CIAO DATE: 04/05

The Process from Authoritarianism to Democracy in Spain: the Impact of the 1981 Failed Cup

Abstract

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new (Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter 6).

Stepan (1988, p. xi) wrote some time ago: 'the military has probably been the least studied of the factors involved in new democratic movements'. As a result, civilian control of the military has been a crucial but neglected topic in the studies on democratic transitions and consolidations as Przeworski (1991, p. 29) exemplifies: 'Obviously, the institutional framework for civilian control over the military constitutes the neuralgic point of democratic consolidation'. Apparently, the much admired Przeworski does not develop that argument either in that work or in his many other books and articles, which is intriguing. It is therefore no wonder that he deems the success of Spanish transition as 'a miracle' (Przeworski 1991, p. 8). Here a more secularised interpretation is attempted.

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