Spain is a country that is being watched closely by the rest of Europe to see how it develops politically in the post-Franco era. Franco was the dictatorial ruler of Spain for half a century, and in the post-Franco era efforts have been made to increase the democratic underpinnings of the government and to increase the participation of the people in the political process. An issue that has to be faced involves the legitimacy that the government of Spain can now achieve. Legitimacy in political terms means that the government has constitutional support for exercising its power. The previous dictatorship lacked legitimacy in the sense suggested by Locke and Rousseau in that it did not derive its power from the people but rather imposed that power from above. With the end of the dictatorship, Spain immediately began edging toward legitimacy by seeking the support and participation of the people. An analysis of Spain today shows that it has achieved a level of legitimacy through the democratic process and has been successful in representing the economic and political interests of the people. Yet, it is also clear that Spain does not now, and indeed may never, have legitimacy to certain populations, notably the Basque population that often stands at odds with Spain as a whole.
Spain was formerly under a system of personal rule established in 1936. The monarchy was reestablished in 1975. This followed the death of Francisco Franco, the ruler since 1936. He had run a rigidly centralized, unitary state, but the 1978 Constitution recognized and guaranteed the right of autonomy to nationalities and regions within the state. Upon Franco's death, King Juan Carlos engineered the transition to democracy that transformed the dictatorial regime into a pluralistic, parliamentary democracy. There had been little political involvement by the citizens prior to this change, but now parties revived and grew, forming coalitions. In the 1982...