Spanish transition to democracy

The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as la Transición (IPA: [la tɾansiˈθjon]; "the Transition") or la Transición española ("the Spanish Transition"), is a period of modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system, in the form of constitutional monarchy under Juan Carlos I.

The democratic transition began after the death of Francisco Franco, in November 1975. Initially, "the political elites left over from Francoism" attempted "to reform of the institutions of dictatorship" through existing legal means. But social and political pressure saw the formation of a democratic parliament in the 1977 general election which had the imprimatur to write a new constitution that was then approved by referendum in December 1978. The following years saw the beginning of the development of the rule of law and establishment of regional government, amidst ongoing terrorism, an attempted coup d'état and global economic problems. The Transition is said to have concluded after the landslide victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the 1982 general election and the first peaceful transfer of executive power. Democracy was on the road to being consolidated.

The end result of the Transition according to Casanova was "at least from 1982 onwards, a parliamentary monarchy, based on a democratic constitution, with a large number of rights and freedoms, the consequence of a complex transition, riddled with conflicts, foreseen and unforeseen obstacles and problems, in the context of economic crisis and political uncertainty." However as then prime minister González said later, "the state aparatus was retained, in its entirety, from the dictatorship".

An important characteristic of the Transition was that the most important aspects were adopted by consensus between the governments and the opposition. While often cited as a paradigm of peaceful, negotiated transition, political violence during the Spanish transition was far more prevalent than during the analogous democratization processes in Greece or Portugal, with the emergence of separatist, leftist, fascist and vigilante terrorist groups and police violence.

Democratisation also led to Spain's integration into Europe, a dream of Spanish intellectuals since the end of the 19th century.