Franco’s Regime: Authoritarianism and National Catholicism in Spain
Franco’s Regime in Spain (1939-1975)
The Franco regime was an authoritarian and dictatorial political force in Spain between 1939 and 1975. The ideology that underpinned the leadership of General Francisco Franco Bahamonde was born with the military victory in the Spanish Civil War. Their power base was in control of all levers of government: chief of state, government, single party, the National Movement, and the Army. Franco’s courts did not have legislative initiative, concentrating executive and legislative power and breaking the principle of separation of powers characteristic of a democratic regime. A powerful police apparatus to persecute members of clandestine parties and unions and a strong propaganda machine were two features of the regime. The very personalistic regime did not survive the death of the dictator on November 20, 1975.
Features of the System:
Single Party: It was a dictatorship in the strict sense, with no representative systems. There was a single party called the National Movement, which formed the Falange Española de las JONS and traditionalists. Membership in this party was mandatory for all staff, and they had to vow to uphold the “Fundamentals of Movement Principles” contained in the Fundamental Laws, which established the political organization of the state, forming a constitution-like structure. Spain was defined as an organic democracy. This system denied political and individual rights, leaving popular representation indirectly in the hands of agencies (vertical union, heads of households, or municipalities). Some of the courts (lacking legislative initiative) were directly appointed by Franco, and others were there in their own right (some senior military and ecclesiastical figures). This system was intended to show the international community the illusion that Franco’s Spain had some kind of Democracy.
Economic Interventionism
The Francoist state was capitalist, but with significant economic interventionism by the state, which attempted to improve the economy through successive Development Plans. Private property was a recognized right, but the state was above individual interests. This authoritarian system and interventionist driver allowed employers power over employees in negotiations. The control of labor relations was exercised through vertical unions, and strikes were considered subversive and prohibited. From the 1950s, Franco softened the regime’s interventionism and self-sufficiency to overcome the crisis and ensure economic support and investment from Western allies.
Ideology: National Catholicism: Unlike other totalitarian movements, such as Italian fascism and Nazism, the Franco regime did not provide a well-defined or innovative ideology. The Franco regime was based on the ideology of those who supported the military uprising of July 18, 1936 (the “Glorious National Uprising”). The ideological foundations of the regime were the traditionalist, conservative, and fascist sectors.
The ideologue of Spanish fascism was Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera of Falange, a party that attempted to imitate Italian fascism in Spain. After Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera died during the Spanish Civil War, Franco recognized the threat that this movement might pose to his leadership, first forcing the Falange to merge with Carlism within a single party, the Falange Española de las JONS and traditionalists, and then removing Falangists from the first places of political responsibility.
Franco’s ideology consisted basically of a strict defense of the Catholic state, the private property of the family, a traditional militaristic vision of political life, and intense hostility towards communism and democratic party systems, which were seen as the great enemies of those values. It was therefore a pluralistic political movement in which Franco was the moderator and the undisputed leader, the Generalissimo. In addition, Franco’s great pragmatism allowed the regime to adapt to growing domestic and international circumstances. Thus, until 1945, with the defeat of the Nazis during World War II, it was a fascist regime, strictly following a variant that would not lose its authoritarianism and meaningful ideological principles.