The Spanish Restoration: Political System 1874-1895
The Political System of the Spanish Restoration (1874-1895)
The Foundations of the Restoration
The pronouncement of General Martinez Campos in December 1874 meant the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in the person of Isabel II’s son, Alfonso XII. The new political system, configured by Antonio Canovas del Castillo, had a distinctly conservative character and was based on a liberal parliamentary system, but with a barely functioning democracy. Its objectives were focused on the recovery of power by the conservatives, the restoration of the Crown, social order, and the identity and authority of the state.
The Constitution of 1876 and the End of the Wars
The political system of the Restoration intended to overcome some of the endemic problems of the preceding liberal period: the partisan and exclusionary nature of the moderates during the reign of Elizabeth II, military interventionism in politics, and the proliferation of civil strife. The basis of the new system was fixed in the Constitution of 1876, moderate in nature and inspired in part by the Constitution of 1845. It was a more open constitution in which the defense of traditional values such as family, religion, and property would be consistent with the incorporation, in the medium term, of some of the democratic principles of 1868.
The Constitution established the following principles:
- Sovereignty shared between the King and the Cortes. The Cortes were organized into two chambers: the Congress of Deputies (elected by census suffrage, and since 1890 by universal male suffrage) and the Senate (partly chosen by the King, and partly through an indirect system for corporations and major contributors).
- The Crown was acknowledged as one of the pillars of the new regime and was given a set of privileges such as the right of veto, legislative power shared with the Cortes, and the appointment of ministers.
- The Catholic confessional state was restored, as was the budget for worship and clergy. Tolerance towards other religions was maintained.
- Finally, it had a long bill of rights, but its realization was left to ordinary laws, which generally tended to restrict them, especially the rights of the press, expression, association, and assembly.
The stability of the system was favored by the end of the Cuban and Carlist Wars. The restoration of the Bourbons deprived the Carlist cause of much of its hypothetical historical legitimacy, and some Carlists ended up recognizing Alfonso XII. In addition, increased military effort made possible the reduction of Carlist nuclei in Catalonia, and throughout 1875, gradually weakened Navarre and Basque resistance until its total surrender in 1876. An immediate consequence of the Carlist defeat was the final abolition of the foral regime, and the Basques were subject to the payment of taxes and military service common to the rest of the state.
The end of the Carlist War allowed the dispatch of additional troops to Cuba, where in a couple of years, the war ended as a result of both military action and negotiation. In 1878, the Peace of Zanjón was signed, which included a broad amnesty, the abolition of slavery (finally approved in 1886), and the promise of political and administrative reforms for which Cuba would have deputies in the Spanish Cortes. The delay or failure of these reforms would lead to the start of a new conflict in 1879 (the Little War) and the subsequent uprising of 1895.
The Alternation in Power
Bipartisanship and the “Pacific Turn”
The political system of the Restoration was based on the existence of two major parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, which coincided essentially in ideology but consensually assumed two complementary roles. Both parties came together in defense of the monarchy, the Constitution, private property, and the consolidation of the liberal state, unitary and centralist. Both were parties of minorities, of notables, who had periodic distribution centers and committees throughout Spanish territory.
The social background of both parties was fairly homogeneous and fed primarily by economic elites and the middle class, though there was a greater number of landowners among conservatives and professionals among liberals.
As for their political activity, the differences were minimal. Conservatives were more prone to political stagnation and the defense of the Church and the social order, while liberals were more inclined to a more progressive reformism and secular character. But, in practice, the performance of both parties in power did not differ much, as there was a tacit agreement never to enact a law that would force the other party to abolish it when it returned to the government.
The Liberal-Conservative Party was organized around its leader Antonio Canovas del Castillo and brought together the most conservative and traditional sectors of society (with the exception of the Carlists and the most radical fundamentalists). The Liberal-Fusionist Party, led by Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, was comprised of former progressives, unionists, and some former moderate Republicans.
For the exercise of government, regular alternation in power between the two main options was provided, aimed at ensuring institutional stability through the participation in power of the two families of liberalism. The shift was ensured because the electoral system reversed the specific terms of a parliamentary scheme, in which the majority force in an election process received the request from the monarch to rule. During the Restoration, when the ruling party suffered a process of political erosion and lost the confidence of the Cortes, the monarch called the head of the opposition party to form a government. Then the new chief of staff called elections in order to build a parliamentary majority sufficient to provide stable power. Fraudulent outcomes and cacique mechanisms ensured that they were always favorable to the government.
Electoral Manipulation and Caciquismo
The alternation in government was made possible by a corrupt and manipulative electoral system that did not hesitate to buy votes, falsify records, and use coercive practices on the electorate, using the influence and economic power of certain individuals on society (caciques). The adulteration of the vote was achieved by restoring the census suffrage, the more favorable treatment given to rural districts compared to urban ones, and, especially, by manipulation and electoral chicanery.
The control of the electoral process was exercised from two institutions: the Minister of the Interior and local politicians. This minister was, in fact, the one who elaborated the list of candidates who should be chosen (the encasillado) and who appointed the “nursery” members (those from outside the district). Civil Governors forwarded the list of “ministerial” candidates to the mayors and caciques, and the entire administrative apparatus was placed at their disposal to guarantee their election.
A whole range of electoral chicanery helped in achieving this goal: this is what is known as the pucherazo, that is, the systematic falsification of election results. Thus, to get the choice of the gubernatorial candidate, they did not hesitate to falsify the census (including dead people or preventing the living from voting), manipulate the tally sheets, buy votes, and threaten the electorate with coercion of any kind (stopping the propaganda of the opposition, intimidating its supporters, or not allowing auditors, etc.).