Determinants of Voting Behaviour

This chapter provides an overview of the main correlates of voting behaviour in Spain. Through a review of existing studies we first offer an outline of the most relevant factors associated with Spaniards’ voting choices. Next, we present a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the importance of these correlates of voting behaviour, drawing on the four available pre- post- electoral panel studies from the Spanish Centro de Investigaciones Socioló gicas (CIS). Through this data we analyse the association of these features with individuals’ voting choices in the 2000, 2008, 2011, and 2015 general elections. Findings illustrate the relevance and evolution of key factors related to the sociological, the social-psychological, and the performance-based models of voting behaviour in Spain. Class voting, economic voting, and ideological voting contribute to explaining Spaniards’ behaviour at the polls.

Parties and Party Systems

Using the most relevant indicators highlighted by the literature on party systems, such as the indexes of volatility, fragmentation, and ideological polarization in the electoral–parliamentary arena, this chapter analyses the development of the Spanish party system since the transition to democracy. It focuses on the different stages of its development, marked by the two main transformations it has experienced: the first in the 1982 elections with the collapse of the incumbent party, and, after a long phase of stability, the second transformation in 2014/15 with the emergence of two new national parties onto the electoral and parliamentary arena. One of the key questions the chapter addresses is why a party system that had remained quite stable for more than three decades since 1982, preventing newcomers from coming in, finally gave way to a transformation in the mid-2010s.

Terrorism in Spain

Spain has experienced four waves of terrorism during the twentieth century: anarchist, nationalist, left-wing, and religious. This chapter examines the variety and intensity of terrorist incidents of the last two waves, as well as the counter-terrorist efforts since 1975. The argument is structured as follows: First, the chapter accounts for the longevity of the main campaigns of indiscriminate violence against civilians. Second, it evaluates the interaction between the security and intelligence services and the various clandestine groups, and argues that the process of democratization increased the effectiveness of counterterrorism, particularly against ETA. The section further argues that collective security is a relational act that brings two self-interested actors—the state and the terrorist group—into conflict with each other, and that it is not possible to study campaigns of political violence in isolation. Third, the chapter critically assesses the security threat posed by Salafi jihadist cells, which were responsible for the attacks on Madrid (2004) and Barcelona (2017), and examines the ongoing agenda of countering and preventing violent extremism in Spain.

Memory and Politics in Democratic Spain

This chapter explains the persistence of Spain’s ‘politics of forgetting’, a phenomenon revealed by the wilful intent to disremember the political memory of the violence of the Spanish Civil War and the human rights abuses of General Franco’s authoritarian regime. Looking beyond the traumas of the Civil War, the limits on transitional justice and truth-telling on the Franco regime imposed by a transition to democracy anchored on intra-elite pacts, and the conciliatory and forward-looking political culture that consolidated in the new democracy, this analysis emphasizes a decidedly less obvious explanation: the political uses of forgetting. Special attention is paid to how the absence of a reckoning with the past, protected politicians from both the right and the left from embarrassing and inconvenient political histories; facilitated the reinvention of the major political parties as democratic institutions; and lessened societal fears about repeating past historical mistakes. The conclusion of the chapter explains how the success of the current democratic regime, shifting public opinion about the past occasioned by greater awareness about the dark policies and legacies of the Franco regime, and generational change among Spain’s political class have in recent years diminished the political uses of forgetting. This, in turn, has allowed for a more honest treatment of the past in Spain’s public policies.

Spanish Foreign Policy

Spain’s foreign policy since its transition to democracy has been marked by a high degree of continuity over the years and across governments. Foreign-policy-making structures have remained relatively unchanged at the domestic level, with the president and the Cabinet Office playing a dominant role as a result of the presidentialization of Spanish politics. Domestic structures are complemented by EU-level structures evermore relevant as foreign policy has become increasingly Europeanized. In terms of goals, successive Spanish governments have prioritized Europeanization itself, a strong presence in Latin America and the Mediterranean, and boosting economic opportunities for Spanish businesses. Regarding foreign-policy tools, Spain has long displayed a preference for multilateralism, diplomacy, and soft power over the use of military power. In other words, Spain has prioritized the use of the main tools available to middle powers.

Employment Policy in Spain

This chapter provides an overview of the emergence, consolidation, recalibration, and liberalization of employment policies in Spain. By identifying five developmental periods, it reviews transformations in the nature and regulation of labour market policies from the early 1900s to the mid-2010s. In addition, it explores changes in the territorial organization and governance of labour-market policies with a focus on decentralization, (re-) centralization, and delegation reforms. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Great Recession on Spanish labour market policies and structures, including its dualized labour market. All in all, the chapter sheds much light on the nature and changes of the Spanish welfare state since the early twentieth century.

Public Policies

The objective of this chapter is to trace and present the main characteristics of the public policy system in Spain, incorporating policy change over time, as well as the policy style that has characterized its different stages. The transition between Francoism and democracy generated significant continuities and discontinuities both in the decision-making processes and in the actors’ system. The full incorporation into the European Union also involved significant changes in content, processes and networks. Finally, the impacts of the 2007 crisis and the effects of globalization and technological change also generated significant disruptions that will also be incorporated. The chapter will distinguish the conceptual, substantive, and operational aspects of the public policy system in Spain, as well as the main elements of the multilevel government. This aspect is especially complex in the Spanish case, given the combination of Europeanization of policies and the very remarkable regional decentralization generated by 1980.

Social Movements

According to cross-national surveys, Spaniards are among the Europeans who participate the most in street protests. At the same time, Spanish social movements have been generally understood as deploying a less radical protest repertoire and a relatively weak organizational model. Building upon central concepts in social movement studies, this chapter analyses these and other features of the Spanish activist tradition as compared to other Western countries. An especial attention is paid to the strongest protest cycles in Spanish recent history: the years of the democratic transition and the Great Recession. In doing so, this chapter aims to address the long-term effects of regime transition on domestic collective action and organized protest.

Interest Groups, Business Associations, and Trade Unions

Spanish civil society has been characterized as weak and state-dependent as a consequence of the long-lived Francoist dictatorship (1939–1976). Since the advent of democracy, the state has granted unions and business associations a representational monopoly and a consultative role, and promoted private groups through an inflow of legislation and the distribution of public subsidies. The pattern of interest intermediation whereby the administration was largely sealed off from interest groups has been gradually changing and opening up to different interests. Since the 1990s, new lobbying activities have been documented as well as a growth in non-profit and youth-led associations, but discrepancies still prevail as to whether this will consolidate in an upward trend. One way or another, Spain’s status as a low-middle range country in associational terms in comparative studies has not changed and the union density has remained low. The 2008 economic crisis has paved the way for the mobilization of citizens who denounced the privileged and behind-the-scenes relation between the political class and certain economic and financial interests. Political disaffection and the perception of growing corruption have come hand in hand.

Turnout

Voters’ turnout is always a crucial aspect in our explanation of election outcomes. A high turnout is often said to give legitimacy to the democratic system. Moreover, turnout usually has distributive effects: parties’ vote shares depend on the levels of turnout registered in a given election. My chapter has the following four aims. First of all, it offers a broad picture of electoral participation in Spain by comparing its level with data in other established democracies. Second, I examine the evolution of turnout in Spain and include information on the different types of elections that take place in the country. The third part of the chapter is devoted to studying the determinants of turnout at the aggregate (electoral district) level. Finally, I analyse what sources of variation in turnout exist at the individual level by taking into account the effect of three main groups of explanatory factors: sociodemographic, attitudinal, and economic.