Crisis and moderation in the labour movement during political change in spain: story or correlate?

Abstract

We analyze the keys of the story about social attitudes during the transition to Spanish democracy which has enjoyed notable acceptance and durability over the years. Constructed from the field of political sociology, it established the idea that the social attitude of moderation was predominant in society. The first section examines the correlation that he established between the
economic crisis and moderation during the political change so that the new economic scenario would act as an explanatory factor for political «disenchantment». In the following section, we analyze the problems that derive, on the one hand, from a functionalist interpretation of this type when it comes to offering a convincing explanation of the evolution of workers' consciousness in the Spanish case and, on the other hand, from the methodological deficiency represented by labeling moderation and radicalism in the logic of a false dilemma, as the only two existing positions, unalterable over time and regardless of the changes produced in a context marked by the dynamism and the very contingent nature of the political process.