From Dictatorship to Democracy in Spain
The Suarez Reform
Adolfo Suarez’s reform prevented a breakdown and implemented a series of reforms that ended the Franco regime and paved the way towards democracy. The first step was the Political Reform Act, chiefly edited by Torcuato Fernandez Miranda.
Political Reform Act
The transition from dictatorship to democracy had been contemplated by the King since he was a prince, along with Fernandez Miranda, his political law professor. They aimed to achieve this transition “within the law,” as Fernandez Miranda advocated. The intention was to avoid a sense of betrayal and ensure that the law was changed from within. The Political Reform Act recognized certain fundamental aspects of popular sovereignty, including the inviolability of individual rights. It established a bicameral Cortes, elected by universal and secret suffrage (except for 20% of senators appointed by the King). These Cortes could change fundamental laws or establish new ones. On November 18, 1976, the Francoist Cortes accepted the reform, and on December 15, the Political Reform Act became law after being ratified by referendum.
The reform, among other things, legalized political parties, including the Communist Party (PCE), and called for elections to the Constituent Cortes in June 1977.
Elections to the Constituent Cortes
The elections were held on June 15, 1977. The results produced a parliament without an absolute majority. The Union de Centro Democratico (UCD), a newly formed party led by Adolfo Suarez, emerged as the winner. The Socialist Party (PSOE), led by Felipe Gonzalez, became the second-largest party and the main opposition. Other significant parliamentary groups included the Communist Party, led by Santiago Carrillo, and Manuel Fraga’s People’s Alliance (PA). Parliament was ideologically divided into two relatively balanced blocs, with the right slightly exceeding the left.
The Aznar Era
Jose Maria Aznar won a majority but had to compromise with the nationalist minority to become Prime Minister. The rightward shift was confirmed by the PP’s victories in regional and municipal elections, marking the end of the socialist cycle under Felipe Gonzalez.
Aznar focused on implementing an orthodox economic policy to reduce the deficit and revive private economic activity. The main objective was to meet the convergence criteria (inflation, debt, deficit, etc.) established in the 1991 Maastricht Treaty, enabling Spain to join the Euro. The policy was successful. Economic activity increased, unemployment fell significantly, and the improved economy allowed Spain to participate in the birth of the Euro in 1999.
ETA Terrorism and the Spirit of Ermua
ETA terrorism reached its peak in the summer of 1997 with the murder of Miguel Angel Blanco, a PP councilman in the Basque town of Ermua. The brutality of the attack and the efforts of groups that had long fought against violence in the Basque Country triggered a significant popular reaction known as the “Spirit of Ermua.” The Aznar government, with support from the Socialist opposition, adopted a tough stance against ETA and its nationalist environment.
The reaction in the Basque nationalist camp was the 1998 Lizarra-Estella Pact, an agreement between all nationalist forces, from the PNV to ETA, to pursue independence. A few days later, ETA declared an indefinite and unconditional truce. However, contacts between the Aznar government and ETA yielded no results, and a year later, ETA resumed its armed activity. President Aznar, who had survived an assassination attempt in 1995, intensified his confrontational policy with Basque nationalism in all its forms.
The 2000 Elections and Later Developments
The 2000 elections marked the peak of the PP and Aznar. The new century began with an absolute majority for the PP. In 2001, the government changed the criteria for defining unemployment, resulting in half a million fewer people being counted as unemployed due to the methodological change. The National Hydrological Plan, aimed at transferring water from the Ebro River to the southeast, faced opposition, leading to a general strike in June 2002. In November 2002, the Prestige oil tanker disaster caused mass demonstrations in Galicia. In 2003, Aznar claimed in the UN Security Council that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Venezuelan President-elect Hugo Chavez accused Aznar of supporting a coup against him. On September 1, 2003, Aznar proposed Mariano Rajoy as his successor as PP candidate for president, and the nomination was approved. Three days before the 2004 general elections, the 11-M terrorist attacks took place, leading to the PP’s defeat in the elections on March 14, 2004.
Populism in Latin America
The first examples of governments considered populist in Latin America were Alvaro Obregon in Mexico, Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra in Ecuador, and Hipolito Yrigoyen in Argentina. In Argentina, dictatorships consistently overthrew democratic governments that emerged after the adoption of universal and secret suffrage in 1912, justifying their actions by labeling these governments as populist. After World War II, a shift towards democracy in Brazil and Argentina led to a reaction from those who had previously dominated the authoritarian scene. This resulted in two of the purest examples of populism: Getulio Vargas in Brazil from 1946 to 1954 and Juan Domingo Peron in Argentina between 1946 and 1955.
Following the era of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s and the restoration of democracy, virtually all governments or government measures that enjoyed popular support in free elections have been labeled as populist by their opponents, to the point that “populism” and “democracy” have become almost synonymous. This political criticism has targeted both right-wing and left-wing governments. The former are identified with mercantilism and alignment with the United States, while the latter are associated with developmentalism and a more detached stance towards the United States.
Examples of the first trend include the governments of Carlos Menem in Argentina, Alberto Fujimori and Alan Garcia in Peru, and Alvaro Uribe in Colombia. Examples of the second trend include Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Lula in Brazil, Nestor Kirchner in Argentina, and Tabare Vazquez in Uruguay, as well as the political movements led by Ollanta Humala in Peru and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico. In 2006, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who implemented deregulatory reforms in his country, argued in an article titled “Populism Threatens to Return to Latin America” that a government is not populist if it has “prudent and sensible public policies” and closer ties with the United States.