A polycentric process. The transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain

Abstract

There already exists an abundant literature on the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain. Different historiographical currents offer notably diverse portrayals of the process. Nevertheless, a markedly common feature of the various interpretations is the limited attention paid to the dynamics that developed between center and periphery. The article takes as a starting point, on the one hand, the thesis that the transition from dictatorship to democracy in the 1970s was possible because the political and social opposition had spread enough to cause the regime established in 1939 to suffer a deep crisis before Franco’s death. On the other hand, it holds that the political dynamics of the peninsular periphery played a crucial role in the boost of the anti-Francoism throughout Spain. Starting from these premises, the article will analyze the elements allowing us to assert a more complex view of the general process that culminated in the establishment of democracy in Spain -one of its major results being a model of territorial organization of the State based on the autonomies, that broke away from the extreme centralism of the dictatorship