ABSTRACT
Maria Antonía Peña Guerrero considers the extent of corruption within Spain's political culture. A certain degree of resigned acceptance of these practices made rooting them out problematic. Further to this was the fact that clear examples of corruption, such as sale of offices and appropriation of public goods, were rarely prosecuted. Even so, the emergence of a public sphere centred on the press did give much greater salience to these practices than in previous eras. The raised profile of corruption also impacted perceptions of its scale. Corruption became one further tool for those who sought to diminish or even abolish the monarchy. It was also central to the differentiation amongst political parties and the position to be taken on corrupt practices. However, as the century proceeded, the increased visibility of electoral corruption and its damage to the halting process of democratisation became ever more significant. Yet in this, Spain was not so dissimilar to other comparable European societies.
