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The Political Presence of the Spanish Bureaucracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Kenneth Medhurst
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Extract

FOR THIRTY-TWO YEARS GENERAL FRANCO HAS REMAINED HEAD OF the Spanish State and has retained control over the political system which he fashioned during the Civil War. But once Franco is removed from the stage what will happen to the system?

The system depends upon the support of a number of groups in Spanish society which coalesced during the Civil War in support of the nationalist cause. These groups were united by a desire for victory over the Republic, but had long term conflicts of interest. Franco's own authority has been due to his skill in arbitrating between these competing elements and in welding them into a durable form of coalition government. Each group has been granted a stake in the regime; for example, conventions have grown up regulating the distribution of government offices between them. But Franco has never permitted any one of them to obtain a monopolistic position. By remaining relatively independent of all factions he has always been free to manoeuvre between the competing interests and to retain the initiative. At the same time, his system has benefited from the reluctance of all groups in the society to press their differences to the point where violence might be renewed.

Type
Original Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1969 , pp. 235 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1969

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References

1 For the Falangist Party cf. Payne, S., The Falange, London, 1962 Google Scholar; on the army cf. the same author’s Politics and the Military in Modern Spain, London, 1967.

2 On the Church cf. Jobit, Pierre, L’Eglise d’Espagne à l’heure du Concile, Paris, 1965 Google Scholar. It has been the subject of little comment in English publications.

3 The only references are contained in Brian Chapman: The Profession of Government, London, 1959.

4 For the background of ministers under the Franco regime, see the article by Juan Linz in Cleavages, Ideologies and Party Systems, edited by Allardt, E. A. and Littunen, Y., Helsinki, 1964.Google Scholar

5 Olivan, Cf., De la Administration Pública con relación a España. First published 1843.Google Scholar

6 Cf. Diseursos leidos para conmemorar el primer tentenario de Don Juan Bravo Murillo, Madrid 1952.

7 On the corps see La clasificacion de puestos de trabajo, Madrid, 1965, pp. 71–115. A. Gutiérrez Reñón, ‘Estructura de la burocracia española: Notas para su estudio’ inRevista española de la opinión pública, No. 3, 1966; and E. García de Enterría, La Administratión Española, Madrid, 1964, pp. 173–237.

8 One major exception is the corps of ‘Abogados del Estado’ (State lawyers) which depends on the Finance Ministry but is at the disposal of the entire administration.

9 An attempt was made in the ‘Ley de Restricciones’ of 1 August 1935, but it was not effectively enforced.

10 This system involves the oral defence of a thesis which rival candidates may question.

11 On the question of pay cf. Nieto, A., La Retribución de los funcionarios en España, Madrid, 1967.Google Scholar

12 cf. T. R. Fernandez Rodriguez, ‘El aspecto orgánico de la reforma adminis-trativa: evolución y perspectivas’ in Revista de administratión púlica. No. 48, September-December 1965.

13 This observation is based on a study of the Boletin Oficial de las Cortes Españolas.

14 Cf. Martin Retortillo, ‘Problemas de organizatión en materias de aguas públicas’ in Revista de administratión púlica, No. 33, for the rival claims of the Ministries of Agriculture and Public Works to control irrigation projects.

15 Cf. C. Luaces Saavedra, ‘El peligro de una inflatión en la organizatión administrativa’ in Documentación Administrativa, No. 95, November 1965.

16 Cf. The Economic Development of Spain—report of a mission organized by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1963 (Chapters 3–10).

17 For the question of provincial and local government cf. E. García de Enterría, La administratión española (pp. 87–170); the same author’s Problemas actuahs de régimen local, Seville, 1958, and Albi, F., La crisis del municipalismo, Madrid, 1966.Google Scholar

18 On the subject of administrative reform there is a large literature but cf. the three volumes, Primera, Segunda and Tercera Semana de Estudios sobre la Reforma Administrativa, published by the ‘Sccretaría General Técnica’ of the Presidencia del Gobierno.