Organizative roots of the Spanish politics. The Spanish catch all/cartel parties inside

Abstract

The original model and organic growth of Spanish political parties through their spread nationwide during the early stages of the country’s transition to democracy (1973-83) conditioned these parties to move towards centralized organizational models in which political and staff decisions were left to the parties’ core leadership, a situation driven by a political climate dominated by the fear of instability. The phase which saw the institutionalization of political parties, as of 1983, coincided with the construction of the so-called States of the Autonomous Regions and reforms to the civil service, system of Justice and savings banks which yielded vast numbers of selective incentives (paid public appointments) in politics, reinforcing the trend for centralization. These reforms were developed in the form of changes to inside regulations on the functioning
of parties which reduced internal controls, leading to the extension of the intervals between party conferences, the proliferation of underused national executive committees, the supreme control of leaders over the composition of candidate lists, and so on. Over the long term, this has resulted in low quality politics marred by cases of corruption that does not attract or connect with society and faces difficulties in renewing its programmes and leaders. The political sphere’s response is currently characterized by the absolute centralization of decisions — within the PP — and pilot primary elections to choose candidates to head-lists, which in reality reinforce the power of inside party circles and further increase the bureaucratization of party politics.