elections, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was able to form the first majority one-party government since the Spanish Civil War. The political party system that developed included numerous regional parties that participated in regional elections as well as in national elections. Regional government had also increased since the death of Franco. By the late 1980s, national territory divided into seventeen autonomous communities, each encompassing one of more previously existing provinces. Each was governed by statute by universal suffrage. There is a division of powers between the central government and the regional governments, but provincial government remained centralized, administered by a provincial council elected from among subordinate municipal council members and headed by a president. Special provisions were made for the Basque provinces and the Balearic and Canary Islands as well as for the North African enclaves (Solsten and Meditz xix-xxi).
Spain stands as an example to other nations trying to make the difficult transition from dictatorship to democracy. In less than two decades the country has achie
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