Spain in the Post Franco Era
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Spain is a country that is being watched closely by the rest of Europe to see how it develops politically in the post-Franco era. Franco was the dictatorial ruler of Spain for half a century, and in the post-Franco era efforts have been made to increase the democratic underpinnings of the government and to increase the participation of the people in the political process. An issue that has to be faced involves the legitimacy that the government of Spain can now achieve. Legitimacy in political terms means that the government has constitutional support for exercising its power. The previous dictatorship lacked legitimacy in the sense suggested by Locke and Rousseau in that it did not derive its power from the people but rather imposed that power from above. With the end of the dictatorship, Spain immediately began edging toward legitimacy by seeking the support and participation of the people. An analysis of Spain today shows that it has achieved a level of legitimacy through the democratic process and has been successful in representing the economic and political interests of the people. Yet, it is also clear that Spain does not now, and indeed may never, have legitimacy to certain populations, notably the Basque population that often stands at odds with Spain as a whole. Spain was formerly under a system of personal rule established in 1936. The monarchy was reestablished in 1975. This followed the death of Francisco Franco, the ruler since 1936. He had run a rig
. . .
nd has expanded telephone and other communication systems (Hoffman 48-49).
The Spanish Peninsula covers 492,503 square kilometers, and Spanish territory also encompasses the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the city enclaves of Cuet and Melilla in North Africa. The landmass on the peninsula is predominantly a vast highland plateau surrounded and dissected by mountain ranges. The major lowland areas include narrow coastal plains, the Andalusian Plain in the southwest, and the Ebro Basin in the northeast. The islands are mountainous, particularly the Canary Islands. The population was 38.6 million in 1986, projected to reach 42 million by the year 2000 at a rate of annual growth from 0.8 percent to 1.2 percent. The adult population was 94 to 97 percent literate in the late 1980s (Solsten and Meditz xv-xvi).
Spanish society is made up of numerous distinct ethnic and cultural minorities. The new 1978 Constitution recognizes and guarantees autonomy of the nationalities and regions making up the Spanish state, and seventeen autonomous communities existed in the late 1980s. The population is 99 percent Roman Catholic, and the other one percent is mostly other Ch
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Solsten Meditz, Gulf War, Juan Carlos, Civil War, , Locke Rousseau, Catholic Church, Spain Industry, Spain European, Canary Islands, late 1980s, canary islands, solsten meditz, autonomy nationalities regions, basque region, king juan, 15 percent, juan carlos, autonomous communities, level legitimacy, king juan carlos, seventeen autonomous communities, spain western europe's, participation people,
Approximate Word count = 1641
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
