Half a Century of Socioeconomic Transformations in Spain: Ambiguous Results

The article explores the evolution of the Spanish model of social development over the last half century. Spain currently attracts increased attention from the international expert community for two main reasons. Firstly, against the backdrop of stagnation in most EU members, the Spanish economy has demonstrated growth rates three to four times higher than the eurozone countries, which has given rise to the “Spanish economic miracle” narrative. Secondly, the 50th anniversary of the end of Franco’s dictatorship and the beginning of Spain’s transition to a constitutional form of government and the implementation of deep political and socio-economic reforms of a bourgeois democratic nature. This kind of chronological coincidence poses a number of questions for researchers: to what extent the current economic boom is a consequence of the reforms carried out; what are the real results of several waves of Spanish modernization; how significant is the half-century experience of post-Franco evolution for Spain itself and in a broader international context? The authors, based on previously conducted research and the latest statistical data and expert assessments, offer their own interpretation of the identified key problems of Spain’s development. Moreover, the socio-economic situation of the Spanish state is the object of intense ideological and political struggle and irreconcilable expert assessments in Spain and abroad.

post-Franco Spain, stages of modernization, crisis shocks, “extensive development model”, internal and external factors of economic growth and slowdown