Francisco Franco's Dictatorship: System and Phases

The Franco Regime: System and Phases

System Features and Bases

Franco's political system was configured as a system characterized by dictatorial concentration of power and suppression of freedoms.

Franco Basics

After the Civil War in April 1939, the victors, led by Francisco Franco, established a dictatorial regime with the following characteristics:

• There was no single constitution, but a set of spread laws: the Fundamental Laws.
• There was a single union: the Trade Union Organization.
• There was only one party: the Falange or Movimiento Nacional.

Franco controlled all branches. The Franco regime was characterized by a conservative and anti-democratic ideology.

Stages of the Franco Dictatorship

• Between 1939 and 1949: International isolation, fall in economic output, harsh living conditions, and unrelenting ideological and political repression.
• Between 1950 and 1959: Largely succeeded in reducing international isolation and enhanced the living conditions of the population.
• Between 1960 and 1972: Robust economic growth and modernization of economic and social structures.
• Between 1973 and 1975: Franco crisis.

Franco's Political Regime (1939-1975)

The political regime established in Spain by General Franco in 1939 lasted until his death in 1975. Its main features were:

• The existence of a single party.
• The rejection of parliamentary democracy, replaced by the so-called organic democracy, in which the popular will was theoretically represented by the family, the municipality, and the union. In practice, the vast majority of solicitors in courts were elected or appointed by the government.
• The lack of freedom of association, expression, and assembly.
• The concentration of powers in the person of Franco.

Economic policy went through an initial stage of self-sufficiency, later adopting the principles of capitalism in the sixties. Foreign policy evolved from support for the Axis during the Second World War and the subsequent isolation to an alliance with the U.S. in the early fifties. In recent years, economic development favored a slight opening of the regime, while opposition to it was particularly evident in the labor and student struggles.

The Franco Regime, 1939–1955

During these years, Spanish life was characterized by the division between winners and losers, political repression, exile of thousands of people, deprivation, and international isolation.