"Consolidating democracy: Spanish national interest and accession to the EU"

Breckinridge, Robert E. (1993) "Consolidating democracy: Spanish national interest and accession to the EU". In: UNSPECIFIED, Washington, DC. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The hypothesis to be investigated is that actors in an emerging political system will look for support and rewards not only within the society, but also outside. To evaluate this hypothesis, data will be analyzed to determine whether or not actors in Spain sought membershipin the European Community as a reward and a support for democracy. Evidence to support this hypothesis includes statements by segments of Spanish society that they favored membership in the EC for the support it would provide for democracy, not simply for economic reasons. Such statements would indicate they were looking outside Spain for support. Short of these explicit statements, support of EC membership for different reasons, in effect, allowed those segments seeking to consolidate democracy to use EC membership as a support for doing so. In other words, the desire of any segment of society for accession allowed the actors charged with consolidation to seek support from the Community through membership, if they so desired. To falsify this hypothesis, the evidence would have to indicate no belief that accession would support democracy. Thus, the actors would not be seeking such outside support. Membership would be for economic reasons only, with only economic impacts on the society. In this paper, the Spanish transition to democracy will be discussed briefly. Subsequently, the positions of various segments of Spanish society toward membership in the EC will be presented. These segments include industry, agriculture, fishing, political parties, governments, and trade unions. Finally, the evidence will be analyzed and the hypothesis evaluated.

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