Franco’s Dictatorship: Ideological Foundations and Social Bases
Ideological Foundations and Social Bases of Franco’s Regime
Introduction
The result of the Spanish Civil War was the consolidation of the dictatorial regime, which had begun to be built in October 1936 by the rebels against the Republic. Franco’s regime had two major stages:
- The first, from 1939 to 1959, was characterized by the attempt to establish a totalitarian state inspired by fascism and by giving the country an economic autarky, as well as a situation of international isolation.
- The second stage, from 1959 to 1975, was conceived in the 1950s when the failure of economic policy and the need for international recognition led to the liberalization of the economy and the attenuation of its more clearly fascist features. The result was a period of strong economic growth and social modernization that developed throughout the 1960s.
Development of the Theme
The Franco dictatorship was born with absolute powers consolidated in Franco. It confirmed the undemocratic nature of the institutions and continued the repression of opponents practiced during the Civil War.
Franco ruled as a true absolute monarch because he concentrated all the powers in his person, although this was achieved in a very fortuitous way since the deaths of Mola, Sanjurjo, Primo de Rivera, and Goded left the way open for potential competitors. Franco’s first government assumed the leadership of the state and the head of government. Although Franco ruled with absolute powers, he intended to give the regime a margin of legality with the fundamental laws, so as not to appear to the outside to be an absolute monarch or a king.
Franco instituted a state legitimized only by the Civil War and characterized by extreme authoritarianism. Its most outstanding features were:
- Totalitarianism. The Franco dictatorship started as a model inspired by Italian fascism and German Nazism, and later transitioned from the inspiration of the Falange to the Church. Hence, the system received the name of National Catholicism. Only the existence of a single party and a single official union was allowed, thus eliminating the Constitution of 1931.
- Caudillism. Franco, invested with the title of Caudillo (Leader) of Spain, was the head of state and also the chairman of the government. Moreover, he was Generalissimo of all the armies and national head of the party.
- The design of a centralized, unitary state. Franco abolished the autonomous status and encouraged a Spanish identity.
- Repression of the opposition. The lack of freedom for any opponent of the regime lasted throughout the dictatorial period, which was punished with repression.
- Control of the media, which were subject to rigid censorship and were used as a propaganda machine for Franco.
Pillars of the Regime
The three great institutional pillars of the Franco dictatorship were the army, the single party, and the Catholic Church.
- The army was the most outstanding support of the regime and actively participated in power, since a good part of ministers and civil rulers were career military officers.
- The single party, called the Traditionalist Spanish Falange of the JONS, was commissioned to provide the regime with its ideology, to control the media, and to provide a good part of the charges of the administration.
- The Catholic Church played an important role in legitimizing and constructing the Franco regime, which was defined as a Catholic confessional state. The Church would get very generous public funding, in addition to the predominance of its values in Spanish society.
Social Support
Various social attitudes towards Franco have been identified: support, passivity, and rejection.
- Since its inception, the dictatorship had the support of social and economic elites, who regained the economic, social, and political power lost during the Second Republic. It also had the membership of small and medium landowners in northern Spain.
- The middle classes were a social sector politically embarrassed after the trauma of the war, which made them mostly passive and apolitical.
- While the popular sectors were seen as opposed to the regime, repression and fear led them to political passivity.