Historia y Política

Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez and Democratic Left: A democratic an Christian utopia for the Spanish Transition

2024-11-06T12:45:07+00:00

During late Francoism, Christian democracy appeared as one of the ideologies with the greatest political options in the new democratic scenario that would open up after Franco’s death. These expectations very soon turned to the figure who at that time embodied the highest representation of this spectrum, Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez, president of Democratic Left (ID). Despite such expectations, the forecasts were never fulfilled. Through unpublished material from Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez’s personal archive, this article aims to take a journey through the history of ID, from when Ruiz-Giménez assumed its presidency in 1969, until the party dissolved in 1979. The objective is to analyze the ideological and strategic problems of the formation, the relations and searches for confluences with other political parties, the difficulties introduced by the Spanish political context and the singular personality of Ruiz-Giménez, in order to understand the reasons for one of the most striking failures of the Transition.

Writing against revolution. France and the negative tradition of the French revolution

2025-04-24T09:08:23+00:00

This article proposes a concept, that of negative tradition, and develops it historically from the example of France and the French Revolution. The objective is to show and explain on the basis of his writings how there are historical traditions that should be understood not so much in a positive key as in a negative or condemnatory one, in this case against or contrary to the French revolutionary event. To this end, the intellectual history and the memory contrary to the French Revolution of the last two centuries are reviewed and the different forms of influence, dialogue and updating among its main representatives are analysed, from Burke, Barruel or De Maistre to contemporary authors such as Secher, Chaunu or the collective work The Black Book of the French Revolution, passing through Taine, Cochin, Gaxotte, Bainville, Maurras or Talmon. Among other things, it is observed that this negative tradition is defined by its dynamism, its discontinuity, its plurality, its complexity, its pragmatic and aggregative character or different forms of porosity with the positive tradition of the French Revolution.

«Buenas tonterías dicen los que estudian». The conferences in the agricultural education law of 1876 as a tool for rural transformation

2025-10-17T07:43:16+00:00

On 1 August 1876, the Law on Agricultural Education was passed. This law was intended to modernise the situation of the primary sector through the instruction of the Spanish peasantry. To this purpose, the Law deployed a wide range of initiatives, among which was the holding of a lecture with agrarian content every Sunday in all the town halls of the country. The aim of this text is to analyse the process of creation and implementation of the agricultural conferences developed under this Law. For this reason, it has been necessary to use various sources, especially primary documentation in archives and newspaper and periodical publications. The article presents the course of this initiative, which essentially took place over four academic years, between 1876 and 1880, showing the difficulties encountered in the implementation of an extremely ambitious experience, as well as the successes obtained during the process.

When the body organizes itself: Organic pluralism and political community in Luigi Sturzo and Ramiro de Maeztu

2025-10-17T07:33:47+00:00

Studies on organicism in interwar Europe have largely focused on identifying convergences and divergences among various models–fascism, social Catholicism–while consistently emphasizing its anti-liberal character and the authoritarian matrix that underpins it. However, there is another history that does not contradict this narrative, but rather complements and enriches it. Organicism is an ambiguous term which, in the context of interwar Europe, did not assume a univocal meaning. It lent itself to interpretations far removed from the authoritarianism that brought an end to the long liberal summer inaugurated after the Franco-Prussian War. Specifically, this pluralist variant called for a dismantling of national sovereignty —the foundational myth of liberal revolutions—based on the reality of intermediate social groups: local communities, trade unions, associations, cooperatives…To follow the metaphor, the various articulations of the body were to possess enough autonomy not to become atrophied by the central nervous system— the State. This article analyzes the pluralist proposals of Luigi Sturzo and Ramiro de Maeztu within a shared context: the experience of the Great War, their time in London and involvement in contemporary intellectual circles, and the Catholic ethos that shaped both thinkers’ political visions

Violence and murder of Spaniards deported to Mauthausen. A quantitative analysis

2026-01-14T11:24:58+00:00

The recovery, access, collection, and addressing of the methodological complexities arising from the study of the mortality recorded at the Nazi concentration camp at Mauthausen have enabled historiography to produce highly precise overall assessments regarding the elevated levels of violence that occurred and were deliberately concealed within the facility. However, the Spanish case remained pending a necessary revision that would situate it within the European debate on Nazi deportation. Building on the ongoing efforts and following a meticulous analysis of the documentation salvaged from the camp; the listings compiled by the American authorities responsible for investigating war crimes in the camp after Liberation; the volumes published by the French Ministry for Veterans and War Victims; the existing and accessible lists of survivors; documentation produced during the post-war period; and the more than twenty databases from projects as ambitious as that of the Austrian Mauthausen Memorial, it has been possible to develop a new analysis of Spanish mortality in the Austrian camp based on an essentially definitive accounting. The results obtained allow for the identification of significant patterns in the murder of Spaniards, an operation concentrated between 1941 and 1942 that became particularly systematic in the Gusen subcamp and in Hartheim Castle. The final outcome of these measures was an extremely high mortality rate among this cohort, which stood at fifteen percentage points above the camp’s average.

Unworthy of the blue shirt: The repression of sexual immorality in women of the Spanish Fascism (1938-1943)

2025-10-17T07:49:24+00:00

The purpose of this article is to explore, from a gender perspective, the way Spanish male fascists interpreted the sexual transgressions committed by their female comrades in the single party FET de las JONS. To achieve this, it draws on a sample of disciplinary files on female Falangists initiated between 1938 and 1943. In these records, the Falangists were accused of being «frivolous», «licentious», or «prostitutes », and consequently processed for «degrading or offensive conduct». The analysis of this documentation yields two main conclusions intended to contribute to the debate on power relations within Spanish fascism. First, that the internal justice of FET-JONS operated as an effective disciplinary mechanism in internal repression against their own members for any violation of the gender order. Second, that the female Falangists, aligned with the victors and beneficiaries of the privileges that their affiliation provided them over ordinary women, were simultaneously victims of the policies and inequality, in the form of a sexual double standard, that they were supporting with their militancy.

«An I that is really a We». Around the idea of a third Spain in Miguel de Unamuno’s thought

2025-10-17T07:54:05+00:00

The idea of the existence of two Spains appears frequently in Miguel de Unamuno’s work. It directly derives from the dualist perspective with which he often viewed existence and according to which he considered that the key to life lies in the confrontation between two realities. Thus, for the Basque intellectual, national life necessarily results from the conflict between two Spains, which acquire different characterisations depending on the issue in dispute or the period under analysis. From this approach, this paper aims to explore how the idea of a third Spain might fit into Unamuno‘s thought as a whole. Through an overview of the development of his interpretation of the confrontation between the two Spains, and an analysis of notions closely linked to it such as civil war, uncivil war, anti-Spain, alterutralidad, and hunos y hotros, this work offers a reflection on whether or not this central concept of Spanish recent history can be found in Unamuno.

Anna Catharina Hofmann: Una modernidad autoritaria. El desarrollismo en la España de Franco (1956-1973), Valencia, Publicacions de la Universitat de Valencia, 2023, 481 págs.

2026-01-14T11:36:49+00:00

Nigel Townson: The Penguin history of modern Spain 1898 to the present, London, Allen Lane, 2023, 608 págs.

2026-01-14T11:37:35+00:00

José Luis Agudín Menéndez: El Siglo Futuro. Un diario carlista en tiempos republicanos (1931-1936), Zaragoza, Publicaciones de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2023, 558 págs.

2026-01-14T11:39:44+00:00

Susana Sueiro Seoane: El anarquista errante. La aventura transatlántica del tipógrafo Pedro Esteve (1865-1925), Madrid, Ambos Mundos, 2024, 702 págs.

2026-01-14T11:43:37+00:00

Christopher Clark: Primavera revolucionaria. La lucha por un mundo nuevo, 1848-1849, Barcelona, Galaxia Gutenberg, 2024, 984 págs.

2026-01-14T11:45:05+00:00

Alejandro Quiroga: Miguel Primo de Rivera. Dictadura, populismo y nación, Barcelona, Crítica, 2022, 416 págs.

2026-01-14T11:47:07+00:00

Miguel Díaz Sánchez: Fronteras de papel. Franquismo y migración interior en la posguerra española (1939-1957), Valencia, Publicaciones de la Universidad de Valencia, 2024, 270 págs.

2026-01-14T11:49:07+00:00

Orden público, policía y vigilancia en la península ibérica, 1867-1926

2026-01-14T10:34:33+00:00

Orden público, policía y vigilancia en la península ibérica, 1867-1926

Prevention and prosecution of crime in the urban space: The Civil Police of Lisbon (1867-1910)

2026-01-14T10:40:22+00:00

This article analyses the action and strategies implemented in Lisbon to prevent and prosecute crime in a period of modernization and growth of the city. Since 1867, the members of a new police force, the Civil Police of Lisbon, patrolled the streets and intervened in the daily life of the population with the function of maintaining order and the security of individuals and property. The police regulations established a very diversified set of activities to be carried out by the police officers, with special emphasis on the prevention and prosecution of crime. Until 1910, the Civil Police developed its own organisational dynamics, increasing the number of its personnel and setting up specialised units, particularly in criminal investigation. This process was similar to that undertaken by police forces in other European and American cities. After the fall of the monarchy, the Civil Police experienced several reforms and was renamed «Civic Police». Using a wide range of sources, statistical data of the time, police and judicial documents, press and literature, this article describes and interprets the formation and consolidation of the Civil Police of Lisbon as the main force for the prevention and repression of crime. It considers its internal dynamics, the constraints on its performance and the relationship of its members with the population, which often resisted their interventions.

Privatization of public order in the Iberian world, late 19th-early 20th century

2026-01-14T10:44:29+00:00

ms of security in Spain and Portugal between the late nineteenth century and the years leading up to the Great War. Drawing on the study of three medium-sized cities in the rural periphery of both countries and on legal, press, and archival sources, it analyses the activities of private security actors and forces, as well as the private use of public force and its potential privatization. The main objectives are, first, to assess whether these groups could have been part of a hybrid public-private model of police deployment and public order management, which played a significant role in extending the state’s repressive capacity and consolidating its administrative apparatus. Second, to evaluate whether this mixed model also contributed substantially to covering peripheral rural areas.

«Modern sovereigns». Alberto Aguilera’s Police Regulation for the Concierges of Madrid (1898)

2026-01-14T10:45:23+00:00

In 1898, Alberto Aguilera, in his capacity as Civil Governor, passed the Police Regulation for the Concierges of Madrid. The main objective of its articles was to take advantage of the potential of these employees in surveillance tasks and turn them into auxiliaries of the authorities. This work draws on legislation as well as on newspaper and judicial sources to study the problematic articulation of police activity and the informal control tasks carried out by the concierges. The piece starts by looking at the context of the shortcomings of the Spanish public security structure in a context marked by rapid urbanisation as well as the centralisation and professionalisation of the state police apparatus. It goes on to analyse Aguilera’s project and pays special attention to the intersection of the public and private spheres, which is evidenced by the assignment of quasi-police tasks to private-sector workers. The article concludes with an examination of the concerns expressed by the neighbourhood about the measure —which was eventually repealed due to the opposition of owners, tenants and concierges— as an invasion of their privacy and rights. The study proves that the processes of modernising public security showed their structural weaknesses with the use of non-police auxiliaries and met with a certain degree of resistance. It also shows that, despite the failure of this initiative, similar laws were passed in the following decades and the use of concierges became ingrained in police culture and practice.

Police practices in a transforming city, Madrid 1908-1923

2026-01-14T10:51:16+00:00

Police forces during Spanish Restauración have been studied primarily in their role as a repressive force of protest and very tangentially in its development as an institution designed to guarantee the law and prosecute crime. This research incorporates approaches applied to other contemporary police systems to address two questions: the extent to which police modernization occurred in Spain between 1908 and 1923 to meet the challenges of the new urban life and how to characterize the Restauración as a regime of rights and liberties in the light of everyday police practices. The case study chosen is the city of Madrid and the primary sources obtained from the court records including police reports, affidavits, and other police, that provides us very rich information on police action. The analysis is divided into three sections. First, the study of the different actors involved in the maintenance of order in the streets, which shows the dependence of the police on other auxiliary figures such as doormen, janitors, street night watchmen. Second, the introduction of new identification technologies following a increasingly interest in exercising control over the identity of citizens. Thirdly, the implementation of crime prevention strategies by judges and security forces based on an excessive use of imprisonment and arrests, mostly executed upon popular classes.

The Guardia Civil in the mirror: The impact of the Spanish gendarmerie model on the creation of the Guarda Nacional Republicana in Portugal, 1910-1926

2026-01-14T10:57:00+00:00

The organization in Portugal of the Guarda Nacional Republicana during the First Republic (1910-1926) meant a milestone in the maintenance of public order because it became the first police with presence in the whole country. Although some scholars have pointed out the influence of some European gendarmerie models on this process, few studies have addressed this topic. This article analyzes the reception, reformulation and effect of the model of the Guardia Civil, and its impact on the foundation and deployment of the GNR. On the one hand, it studies the discourses on the Spanish gendarmerie with the aim of identifying the meanings and representations associated to the idea of the Guardia Civil, as well as the reconceptualization of the Spanish gendarmerie model. On the other hand, the article examines the public policies and legal regulations that shaped the GNR, comparing its characteristics with the Guardia Civil’s features in order to verify to what extent the Portuguese governments were inspired by the Spanish force. It concludes that the Guardia Civil archetype was a major reference in the design of the GNR. The republican elites used this institutional format in a strategic and selective manner, highlighting some of its attributes and removing others. Furthermore, the existence of a number of common traits in both forces that were not present in the French Gendarmerie allows to elaborate an Iberian gendarmerie model, understood as a variation of the ideal type of gendarmerie, which has been built on the French organizational matrix.