Spaniens väg tillbaka mot demokrati : En fallstudie om Spaniens demokratiseringsprocess

Sammanfattning: This is a study on Spain´s path from dictatorship towards democracy in the period of 1975 to 1982. The examination is based on Robert Dahl´s theory of democratization, fundamentally describing three alternate paths, moving a society from one of the states closed hegemony, inclusive hegemony or competitive oligarchy into the state polyarchy. According to Dahl, polyarchy is the closest ideal of a democracy. Dahl´s transformation paths are based on two dimensions: political competition and political inclusiveness. Prior to 1975, Spain was a closed hegemony and transformation could have gone directly to polyarchy or by way of either inclusive hegemony or competitive oligarchy. The results obtained in this study demonstrates that political competition and political inclusiveness developed in parallel in Spain, which was the prerequisite for the rapid transition. Most crucial was that the elections and the referendums occurred within a very short period of time. According to Dahl, elections can be categorized as political competition as well as political inclusiveness. Therefore, it can be concluded that Spain followed the path moving directly from closed hegemony into polyarchy without moving via inclusive hegemony or competitive oligarchy.