 1942, which was enacted after the U.S. entry into World War II. To make it appear that the people had political participation, this law created a representative chamber composed of five hundred attorneys in court who came from the union of the Falange or were appointed by Franco.
After the end of World War II, Franco decreed a series of laws to give a “liberal look”. One is the Charter of the Spanish, which apparently was a declaration of rights, but in reality, the rights provided were very limited and were only usable by those who opposed the regime. Another of these laws was the Referendum Act that purported to show that universal suffrage was recognized.
Later, in 1947, the Law of Succession to the Head of State was decreed, which was submitted to a referendum and approved by a majority by rigging. The law declared Spain a kingdom and Franco as head of state for life, reserving the right to choose his successor.
In 1958, the Principles of the National Movement were enacted, recognizing the Traditionalist Spanish Falange as a single party. Finally, in 1966, the Decree of the Organic Act was issued, which is the subject of this text.
This law, as stated in Article 3, outlined the fundamental purposes of the state, which were primarily the defense of population equality, integrity, and national security, provided it did not oppose the regime. Article 6 attributes to the head of state, Franco, all the powers of judicial and political administration, the supreme command of the army, in addition to being named as the highest representative of the nation.
One of the novelties introduced by this law is the separation of the positions of prime minister and president of the government, although this did not occur until 1973. This law, as I have said, was enacted in the mid-1960s, in which there was great development thanks to the four-year development plans from 1962 to 1975. These plans pointed the way that Spain should continue to become one of the ten industrial powers of the world.
There were also changes in economic structure and increasing imports of goods, equipment, and technology. These were influenced by the savings sent home by migrants or the investment of foreign capital.
Despite the inequalities, personal development and regional misallocation were favored in society. In addition, there was a sudden increase in the population in industrialized areas, causing urban sprawl. However, there were improvements in living standards with the arrival of multinational companies that brought new ways of political and social behaviors. Another important change was the decree of 1963, giving the basic law of social security.
Also in this decade, there was a certain intellectual openness in education and improved foreign relations with the Common Market. Regarding the opposition, protests increased significantly. Opposition from the moderates appeared, and the opposition of labor and the university increased. There were also underground unions such as the Workers’ Commissions, and the Catalan and Basque nationalist movements increased.