Not only 23F. PSOE and the autonomic rationalization (1978-1982)

Abstract

The signing of the Autonomous Agreements by the PSOE and UCD in July 1981 has been traditionally interpreted as a direct consequence of the frustrated coup d’etat of 23F. This article, based on internal and unpublished documentation, revises this analysis, attributing the position of the Socialist Party, not only to a reaction against the intentional involvement, but as a product of a broader process, initiated after the approval of the Constitution. The socialists, conditioned by their ideological trajectory, were developing a policy on regional matters that was influenced by the situation and that depended on the vicissitudes of the state context and on those that affected the regional processes of each territory. Strategic, electoral, and ideological issues, and an attitude that tried to reconcile positions related to the «State responsibility» with keeping promises on the demands of self-government, interacted delaying a pact on which it was debated since the new legal framework left open the new structure of the State. This research analyzes the coincidence between centrists and socialists about the need to «rationalize» the construction of the future State of the autonomies since 1979. In fact, «harmonizing» the autonomous process was a fundamental objective in the PSOE long before that the 23F offered the Socialists the ideal opportunity to reach a State agreement and design a consistent model with the principles that the party had defended since the beginning of the Transition.