INTRODUCTION

For any economy, at any time, political and economic conditions inherited from earlier periods of time strongly affect current public and private decisions which bear on its political and economic future. The past and the future are interrelated through the possibilities of the present, and the latter is a product of past experience. An understanding of the political and economic evolution of Spain during the last five decades is essential to a good comprehension of the problems faced by the Spanish economy at the start of the 1990s.