Spain

Article Outline

Introduction; Land and Resources of Spain; People and Society of Spain; Culture of Spain; Economy of Spain; Government of Spain; History of Spain

Regional and Local Government

Spain comprises 50 provinces in 17 autonomous regions: Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Basque Country (País Vasco), Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile-La Mancha, Castile-León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, and Valencia. The regions have a degree of autonomy (self government) and control over half of public spending in Spain. Each region has the right to legislate in certain important fields such as education, health, and economic development, although within a framework set by the national government. Under the 1978 constitution all the regions did not enjoy the same powers. This inequality was later largely leveled off.

The 17 regions have nearly identical government structures. Each has an executive branch, headed by a prime minister chosen by the regional parliament. The members of regional parliaments are directly elected by a partially proportional system similar to that used at the national level. Similar arrangements exist in Spain’s two territories on the Moroccan coast, Ceuta and Melilla, which have the status of autonomous cities.

Since 1979 Spain’s 50 provinces have had their own executive councils. Members of these councils are elected indirectly by the municipal (city or town) councils within the province. They are mainly responsible for providing services in municipalities that are too small to take on such functions.

The most genuinely local tier of government is made up of the municipalities. There are more than 8,000 municipalities in Spain, ranging from Madrid down to villages. Their governments are headed by a mayor. The mayor is chosen by a directly elected council in all but the very smallest municipalities. The functions of a municipality depend on its population, with the largest cities having fairly widespread administrative responsibilities in such areas as school provision, urban planning, and housing.

Judiciary

Spain’s judicial system is organized as a hierarchy (in order of rank). The country’s Supreme Court stands at the top of the hierarchy and acts as the final court of appeal. These appeals come in particular from the high court (Audiencia Nacional), which was established in 1977. It, too, is also essentially an appeals court, although it also hears certain types of high-profile criminal cases—for example, cases involving drug-trafficking. The next level down consists of the 17 regional high courts. Lower courts are at the provincial and district level.

At all levels the judicial system is divided into six different types of court. Two types concerned with civil cases (non-criminal cases between individuals) and criminal cases, respectively. The others are responsible for labor issues, disputes involving the administration of government agencies, cases involving juveniles, and prison supervision. The ministry of justice administers the court system.

A constitutional court stands apart from the judiciary as a whole. Its task is to interpret the constitution. It does this in three main ways: by resolving disputes between the central government and the regions over the extent of their respective power; by checking new legislation for compatibility with the constitution; and by responding to complaints of unconstitutional treatment from individual citizens.

Health and Welfare

Spain has a health and welfare system comparable to those in other western European countries. The basis for it is a social security act passed in 1990. This law defines the circumstances entitling citizens to benefits, such as old age, illness, widowhood, unemployment, and disability. It also establishes a distinction between contributory and non-contributory benefits. People with no other means of support receive non-contributory benefits funded through taxation. Contributions from employers and employees finance contributory benefits, and entitlement to these benefits depends upon sufficient contributions having been made. The most important contributory benefits are unemployment benefits and pensions paid to older people, widows, and the disabled.

Healthcare is by far the most important non-contributory benefit. It is delivered free of charge, with the exception of medications, dental care, and psychiatric care. The Spanish National Health Service was established by the 1986 General Health Act. Overall coordination is the function of the National Health Service Agency, but the government has transferred wide-ranging management responsibility to regional health services run by the 17 regional governments. Spain’s health system has been criticized, especially for long waiting lists at hospitals. However, it is a great deal better than the system that existed in 1980.

Social services, such as nonmedical care of the elderly and disabled, have been neglected. In the absence of programs from the national government, the services are provided largely by regional and local governments.

Defense

Spain maintains armed services equipped with modern weapons. It has a professional army made up of volunteers. The system of compulsory military service was abolished by a law passed in 1999. This law also removed the last restrictions on women serving in the armed forces. In 2006 the country had an army of 95,600, a navy of 19,455, and an air force of 22,750. Under an agreement reached in 1953, the Spanish government has had close defense ties with the United States, which maintains naval and air bases in Spain. The country became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1982, and reaffirmed that alliance in a public referendum in 1986.

VII

History of Spain

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Overview

Spain began the 21st century as a wealthy, urbanized, industrial, and democratic European country. Spain’s path to modernity differed in many ways from other parts of Europe. Located at the far southwestern corner of Europe and geographically isolated by steep mountains and seas, Spain has often appeared distant from European cultural developments. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain during the late 18th century, spread slowly to Spain. In the 20th century the brutal Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the ensuing dictatorship of Francisco Franco seemed to set Spain apart from a prosperous, democratic, and modern Europe.

For much of its history, however, Spain has been a historical crossroads. The Strait of Gibraltar, at the tip of Spain, permits easy travel between Spain and Africa. Since prehistory peoples have entered Spain from other parts of Europe and Africa. The Iberian Peninsula, with its many seaports, made it easy for seafaring Mediterranean peoples to land in search of natural resources. Spain’s earliest written history tells of a long sequence of migrations and cultural mingling. Home to Iberians in prehistory, Spain was colonized by Celtic and Phoenician settlers by the 8th century bc. The name Spain (Hispania) owes its origins to the Phoenicians, who called the Iberian Peninsula “Span,” which meant hidden or remote land. Celtic and Phoenician settlers were followed by Greeks and Carthaginians and then by Romans. It took Roman soldiers 200 years to conquer all of Spain, a process completed in the 1st century bc.

As a part of the Roman Empire, most of Spain’s population became Christian and began to speak languages based on Latin. Romans were followed by Germanic peoples who came overland from Europe and entered Spain in the 5th century ad. These ancient tribes included Vandals, who passed through and settled in Africa, and Visigoths, who settled in Spain to build a kingdom. Persistent conflict among Visigothic nobles weakened the monarchy, and in 711 Spain was invaded again, this time by Muslims from Africa. For centuries the Muslim conquerors would control much of the Iberian Peninsula. The high point of Islamic culture in Spain occurred in the 10th century. Muslim rulers introduced new crops and efficient irrigation systems, trading and commerce thrived, and mathematics, medicine, and philosophy flourished.

Muslim power declined after 1000 as Christian kingdoms in northern Spain, supplemented by migrants from Europe, gradually moved southward to take control of the peninsula. That process was completed in 1492 with the Christian conquest of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain. The most important Christian kingdoms were Castile, Aragón, and Portugal. Castile emerged as the largest and strongest of these monarchies, and it was central to the construction of the Catholic, Castilian-speaking society of medieval Spain.

By 1500 the migrations were over, but Spain remained an important crossroads. Spain was well located for seaborne trade between the Mediterranean and northern Europe. In the late 15th century navigators in the service of Spain began to explore the Americas, and they discovered great quantities of silver. American silver made Spain central to Europe’s expanding world trade. At the same time, dynastic marriages and diplomacy gave Spain control of a huge European empire. Spain’s American and European empires lasted in various forms until the early 19th century, when they largely disappeared in the wake of the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815).

Throughout the 19th century Spaniards fought and argued about their government and the appropriate amount of popular participation in politics. During this time, Spain gradually entered the Industrial Revolution, and the expanding economy created new political forces. Still, no single faction succeeded in commanding a political majority. Many Spaniards looked to the army to bring order out of chaos, and it became another powerful faction.

By the early 20th century Spain’s government was democratic on paper but it was controlled by an oligarchy that refused to share power. Political groups increasingly resorted to anarchy and violence, and in 1923 General Miguel Primo de Rivera became dictator. Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship was followed by a remarkable experiment with democracy in the 1930s that was suppressed by the Spanish Civil War. The war cost Spain more than 500,000 lives and resulted in the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco. After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain began the rapid transition to the dynamic, modern, and democratic European nation it is today.