ABSTRACT
Spain is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government in the form of a bicameral legislature. The complex position of Juan Carlos I both maintains continuity and breaks it at the same time, changing Spain fundamentally in political ways while leaving the centerpiece, the king, untouched. The government or cabinet is composed of the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, and ministers. Once approved, the prime minister is free to compose the cabinet as he or she sees fit with no further legislative approval, placing in it anyone that political reality permits. In the Spanish constitution, there is no equivalent to the US conference committee, but then, logic would tell that a conference between unequals would be politically meaningless. The drafters of the 1978 constitution borrowed from the post–World War II constitutions of France, Germany, and Italy to create the Constitutional Court, an innovation for all several political systems.
