ABSTRACT
One of the main characteristics of the Spanish party system and consequently the political system is the high degree of political stability. This was naturally a conscious choice by the political elites of transition led by the main architect of Spanish democracy, former Prime Minister Adolfo Sua´rez. Stability and governability of the new political system were high on the agenda, when the different parties of political transition decided upon the electoral system to which they were willing to submit themselves in the transition and after the constitutional settlement. Indeed, the decision for a proportional representation system moderated by small constituencies was certainly influenced by the negative experiences of former electoral systems up until the Civil War, but in particular the Second Republic between 1931 and 1936, which was an electoral system leading to political instability, fragmentation of the vote and simultaneously polarisation along a left-right spectrum. The designers of the electoral system of the new Spanish democracy after 1978 clearly wanted to prevent the repeat of the negative experiences of the Second Republic which culminated in one of the bloodiest civil wars in the European continent. No mobilisation of the electorate was undertaken and the whole process towards the design and acceptance of the new rules of the game was essentially controlled by the political elites of the transition. Somehow the Spanish political elites were influenced by the same concerns as the German political elites when they devised their own electoral system after the Second World War without a repeat of the interwar democratic experience. In the case of Germany, it was the highly volatile, fragmented and polarised Weimar Republic. In the case of Spain it was the similar situation during the Second Republic. Clearly, the greatest achievements of the political elite of transition was to reconcile and lay the seeds of a new political culture which would put at the forefront the peaceful alternation and respect for the opposition. Even today, the Civil War plays a major role in the definition of Spanish political culture. Indeed, the recent Iraq war of March-April 2003 which was supported by Prime Minister Jose´
Marı´a Aznar was opposed by 90 per cent of the population. In spite of a successful campaign by the American, British and Australian forces, the population just continued their protest in many forms. In my assessment such behaviour has to do with the deep opposition of the Spanish people to war as a form of conflict resolution. In a country where transition to democracy was achieved peacefully, without interference from abroad, this counts even more.
