By Laura Desfor Edles
It is a e-book in regards to the function of tradition in social switch and the transition to democracy of post-Franco Spain. considering the fact that normal Franco's dying in 1975, Spanish political lifestyles has obvious a very quiescent "period of consensus," distinct in its personal heritage. Laura Desfor Edles takes a distinctively culturalist method of this "strategy of consensus" and institutionalization of democracy, and uncovers the methods of symbolization and ritualization that represent it.
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Extra resources for Symbol and Ritual in the New Spain: The Transition to Democracy after Franco
Sample text
32 Of course, the Nationalists had their own forms of unmitigated brutality. Their acceptance of the concept of "total war" resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians. The rebel officers declared martial law in occupied territories, proclaimed that all opposed to "the Movement" were in a state of rebellion, and sent thousands to thefiringsquads via hastily set-up military courts. "33 This perception as to the "the horrors of the Spanish Civil War" (on both sides) will be discussed further in the next chapter.
Of course, this contradicts Maravall and Santamaria's own earlier assertion that government elites "learned" "pragmatism" from the Civil War (see above). Theoretically, the point is that "objectivity" within a rationalistic and individualistic frame of reference necessarily gives way to subjective residual categories. Non-elites in the Spanish transition Finally, pactmen maintain that Spanish elites were "able to pact" because they were relatively free from mass pressures. 32 Gunther, Sani, and Shabad more subtly argue that a crucial ingredient of the politics of consensus was that "negotiations took place in private, and not in public arenas.
37 Beginning in the early 1950s, however, Spain began to emerge from her economic and political isolation. Anti-communism created a basis for establishing relations with the United States. In 1952, Spain entered UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization); in 1953, Spain entered the International Labor Organization and sent a contingent to fight with the anti-communist forces of the Korean War; and in 1955 Spain was admitted to the United Nations. 39 In 1957, Franco completely reorganized his cabinet and brought in the technocrats of the lay Catholic institute, Opus Dei: Alberto Ullastres at the Ministry of Commerce, Mariano Navarro Rubio at the Ministry of Finance, and Laureano Lopez Rodo in the key post of head of the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency of the Government.
