Political Parties

  Without any doubt, political parties have become the principal actors of modern democracies.  After a long historical process, the state is no longer persecuting parties and they are now recognized and protected constitutionally.  This allows us to affirm that these actors have now materialized and made an organized political life possible. It is the medium through which the exercise of power is viable.
Therefore, if we want to comprehend the nature and function of Spanish democracy, we have to analyse the agents who act as intermediaries between society and the political regime. This refers to the political parties, which, from a static perspective, are not only deeply rooted in the Spanish political system, but are also, from a dynamic perspective-, shaping it.
In this section, we will do a brief run-through of the political parties at the national and regional level that take part in the Spanish political system. Even though our objective is to analyse the Spanish political parties, we have nevertheless created an opportunity to remember some basic notions related to the political parties as a start. Because of this, we have introduced a section regarding possible doubts that you may have about different aspects of Spanish political parties.  We have also included another two sections to recommend a few texts and consulting bibliographies covering this topic.   Lastly, we have added the web addresses of the Spanish political parties with representation in the Congress to allow you to enter this virtual reality.

1- Remembering key concepts:

What is a political party?

Origin and evolution of political parties.

Function of political parties.

2- A brief analysis of Spanish political parties:

Introduction.

Political parties in the national field.

National and regional political parties.

3- Resolving some doubts:

How does one create a political party in Spain?

How does one finance Spanish political parties?; Objections to the current model of finance and possible alternatives.                  

4- Recommended readings

5- Web of political parties

6- To consult: referential bibliographies


1- Remembering key concepts:

 

What is a political party?


          Although nearly all political scientists recognize the crucial role that political parties play in modern democracies, the truth is that they still have not reached a consensus on the definition of a party that can be accepted by a majority.
         
Of the multiple definitions that exist, we can emphasize that of professor Ramon Cotarelo, who perceives a political party as, “a voluntary association, permanent in time,  which promotes a governmental program of society that channels certain interests and aspires to exercise power through its reiterated representation in the electoral processes.”


 
  According to La Palombara and Weiner, in reality we can affirm that political parties must have the following elements:


 
a-  “A solid organization whose duration of political life is longer than that of its executives.”

 
b- It must “own a notably solid local organization that maintains consistent and various relations on the national level.”

 

c- “The deliberate willingness of its national and local executives to take and exercise power, alone or with others, and not to influence only through this power.”
 
d- “The desire to find popular support through elections or through any other medium.”
 
e- “It channels certain sectorial interests.”

 
f- And finally, as Cotarelo adds, “the organization must have a governmental platform that  regards society as a whole.”

 
From the systemic perspective, Von Beyme emphasizes channelling interests because of the common desire to gain political power.  Therefore, political parties are defined as such organizations that aggregate interests, which is different from pressure groups that limit themselves to articulating special interests and only pretend to be an influence in decisive instances.




 

 
         

 

 

 

2- A brief analysis of Spanish political parties:


      
Introduction:
In Spain, political parties were recognized constitutionally for the first time in 1978 after almost forty years under dictatorship.  Article six of the constitutional text recognizes parties as an expression of political pluralism that function as channels of political participation. On the other hand, the freedom to create political parties is specified, but only when they do not go against the law or the Constitution.   This emphasizes that the parties must have an internal structure and the ability to function democratically.

Political parties are also recognized and regulated by the law of political parties of December 4, 1978  together with the constitutional precept.  We will discuss this more in depth when we tackle the question of the creation of a political party.   One must keep in mind that in the Spanish political system, we can identify two cleavages in the evolution of parties:

1- Class or socio-economic conflict: The extension and consolidation of the welfare state has minimized economic inequalities, so that this tension has been noticeably reduced.

2- Central-periphery: the existence of specific historical communities has created tension.  This fracture produces parties in the national and regional field.

Paradoxically, nowadays the religious cleavage (church/ state), a source of tension and divisions in society in the past, is not generating any kind of  conflict.  The existence of a democratic Christian party has never been viable, and the Church has never supported any of the political options. This is because they prefer to have the greatest legitimacy at the hour of displaying their criteria about subjects that are really important to them: education, abortion and divorce.

In the following lines, we are going to analyse the evolution of Spanish political parties, classifying them according to the two cleavages referred to previously: the socio- economic and the central- periphery.

National parties:
In this group, let us distinguish the following group of parties:

A- Left-wing parties:
Spanish Communist party (PCE)/ Left United (IU):
Created in 1921 of a split in the PSOE, it is the oldest party in Spain aside from the PSOE and the PNV.  This party led the opposition to the francoist dictatorship since the late fifties.

Following the death of the dictator  the beginning of the transition to democracy began the era of the legalization of political parties(February 1977). This process found a lot of obstacles in the specific case of the PCE, given the frontal opposition of the army which continued regarding the communists as a threat. The PCE was finally legalized in April 1977. With a more moderate speech and with the desire to facilitate the transition to democracy, the PCE competed in these elections, bringing in modest results (9.3% of the votes) that converted them into the third political power.   These results led the party to bet on the construction of a democratic system that would drive it to accept the monarchy as a legitimate form of government. 
  
There were internal dissentions in the party since the beginning of the transition. This led to a certain degree of fragmentation that provoked the creation of the United Left (Izquierda Unida) right before the imminent legislative elections of 1986.  This is a coalition integrated by the PCE, the Party of Socialist Action, the Communist Party of the Villages of Spain, the Progressive Federation, the Humanitarian parties, the Republican Left, and some independent ones. The coalition was led by Julio Anguita, and some of the benefits could be seen in the 1986 elections when they regained part of the leftist votes.

Under a sudden and obligated candidacy, they won eight seats in the March 22, 2002 elections, loosing thirteen  seats compared to the 1996 elections.  Currently, the IU feels pressured to start a debate about a change in leadership and about the ideological principles. Its new leader, Gaspar Llamazares, has started this process of internal renovation.

The Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE):
Founded in 1879, this is the party with the longest history.  It did not have parliamentary representation until 1910 and it was not until 1931 that it became the greatest leftist party.  During the Second Republic it suffered from a lot of internal tension that continued until after the Civil War.

By the 1977 elections, there were three candidacies: a) PSOE "h" (historical); b) PSOE "r" (renovated); and c) Candidacy of the Socialist Unity.  Nevertheless, the only candidacy that pursued substantial electoral backing is the PSOE "r," which became the second political power after the UCD.   This eventually became what we know today as the PSOE.

In the party's 28th Congressional meeting in 1979, its general secretary, Felipe Gonzalez, aimed to abandon Marxism and adopt social democracy.  As a consolidated party, it won the absolute majority with 202 deputies in the 1982 elections, and also consecutively won the absolute majority in the 1986 and 1989 elections.   The end of its absolute majorities came in the 1993 elections, when it won a relative majority, which obligated it to govern with the support of the nationalists. 

In 1996, it became the first opposition party after the elections of March 3rd that lost to the Popular Party by a relative majority.

 

The bicephalism, or the two-headed leadership, was something to pay special attention to. This was produced in the party when the new general secretary, Joaquin Almunia, convoked some primary elections for the party's presidential candidate in May 1998.   The winner was Jose Borrel, but this situation of bicephalism, in which the general secretary of the party and the party's presidential candidate were not the same person, was shattered just before the recent March 12th elections by the forced resignation of Borrel.

Nowadays, and after analysing the recent electoral results in which it lost more than 1.5 million votes and 16 seats, the PSOE is undergoing a process of change in leadership.  Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the new general secretary, is a good example of this change.  

 Extreme left parties:

In the beginning of the transition to democracy there were some small extreme left organizations such as: the Working Party of Spain, the Revolutionary Organization of Workers, and the Revolutionist Communist League.  They participated in the 1979 elections, but without receiving any kind of parliamentary representation.

B- Centre parties:

The Central Democratic
Union (UCD):

This is a coalition of parties that came from the 1977 pact between Adolfo Suarez (president of the government) and an indeterminate number of ideologically moderate small parties whose goal is to win the legislative elections this year.  It became the first  political option and, consequently, the party of the government.

Given the heterogeneous nature of this coalition (of which the diverse groups such as the liberals, social-democrats, francoists, Christian-democrats and regionalists were members), it never became a united party because the internal battles prevailed over the goals of the party.

In 1981 Suarez resigned from presidency as well as from the party, giving his position to Calvo Sotelo in the government and to Rodriguez Sahagun in the party.  But the decomposition of the UCD was imminent  because of the desertion of the group's social-democratic and Christian democratic deputies.   The big electoral defeat suffered in the 1982 elections confirmed the end of this party. 

The Democratic and Social Centre (CDS):

This party was created in 1982 by Suarez and was characterized by a powerful dose of personalism, which was concentrated in the leading figure.  From 1989 on -and following Suarez's abandon of his position as leader of the party- the unpreventable decline began, with its most critical point being in 1993 when its parliamentary representation disappeared.

C- Right-wing parties:

 The Popular Party (PP):

Founded in 1977 as the Popular Alliance (AP), this was originally a coalition formed because of  the need of the right-wing to place itself in the new political situation, during the transition to democracy.  In the beginning, the coalition was integrated by the so-called seven magníficos (seven ministers of the francoist regime) and their respective groups.   They had minimal success in the 1977 elections when they were led by Manuel Fraga.

When UCD disappeared, the Popular Alliance, which had co aligned themselves with the Democratic Popular Party, became the second strongest political power in the 1982 elections with 26% of the votes.

The 1986 elections produced the same results as in 1982 and the Fraga´s ceiling became quite known; Fraga was associated with past francoism.  Because of this, a crisis began and forced Fraga´s decision in order to leaving his position as president of the party.  The absence of leadership and the tensions produced in the heart of the AP brought about the new founding of the party in the ninth Congress of 1989, when Fraga again presented himself as president and Hernandez Mancha resigned.

Lastly, the need to present a more centred image led to a change in leadership, with the proposed Jose Maria Aznar and a modified denomination of the party, named the Popular Party since 1989.

The electoral ascent of this party was progressive: in the 1993 legislative elections the PSOE won with a difference of four percentage points; in the 1996 legislative elections its relative majority followed with the absolute majority obtained in the elections of March 12, 2000 with 44.54% of the votes (and 183 seats).  

Extreme right-wing parties:

In the beginning of the transition, these parties represented the most reactionary sectors of the francoist regime.  The most significant party was the New Force lead by Blas Pinar, whose position was completely marginal.

 The political parties of the regional field
:
      
 The political parties in the Basque country:
      
       -Basque Nationalist Party (PNV): 

Founded in 1883 by Sabino Arana, it is today a centre-right nationalist political force.  Since the first Basque Parliamentary election in 1980, it has governed, although not always alone.  It suffered an internal crisis in the mid-eighties that resulted in a split, and eventually the birth of the Eusko Alkartasuna (EA), led by the first Basque lendakari: Carlos Garaikoetxea.   Following the 1994 elections, EA entered into a coalition government with the PNV and the Socialist Euskadi Party (PSE).

-Esuskadiko Ezquerra (EE):

Born from the Communist Euskadi Party split, it was more compromised with the socio-economic transformations of the Basque Country than with radical nationalist demands.

-Herri Batasuna (HB):

Formed towards the end of the seventies as a radical leftist patriotic (Abertzale) party, but in reality is a coalition of separatist groups and Marxists, which were considered the political wing of ETA.

After the closing of the Egin newspaper and the imprisoning of the HB party, the Euskal Herritarrok party (EH) was created in September 1998, which competed in the autonomous elections that took place in October of the same year, winning fourteen elections, which allowed them to form part of the Basque tripartite government (PNV, EA and EH), created after the previous ones.

Catalonian political parties:
  

-Convergencia i Unio (CiU):

A coalition created in 1977 and integrated by the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (whose leader is Jordi Pujol) and by the Democratic Union of Catalonia.  From 1993, when the period of relative majorities began at national level, it has become a key player in the governability of Spain, obtaining the projection of Catalonian interests in the national sphere.

- The Republican Esquerra of Catalonia (ERC):


It was born in 1931 and played an important role in the Second Republic.  In the 1977, '79, and '82 elections, they attained representation in Congress, although this was not the case in the 1986 or '89 elections.  It was again represented from 1993 to '96 and obtained a seat in the 2000 elections.   On the other hand, it is necessary to point out that it has suffered a great split, from which the Independent Party of Catalonia was born.

 The political parties in Andalucia and in Galicia:
      
Galicia:
   - The Nationalist Gallego Block (BNG): Critical of the current territorial articulation of the state, it is represented in the regional Galician parliament

   - The Gallega Coalition: A moderate party with a centred orientation and attracted diverse dissidents of the AP/PP that disappeared from national politics after 1986.

Andalusia:
   -The Andalusian Socialist Party:
Created in 1965, it incorporated a nationalist identity with its leftist ideology.  In 1984 it was refunded and named the Andalucian Party.  It suffered a split in 1992, and created the Andalucian Progressive Party.

 Other regional parties:

There is a series of small regional parties that have something in common: they were created after the disintegration of the UCD.

   - The Aragon Regional Party.
  
   - The Aragon Chunta.
  
   -The Canarian Town Union.
  
   -The Canarian Coalition.
  
   -The Union of the Town of Navarra.
  
   -The Valencian Union.


3- Resolving certain doubts about political parties:

 How is a political party created in Spain?

These are the steps that must be taken in order to create a political party on the basis of the Law of Political Parties of 1978:

   1- The party that must have previously had a project and some promoters, which represent the constitution act of the party. It must be register in the catalogue of political associations at the Interior Ministry.

         2- The Interior Ministry has twenty days to register the party, during which time its can judge if there are or are not indications of illicitness.

   3- In the case that the Interior Ministry encounters indications that this party infringes  the law or the Constitution, it has to inform the Fiscal Ministry.  Upon reading the remitted documents, he will have another twenty days to estimate its illicitness, and therefore, must urge the competent judicial authority to declare the party illegal or reject it.  Following this process, the petition should be returned to the Register of Political Associations.

   4- In the case that the Ministry does not encounter these motives of illicitness, the party will be registered and will obtain full legal recognition.

Thus, given that the constitutional text stipulates that the political parties must have a democratic organization and function, it is necessary that they fulfil the following requirements according to the Law of Political Parties of 1978:

   a- The party that is created must have a supreme collective body , including those who are there through representatives.  This body is known as the General Assembly or the Congress of the party. 

   b- All members of the party must have the full right of suffrage, active as well as passive.

       c- Those members must have access to information about their party's economic activities.

   d- The leading organs of the party will be provided in all cases  by free and secret suffrage.

On the other hand, the above- mentioned Law of the Political Parties establishes that the parties could be dissolved in the following cases:

   1- When they violate the Penal Code (illicit association).

   2- When the organization or activities are contrary to democratic principles.

 How do the Spanish political parties finance themselves? Objections to the current models and possible alternatives:
      
   The party finances is an important issue in order to analyse the economic performance of the party and how its influence is distributed.  There are two major types:

   1. Private financing- The quotas that the affiliates pay are considered as private financing, the donations and the loans from people, judiciaries, or groups of interest, and the patrimony of fixed and movable goods that the party has obtained to cover its needs.
 
   2. Public financing.  Currently, the parties are consuming large quantities of money, especially in order to guarantee its sustainability as an organization and pay its electoral campaigns, and only the state can assure its survival.

   There are two types of public financing:

   A) Direct- The annual subsidy for ordinary spending and the subsidy for electoral spending.

   B) Indirect. The subsidy of the parliamentary group requires the following:

- The percentage of the salary of their publicly elected positions.
- The percentage of the salary of their publicly designated positions.
- The state subsidy to their juvenile organizations.
- The free use of social mediums of communication.
-The press subsidy of the parties.

-         Tax advantages. Fiscal immunity.  reducing the negative interest rates in the party or allowing donators to deduct their taxes through funding.

We cannot forget the external control of the parties' financial- economic activities, which correspond exclusively to the Tribunal of Accounts.

The principal objections to this mixed finance model -in which the public clearly dominates over the private- can synthesize in the following ways:

-Public financing has generated unmeasured growth of the parties, that constantly need more money for ordinary and electoral spending.  The party, living economically from the state, is converted into one of its agents disconnecting from civil society.

- Within each party, one can find an increase in financing that brings with it commissions obtained by people that act as intermediaries.

There are three proposed alternatives to improve this model:

1- Realizing financial reform in such a way that even if public financing continues to be predominant, a more commonly used form of private financing that complements this exists.  A more firm budget control by the parties and for a more flexible private financing regulation is demanded, even though there will always be certain limits clearly defined by the organizations that can or cannot contribute to the parties.   This alternative is defended by the PSOE.

2- Making private financing more powerful eventually leads to the demand of liberalization of private contributions- which are already personal or legal entities- to the parties.  This alternative is defended by the PP.

3- Maintaining these current limits in private financing and preserving the pre-dominium of the public financing, even though this means exercising greater control over the spending of the parties.  This option is led by the IU.

4- Recommended readings:
- Harris, M. (1993): Jefes, cabecillas, abusones, Madrid, Alianza Editorial.

 

5- WEB of the political parties represented in the Congress:
PP
http://www.pp.es
PSOE
http://www. psoe.es
IU
http://www.izquierda-unida.es
IC-U
http://www.iniciativa-cat-verds.org
CiU
http://www.convergencia.org
PNV
http://www.eaj-pnv.com
PA
http://www.p-andalucista.org
EA
http://www.euskoalkartasuna.es
Chunta A.
http://www.chunta.com
CC
http://www.coalicioncanaria.es
ERC
http://www.esquerra.org
BNG
http://www.bng-galiza.org

 

 

6- To consult: bibliography of reference
If you want to go more into depth regarding some of the points discussed in this section or consult some references:
COTARELO, R. (1985): Los partidos políticos, Madrid, Sistema.
DUVERGER, M. (1957): Los partidos políticos, México, F.C.E.
MARTÍNEZ SOSPEDRA, M. (1996): Introducción a los partidos políticos, Barcelona, Ariel.
PASTOR, M. (Comp.) (1988): Ciencia Política, Madrid, McGraw-Hill.
ROMÁN, P. (Coord.) (1995): Sistema Político Español, Madrid, McGraw-Hill.
SARTORI, G. (1980): Partidos y sistemas de partidos I, Madrid, Alianza.
VV.AA (1997): Curso de partidos políticos, Madrid, Akal.