V.

Government

In the late 1970s the government of Spain underwent a transformation from the authoritarian regime (1939-1975) of Francisco Franco to a limited monarchy with a powerful parliament. A national constitution was adopted in 1978.

A.

Executive and Legislature

The head of state of Spain is a hereditary monarch, who is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Executive power is vested in the president of the government (prime minister), who is proposed by the monarch on the parliament’s approval and is voted into office by the Congress of Deputies. Power is also vested in a Cabinet, or council of ministers. There is also the Council of States, a consultative body.

In 1977 Spain’s unicameral Cortes (parliament) was replaced by a bicameral parliament made up of a 350-member Congress of Deputies and a Senate of 208 directly elected members and 51 special regional representatives. Deputies are popularly elected to four-year terms by universal suffrage of people aged 18 or older, under a system of proportional representation. The directly elected senators are voted to four-year terms on a regional basis. Each mainland province elects 4 senators: another 20 senators come from the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla.

B.

Political Parties

Spain has many political parties. The two major groups in the 1996 and 2000 general elections were the Popular Party (PP), a conservative party that had absorbed the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Party, and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). Other significant parties in parliament include the Democratic and Social Centre, the United Left (a Communist party), and Catalan and Basque nationalist parties. The Basque group, Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA), a Basque separatist organization, use terrorist methods to oppose the government. Batasuna, a radical Basque party, was suspended in August 2002 and then banned the following March. In the March 2004 elections, the PSOE won a 16-seat overall majority in the Congress of Deputies (winning a total of 164 seats); the PP won 148 seats but remained the leading party in the Senate. The 2008 election saw the PSOE take 169 seats and the PP take 154. Although the PSOE made gains in Senate representation the PP still held more than 100 seats..

C.

Judiciary

The judicial system in Spain is governed by the General Council of Judicial Power, presided over by the president of the Supreme Court. The country’s highest tribunal is the Supreme Court of Justice, divided into seven sections, which sits in Madrid. There are 17 territorial High Courts, one in each autonomous region, 52 provincial High Courts, and several lower courts handling penal, employment, and juvenile matters. The country’s other important court is the Constitutional Court, which monitors observance of the Constitution.

D.

Local Government

The 1978 constitution allowed for two types of autonomous regions, each with different powers. Catalonia, the Basque provinces, and Galicia were defined as “historic nationalities” and used a simpler process to achieve autonomy. The process for other regions was slower and more complicated. While the autonomous regions have assumed substantial powers of self-government, the issue of regional versus central governmental power is still under negotiation.

Each of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions elects a unicameral legislative assembly, which selects a president from among its own members. Seven autonomous regions are composed of only one province, the other ten are formed of two or more provinces. Each of the provinces, 50 in all, has an appointed governor and an elected council. Each of the more than 8,000 municipalities is governed by a directly elected council, which elects one of its members as mayor.

E.

Health and Welfare

Life expectancy at birth in Spain in 2008 was 77 years for men and 84 years for women. Infant mortality in 2008 was 4 deaths per 1,000 live births. The Law of Family Subsidy, enacted in 1939, provides Spain’s workers with monthly allowances proportionate to the number of children in the family; the necessary funding is collected from employers and employees. A system of old-age pensions and health and maternity benefits has been in effect since 1949. A fund derived from public collections provides for the support of the poor, nursery schools, and health clinics. In 1997 around 5.85 per cent of government expenditure was spent on health care. More than 50 per cent of the social security budget is spent on retirement pensions; 30 per cent is spent on health services. In 2003 Spain had one doctor for every 313 people and one hospital bed per 263 people.

F.

Defence

Spain maintains well-equipped armed services; compulsory military service was phased out in January 2002 in preparation for a standing army. Since 1989 women have been accepted into all branches of the forces. In 2004 the country had an army of 95,600, a navy of 19,455, including 7,200 marines, and an air force of 22,750. The paramilitary Guardia Civil had a strength of 75,000. The government has close defence ties with the United States, which has maintained naval and air bases in Spain. The country became a member of NATO) in 1982, and reaffirmed that alliance in a public referendum in 1986. One provision of the referendum, however, was a reduction of US troops stationed in Spain.

G.

International Organizations

Spain is a member of the United Nations (UN), the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western European Union, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the Council of Europe. Spain is a signatory of the Schengen Agreement on European border controls.