Spanish republicanism and the idea of democracy between the death of franco and the elections of 1977

Abstract

During the Seventies, the final crisis of Franco’s regime determined the political action of the anti-francoist opposition. Spanish republicanism, represented by the republican party ARDE (Acción Republicana Democrática Española) began its own restructuring in Spain. As we are going to demonstrate along this paper, the idea of democracy was one of the main topics in the debates, due to its relevance in the republican discourse and political thought. Moreover, the idea of democracy will allow us to consider the main differences between republicans and the use of this ideadeveloped by the post-francoist institutions.