ABSTRACT
Spain joined the European Community in 1986,1 about a decade after the beginning of the country’s transition to democracy. Many observers had by then concluded that Spanish democracy was consolidated and that the prospect of becoming a member of the European Community had contributed to this consolidation process. At the same time, however, Spanish civil society was, and still is, notoriously weak. This is a somewhat curious phenomenon given that the process of democratic consolidation has been discussed in conjunction with concepts such as the internalization of democratic values and procedures at large and the ‘mobilization of civil society into political forms of expression’ (Maravall and Santamaría 1986:73; also Diamond 1999). How was it possible for Spanish democracy to consolidate when civil society was so weak? How did the EU influence civil society and its relationship to the state once Spain had gained membership? I argue that, implicitly or explicitly, the promise of EU membership helped the country’s democratization and consolidation process, partially overcoming Spain’s notorious dearth of voluntary associations. In addition, the EU also exerted significant influence on prominent segments of civil society, most notably organized labour, which helped shape the context for state-society relations.
