A Formula to Save Us (From Ourselves): Continuity and Change in the Spanish Legal Domination System (1959–2024)

This paper analyzes how a structure of Weberian rational domination has been built and consolidated in Spain since 1959, the year when the so-called Economic Stabilization Plan was approved. This sort of economic constitution represents one of the most important foundations of a technocratic regime...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Villena Oliver, Andrés, Romero Reche, Alejandro
Format: article
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repository:Docta Complutense
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/114747
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/114747
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Elites
Hegemony
Political formula
Cohesion
Late Francoism
Democracy
Ciencias Sociales
59 Ciencia Política
63 Sociología
Description
Summary:This paper analyzes how a structure of Weberian rational domination has been built and consolidated in Spain since 1959, the year when the so-called Economic Stabilization Plan was approved. This sort of economic constitution represents one of the most important foundations of a technocratic regime that survived the death of a dictator (General Francisco Franco), not only transcending the traditional differentiations between autocratic and democratic regimes but also offering a different perspective to the debate about the degree of continuity and rupture attained by the Spanish political transition in the 1970s. We analyze the institutions, leadership, most influential networks, political discourse, and historical myths through a theory of power and elites to examine the Spanish case. With this remarkable example of structural transformation and institutional resilience over decades, we also propose a more complex and multidimensional approach that could be fruitful to understanding some of the problems of political representation that current democracies are undergoing.