The neglect of coalition studies in Spain

In 1977, after a dictatorship of some forty years, Spain agreed to a democratic system. The passing of a system based on the denial of liberties and competitive elections to another dominated by political parties and electoral results was, as is well known, peaceful, having been attained by means of a pact between reformist groups of the Franco regime and the parties of the democratic opposition.

Immediately following the elections of 15 June 1977, the Cortes proceeded to work on the Constitution in a climate of general consensus; at the same time, the main parties signed the so-called Moncloa Pact of 1977, which was of a political, social and economic nature. Simultaneously, the problems related to autonomy began to resolve themselves with the adoption of devolutionary measures negotiated between the government and nationalist or regionalist groups.

Thus, the idea of a pact, negotiation, agreement, consensus, etc. came to form the substratum upon which the Spanish constitutional system has been built, and caught the immediate attention of all political observers, who were surprised at the breadth of this policy of collaboration between parties and social forces of widely differing tendencies.

However, although every study has indicated the importance of this policy to the consolidation of the democratic system, the subject of cross-party alliances has been studied only in an indirect and practically marginal way in the context of studies on the party system.