Making Democratic Citizens in Spain : Civil Society and the Popular Origins of the Transition, 1960-78

A fascinating study of the contribution of ordinary men and women to Spain's democratic transition of the 1970s. Radcliff argues that participants in neighbourhood and other associations experimented with new practices of civic participation that put pressure on the authoritarian state and made the building blocks of a future democratic citizenship The book explores the grass-roots contribution of ordinary men and women to Spain's much-celebrated democratic transition of the 1970s, through the lens of their participation in civic associations founded under the dictatorship. In neighborhood, family and homemaker associations established in an expanding civil society between the early 1960s and the late 1970s, Radcliff argues that participants experimented with new practices of civic participation that put pressure on the authoritarian state and constituted the building blocks of a future democratic citizenship. Whereas most studies of the transition begin with the formal institutional changes of 1976-78, this book situates its origins in a complex process that involved changing state policies, economic and social transformation and a growing culture of participation. In this analysis, the 1978 Constitution marked the culmination, rather than the start, of 'making democratic citizens' and, by extension, of Spain's democracy Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction....Pages 1-18 Dictatorship and Civil Society: Explaining the Roots of a New Associational Milieu....Pages 19-63 “Measuring” Civil Society: The Scope and Vitality of the New Associational Milieu....Pages 64-108 Gender and the Role of Women in the Associational Milieu....Pages 109-154 “What is a Family Association?”: The Civic Discourse of Familiarismo....Pages 155-189 Women and Familiarismo: The Civic Discourse of the Homemaker Associations....Pages 190-234 The Civic Discourse of the Neighborhood Associations of Madrid: From Community Improvement to “Citizen Movement”....Pages 235-271 The Civic Community in Practice: Family and Neighborhood Associations as “Schools of Democracy”....Pages 272-318 Conclusion/Epilogue....Pages 319-331 Back Matter....Pages 332-416 This work examines the contribution of ordinary men and women to Spain's democratic transition of the 1970s. It argues that participants in neighbourhood and other associations tried practices of civic participation that put pressure on the authoritarian state and made the building blocks of a future democratic citizenship