In the modern democratic world, the life of the population is getting better and better, both materially and politically, spiritually, etc. This is especially true in Europe, where they pay special attention to human rights issues. State and public authorities carefully monitor every suspicious act.
But unexpectedly for all Europeans, this began to bring considerable and even very dangerous problems for the state structure of a number of European countries. The fact is that most of the existing states of this continent, created in the Middle Ages on the basis of voluntary-compulsory order, are multinational. And now a number of small nations, annexed in the past, want more freedom than they do now.
More recently, such problems began in Spain, although it was not the first and, most certainly, not the last with such difficulties. What is it about, what form of government in Spain is now, since it, an economically highly developed and democratic country without visible acute problems, suddenly found itself on the verge of collapse.
General Political Information
First about general information. In order to understand the causes of the Spanish political crisis today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is necessary to consider the form of government and government in Spain.
Geographically, the country is located in the southern part of the continent, on the Iberian Peninsula. The official full name is the Kingdom of Spain.
In terms of political structure, it is a parliamentary democratic monarchy. After decades of totalitarian rule, the new Constitution of Spanish democracy was adopted at a national referendum in December 1978.
According to this legal document, the king was declared the head of the country, to whom purely representative functions were left with virtually no real power. In fact, modern Spain serves as a good example of a socio-democratic country whose governance structure is expressed as a parliamentary monarchy. The capital of Spain is Madrid, which houses the royal family and governing bodies. In addition, there are legislative and judicial structures.
Administratively, the Spanish state system, according to the Constitution of the State of 1978, is divided into seventeen autonomous regions and two autonomous cities with its own government and legislative bodies within the united state. Three autonomies (Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia) are created on a national basis in the lands of several indigenous peoples - Catalans, Basques, Galicians. These regions, as well as Andalusia, have the highest degree of autonomy compared to all other parts of the country. All regions, in turn, are divided into fifty separate provinces with their part of power prerogatives.
The nature of the territorial structure
The form of state territorial structure of Spain has its own national differences. In general, the territorial structure (or the territorial structure of the state) is a complex of relations between state bodies as a whole, between the supreme power, and territorial regional units, more precisely - between representatives of the population and local authorities. The complex of territorial local bodies (units) creates the territorial structure of the state. It forms the geographical base of the territorial structure.
Twenty-first century Spain looks like a good example of a unitary multinational state with great difficulty, but solving its problems. As noted above, the country's territory is divided into seventeen large autonomous regions, which to a large extent autonomously consider and solve the problems of their economic and political development.
Any autonomous region has its own sufficient executive and legislative branches of government. At a lower level, responsible municipal staff in all fifty Spanish provinces are appointed by the community through free elections, and together with the regional parliaments send their representatives to the upper half of the country's parliament - the Senate of the National Legislative Assembly, located in the capital.
Members of the lower house of the state’s parliament are appointed democratically - by direct universal suffrage for a period of four years and have slightly greater powers, in particular, they can resolve the issue of mistrust in the current cabinet. In several autonomous regions of the country (Basque Country, Catalonia, etc.), the level of the state language along with the official Spanish are local dialects.
This form of government in Spain to this day allows us to maintain unity in the country. True, the presence of a developed national system, which rests on the deep historical past, and the right of free democratic choice leave the possibility of problems in the future.
A bit of history
The form of government in Spain in the 16th century largely determined the state of the modern state and identified the main development paths in the coming centuries. It was a century of bright prosperity of the new Spanish state. By this time, Arabs who had broken out there were expelled from the entire Iberian Peninsula, America was discovered by the famous Christopher Columbus, and the Spanish conquistadors, subjugating the freedom-loving Indians, mined the first hundreds of kilograms of silver. However, it remained to be decided whether Spain would become a single strong state, or in the future would remain a geographically generalizing concept, a combination of several state structures - a legacy of the historical past.
During the reign of Charles V and his son Philip II (who together stood at the head of Spain for about 90 years - almost the entire sixteenth century), a choice of development option was made, and the central royal apparatus was strengthened. But at the same time, Spain itself was in the political sphere a heterogeneous conglomerate of separate, loosely connected with each other territories, which also differ in economy, culture, and local customs. The management of specific localities and provinces of this large association as a whole repeated the routine that was in the former Aragonese state, which formed the basis of a single Spanish kingdom. At the head of the country was the king, whose powers were relatively undivided. The monarch had legislative initiative, was able to spread various church benefits, was the head of religious orders, placed the heads of individual regions, his ministers, senior military officers, and could influence the complex process of finding the cardinals he needed. Thus, a new unitary state of Spain was created. The form of government, however, during the formation, as already mentioned above, was repelled from the historical areas of the ancient country.
Reforms of Philip II
Since the legendary era of King Philip II, who carried out a number of major transformations in most areas of society and the state, a common center of government is being formed. Then a new form of government in Spain was actively created. In these conditions, the formation of the so-called Supreme Councils for any of the areas of the kingdom, created at the royal court on the personal initiative of Philip. The councils included plenipotentiary ministers, presided over any of the councils by the monarch to whom the last word belonged. For example, there were the Military Council, the “Treasury”, the Council on problems of orders and other executive structures, prototypes of future ministries. Under King Philip II, there were already twelve such councils; they covered a significant part of the activities of the amateur population and the country as a whole.
The stormy twentieth century
After a brief heyday in the era of the European Middle Ages, Spain slowly entered the period of crisis, which was noticeable in almost all areas. In the economic sphere, the country lagged noticeably behind the leaders of development; in the foreign policy sphere at the end of the nineteenth century, Spain lost the last colonies in America. Instability remained in domestic politics, both at the royal court and in the provinces.
After 1912, it was clear to everyone that the Spanish government could no longer cope with current problems. Governments were constantly changing, but the reforms stabilizing the domestic political situation in Spain were not implemented.
The confrontation is growing. The opposition bloc, which was not part of the traditional political system, included republican movements, radical socialists, various labor parties, as well as provincial nationalist political associations. The final break occurred in the 1930s.
The form of government in Spain in the 1930s was extremely unstable. At first, in conditions of strengthening left parties, the king abdicated the throne, and a republic appeared in Spain. Then in 1936 the left-coalition Popular Front came to power. In contrast, a rebellion of the conservative military arose. The civil war began, which determined the political system of Spain for many years.
In the late 1930s. defeated by the military, led by General Franco, who issued a militaristic dictatorship. All this time, free political associations and trade union structures were not allowed, one official state political party called the Spanish Phalanx dominated. Democratic elections did not exist, and the legislature - a unicameral parliament - Cortes - had very narrow powers. Until the mid-1970s, when he died, the totalitarian regime reigned in Spain. The form of government was frozen at this level. No changes have occurred.
Reforms of the 1970s
By the early 1970s Spain’s form of government is a unitary state with a high level of decentralization. The regime of Generalissimo Franco was able to stabilize the political situation in the country, to reconcile society. But in economic terms, success was much less. And, most importantly, such a regime had no future. It was so obvious to everyone in Spain that after Franco's death in 1975, there were no supporters of the preservation of this type of state.
Central government
The country became a kingdom with the formal head of state - the monarch of Spain. What state system has formed now?
In practice, legislative power went to the elected body - a bicameral parliament. Parliament meetings are held once every six months for 2-3 months. At the request of individual executive and legislative bodies, extraordinary sessions may be convened that meet on the specific agenda of the issues under consideration.
The sphere of activity of the Spanish legislature includes the drafting of laws, budgeting, checking the work of the government, and questions of the order of government in the royal family. The scope of issues on which the parliament can create legislative documents is not clearly distinguished, but its work focuses mainly on the maintenance and development of leading rights and democratic freedoms, various laws supporting the provisions on autonomy, as well as other legal acts specially noted by the Constitution . On other issues, Parliament has the right to transfer to the Government the opportunity to publish “legislative decrees”.
Government of Spain - The Council of Ministers holds executive power. The Council consists of the chairman, his several deputies, ministers and other members. The monarch nominates the chairman and confirms the parliament. Other representatives of the Government are determined and excluded by the monarch by appointment of the Chairman of the Government. The latter leads the work of the Government and is responsible for its activities. According to the text of the Constitution, the Government conducts the management of foreign and domestic policy, the economy and, if necessary, the military sphere. The government is responsible to parliament for its work. With the loss of the parliamentary majority, the Government is obliged to resign.
This is the structure of central state power in Spain. The state structure of the country almost does not differ in terms of democracy, for example, from France.
Spain of recent years
The modern country has changed little over the past twenty to thirty years. The form of government in Spain currently reflects all the events of the 19970-1990s, and more broadly, the entire history of the state.
Of particular note is the period of recent times that began after the death of Franco and the declaration of a democratic state.
The regionalization that began in 1978 was carried out in the following leading areas: the formation of the legal base of autonomous regions, the implementation of administrative transformations by concentration of powers and resources between autonomous regions and city structures through a difficult process of redistribution of power between the center and the regions, as well as constitutional changes.
Much attention is paid to the consideration of policies to mitigate economic and national imbalances within the EU's general regional course. There is also a regular fight against bribery in the apparatus, violation of the law (in particular among the younger generation), "underground" immigrants, etc.
The democratically elected governments under Adolfo Suárez and Felipe González, and since 1996 under Jose Maria Aznar, carefully and purposefully "showed" the state in political and economic terms. Even though the entry into the EU and NATO has not remained without disputes, in our time the majority of the country's inhabitants agree with this decision. There are many examples showing a real transition to European democracy: a popular referendum on the introduction of a new Spanish constitution, the government’s commitment to preserve the rights of regional autonomy, the resolution of the right to family divorce, and the abolition of the death penalty. The democratic structure of the formerly rigidly centralized state became very visible to the expanding changes in public life.
Such transformations improved the situation in Spain. The state structure of the state is noticeably close to the democratic European countries.
Contemporary issues
After the reforms of the last decades, democratization and the process of mitigating the contradictions that arose in society, the general situation has noticeably improved. Nevertheless, negative trends in the country remained and one of them is the national question.
The state-territorial structure of Spain provides that the small peoples of the country have so far received a number of privileges, but the status of all autonomous regions has not remained at the same level. The Constitution divides limited and full national autonomies. The most massive is limited national autonomy. The rights of the regions, according to the Spanish government, with limited autonomy, include permission to create their own self-government structures, reform the boundaries of entities within the community of city councils, highlight their functions and level of power, divide the territories, the agricultural sector, the social sphere and a number of other issues.
Privileged Autonomy
Four regions received full autonomy under the Constitution of the country and the state system of Spain. Their powers are united by a wide range of issues not specifically noted by the Constitution for the central government. The issue of full autonomy is the parliament.
Despite the great autonomy, some small nationalities (Basques, Catalans) demand from the central government even more serious independence from Madrid and often even propose the formation of a completely independent state on their lands.Thanks to this, the situation in Spain is periodically difficult: there are terrorist acts, there are clashes with security forces and demonstrations. Although the country's government for the time being seeks to support only peaceful negotiations and tries to keep the situation under its control.
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