ABSTRACT
Francisco Franco’s techniques of governing made the transition from autocrat to successor even more precarious. The political families whose support was essential for Franco’s existence were themselves dependent upon him for their own existence. On November 22, 1975, Juan Carlos took the oath as king of Spain, and on the next day, Franco was laid to rest within the massive funerary monument-cathedral he had built in the Valley of the Fallen to honor the Nationalists who died in the Civil War. At this moment, the transition began. The most influential of these groups was the Tacitos, whose members named themselves after the Roman historian Tacitus, author of works on political transition in imperial Rome. A peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy could take place only if the throne continued to command the allegiance of the armed forces, without whose support the immobilists were powerless to prevent reform.
