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Army was the highest point in government from 1939 to 1945. From that moment on, progressively their importance was reduced in favour of civil servants. However, Franco always thanked the Army´s loyalty and militaries of the highest ranks were ministers, like Carrero Blanco.
Authoritarian groups supported Franco (Carlists, phalangists and catholics). Although they had different political ideologies, their common elements were opposition to democracy and territorial autonomy and defence of Spanish nationalism; this is, a catholic, traditional and authoritarian Spain.
Burgeoisie and middle classes defended the riot of the Franconist and the creation of its state. In the sixties, as a result of the economic development, a numerous apolitical middle class emerged. This group accepted Franconism of exchange of their favourable living conditions.
Franco established the bases of his regime during the 40s: he had power for life and he eliminated democracy, right to vote, political pluralism, power division, individual freedoms, meeting and expression rights. He acted evidently against the republican constitution.
Work fuero (1938). It aimed at regulating the relations of labour world. It was the first of the essential laws. In 1940, Franco created the vertical union; this is, a kind of syndicate whose objective was to work organization. All workers were forced to be members, but businessmen were also included. It was never totally conformed, because phalange gave the rules and controlled work and rules were so strict that there was even a ban on strike.
Law for Courts Formation (1942). With this law, Franco wanted to give to his regime the appearance of a democracy. “Citizens were invited to take part in the duties of the State”, with its only chamber formed by 500 representatives and 25 appointed by Franco. These representatives were not chosen through universal suffrage, but by direct election of the regimen or a limited vote.
The aim of the Courts was to discuss, with moderation, the laws of the regime and applaude the speeches of the Head of the State. This is why Courts lost their value.
Spaniards´ fuero (1945). At the end of WW2, Franco tried again to give the impresion of democratize his regime. It was simply symbolic, because the text proposed an authoritarian and confessional political system, with limited rights from which only could benefit those who were in tune with the regime.
Franco metioned citizens´ freedoms, but all those theoretical freedoms were limited, even more in practice, because it was forbidden any action or comment against the regime.
Referendum Law (1945). With this law, universal suffrage was official in Spain. The most important projects were submited to citizens, but there was not a way of assuring the legality when counting. This referendum was only used to make up the regime.
Law of Succession of the State (1947). This law reasured Franco as Head of the State for life but it proclaimed that Spain was a monarchy, traditional, catholic and socially accepted. Even when Franco did not have the right to name a king, Franco chose his sucesor: Juan de Borbon.
Law of the Principles of National Movement (1958). This law promulgated that Falange Española Tradicionalista was the only party in Spain.
State´s Organic Law (1967). Franco defined Spain as an organic democracy, saying it was the only democracy in Europe. This law brought the taking part of citizens for choosing a third of Court representatives and it separated the positions of Head of State and Government´s President. Anyway, the first president was not appointed until 1973.
These laws aimed at dotting the State with an image of democratic state, but in fact they eliminated any real democracy. Powers were not divided and justice was not normalized.
Before the end of the war, Franco produced the Law of Political Responsibilities; a law to act against those who did not support his coup d´etat.
To put this law into practice, he created special tribunals. In these, the judges did not need to prove that the accused were culpright; on the contrary, the accused should prove their innocence, and those considered culpright were sent to prison or made redundant at work. Death penalty was common, so repression was huge.
In 1940, the Law against communist and masonry was proclaimed. They accused them of the crisis of Spain. Franco repressed as many people as possible.
At the end of WW2, Spain was issolated because the victorious states said that Franconism was similar to fascism and they did not allow Spain being a member of the United Nations.
In 1946, the first General Assembly of United Nations gave some rules against Spain and in 1948, Spain was excluded of the Marshal plan. With these measures they aimed at forcing Franco to resign.
Around 1950, the international atmosphere became more favourable for Spain, with the beginning of Cold War. United Nations accepted Franco´s government, because of his anticommunism.
Franco wanted to be internationally accepted. For that, he tried to improve his relations with the US because it was the main capitalist state. But, on the other hand, the US only accepted Franco in the context of the Cold War and because of his strategical position.
Finally, in 1953, US and Spain reached to an economic agreement: US would put in Spain four military bases on exchange of giving Spain some economical help.
Later, Spain managed to enter in the UN (1955), but Franco was never recognized by the most important institutions due to the lack of democracy.
The regime proclaimed the officiality of Catholicism and gave the Church fuero. This law said that priests had special laws and, for instance, they would be subject to different justice. In addition, the State supported Church economicaly.