Political Leadership in the Spanish Transition to Democracy (1975-1982)

A key idea in the study of democratic transitions is the notion that political actors play a pivotal role in initiating, controlling and shaping the changes that lead to democracy. Based on this premise, this book aims to offer an in-depth study of a series of political leaders that played a significant role in the Spanish democratic transition (1975-1982). This book opens with an introduction providing the historical, political and theoretical context for the study of the political leaders of the Spanish transition to democracy. The authors then offer in the first half of the book a study of the central and/or innovative leaders of the political transformation, i.e. Torcuato Fernández-Miranda, Adolfo Suárez González, Felipe González Márquez, Manuel Fraga Iribarne and Santiago Carrillo Solares. The second half of the book analyses the leadership roles of Fernando Abril Martorell, Francisco Fernández Ordóñez, Alfonso Guerra González, Jordi Pujol i Soley and Xabier Arzalluz Antia. Taken together, these ten leaders represented the main options in the political spectrum of the Spanish transition. Despite numerous studies devoted to the Spanish transition, little attention has been paid to it. This book aims to reconsider these ideas in an effort to improve upon our knowledge of political leadership during a crucial time in recent Spanish history.