ABSTRACT
The role of advertising in electoral campaigns in Spain has evolved a great deal since the advent of democracy in the country. The progressive Americanization of European political communication and the emergence of the Internet as a basic communication channel have shaped a very different political scene to the one that existed during the first elections in the 1970s. According to the Constitution, members of the State Parliament are elected every four years following the D’Hondt system and they possess the power to elect the prime minister of Spain. Due to this system, fragmentation is one of the main characteristics of the Spanish political arena. From the point of view of the media system, unlike the press and the radio, television in Spain was initially set up as a state monopoly, originally financed by both advertising and state subsidies. Legislation pays special attention to electoral advertising on television in light of its importance regarding the dissemination of party messages.
