ABSTRACT

In contrast to Portugal and Greece, the Spanish transition to democracy was undertaken and controlled by the authoritarian elites of the regime in conjunction with the opposition. The main reason for the success of Spanish democracy was the fact that the past was so full of historical failures – which ended in one of the most horrific civil wars of contemporary history. Spanish contemporary politics have converged towards other older European democracies. The transition to democracy led to the establishment of a new pluralist Spain, in which different historic nations are living together. The establishment of a constitutional monarchy after democratic transition also makes Spain quite different from other countries which underwent similar transitions. One particular factor affecting democracy in Spain is the fact that income distribution still has high levels of inequality when compared to the EU average, the Nordic countries and the Continental European countries.