The role of coalitions in the Spanish and Portuguese transition to democracy 1974-1978

• Main Author: Veiga, I.
• Published: University College London (University of London) 2012
• Subjects: 320
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.625888

This project examines how coalitions and their trajectories help to explain the variations in regime changes and the variations in the Portuguese and Spanish democratic outcome, during the period 1974-1978. After 48 years of dictatorship, Portugal’s political regime entered a new phase with the coup d’état of April 1974. At more or less the same time, Spain was going through political transformations of a comparable nature. If we think about the Spanish case, which has served as a prototype for democratization studies, the contrast with Portugal is impressive. The Portuguese case involved more than a linear transition to democracy: a socialist revolutionary process ended in a democratic outcome. The trajectories are the main concern: How is it that two countries that left an authoritarian regime and attained democratic stability did so via such different processes? Following the comparative-historical analysis path and the contentious politics framework, I will proceed with a study on coalitions in episodes of contention. I will show that the concatenation of certain causal mechanisms produced different coalition types. Event Analysis is employed to examine processes and mechanisms. First, I address what causal mechanisms propelled coalitions. Second, I focus on the role of coalitions in the processes of regime change. I argue that the causal mechanisms outbidding, diffusion, brokerage, boundary activation, boundary de-activation, defection, and threat generated effects that rearranged the initial configurations of institutions and political actors leading to a democratic outcome.