From the impossible reform to the stowage of democracy: Political elites in the democratization processes of Portugal and Spain

Authors

  • Ángeles González-Fernández González-Fernández

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.207.01

Abstract

The renewal of political and civil service personnel that usually accompany democratisation processes was an incomplete phenomenon both in Spain and, despite the rupturist nature of the Carnation Revolution, in Portugal. The continuiy of the dictatorial elites with a reformist matrix in the hard core of power, or in its proximity, in democracy was due to their political ambition, but also, and this is the hypothesis on which the article is based, to the generational awareness that their time had come, the time for them to assume the role that corresponded to them by age, training and vocation; for them to put into practice the ideas and purposes they had cherished in order to shape the political future of their respective countries. To this end, members of the generation from the 1950s onwards who had access to principles and values alien to the legitimising foundations of the dictatorships have been selected as case studies. Individuals who, as part of their civil service and political elites, aspired to the gradual and peaceful accommodation of the political system to the standards that governed Western democracies.

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Published

2025-03-27

How to Cite

González-Fernández, Ángeles G.-F. (2025). From the impossible reform to the stowage of democracy: Political elites in the democratization processes of Portugal and Spain. Revista De Estudios Políticos, (207), 17–45. https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.207.01

Issue

Section

ACTORES, NARRATIVAS Y MEMORIAS DE LOS PROCESOS DEMOCRATIZADORES