Between province and Parliament. Growth and decline of UCD in Albacete, 1977-1982

Abstract

The following article aims at deepening the study of the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) as a political project that joined two parallel proposals: orders from above and concerns from below. Despite the importance of said political party during the democratic transition, there are many vague aspects that still remain unexplained—one of those pending elements is studying how relationships were established between leaders in Madrid and the social bases which were responsible for creating the party on the provincial level. Previous studies have related the origin of the party to the elites that lead party strategies from the capital of the country—disregarding all social support in the provinces. For that reason, the present article attempts to analyse the rise and consolidation of the UCD coalition from the time when its members were labeled as taxi parties until its fall in the 1980s.