ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a whole set of features and dimensions of intermediation, mobilization and citizen participation and with greater insight into their impact and causality, than would have been possible on the basis of cross-national comparative data. It also introduces and provides a partial explanation of Spaniards' varying levels of exposure to flows of political information through two of the three basic intermediation channels that serve as the central foci of the Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP). Spain's economy developed impressively, transforming Spain from a relatively poor country on Western Europe's 'semi-periphery' to an affluent and developed society whose gross domestic product per capita was above the European Union average. The data on which this analysis is based were collected by the authors of this chapter at regular intervals over the first three decades of Spanish democracy, often in conjunction with dramatic political events.
