Spanish parliamentarism

Several prosopographical studies[4] have been carried out on the deputies, senators or procurators in Cortes —and in general, of the bureaucratic elites— in different periods, detecting the systematic repetition of the same families —representing different parties—, in addition to other professional and formative traits.

Inaugurating the characteristics of contemporary liberal parliamentarism (national sovereignty, universal suffrage, separation of powers, recognition of rights), the Cortes of Cadiz stood out for their vital debates and the revolutionary nature of their legislation.

After the initial moderate reform proposals of the so-called jovellanists (Antonio de Capmany) were overwhelmed, the Cadiz deputies were politically divided into two tendencies: liberals and absolutists.

The Pronunciamiento of Riego (in Cabezas de San Juan, January 1, 1820) put an end to the first absolutist period of Ferdinand VII, who shortly after returning to Spain had dissolved the Cortes and declared the Cadiz legislation null and void (May 4, 1814).

There were two convocations (1820[11] and 1822) in which the deputies were elected with the current constitutional criteria (universal male indirect suffrage and the same constituencies, including the representation of the American Spaniards, whose territory was in the midst of a war for independence).

The matter of the diplomatic notes issued was submitted to the Cortes for deliberation; when they were rejected by both the Congress and the Government, they gave reason to the powers of the Holy Alliance to intervene in defense of royal absolutism and to commission France to invade Spain with the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis.

Appealing to the old customs and laws of Castile, Fernando VII summoned the Cortes to swear in his daughter Isabel (the future Isabella II of Spain) as Princess of Asturias.

[10] In the context of the end of his reign, when the rapprochement between the more moderate elements of the absolutists and the liberals was taking place, this convocation was seen as a symptom of political openness, which was confirmed in the following period.

The Cortes of Madrid of 1834,[12] under the regency of Maria Christina, were convened by means of a Royal Statute for the convocation of the general Cortes of the Kingdom, a quasi-constitutional text (of the type of carta otorgada) under whose conditions the parliamentary life of the reign of Isabella II began, in the midst of the first Carlist war and characterized by the alternation in power, through pronunciamiento of military men linked to political groups (the so-called "espadones" or "ayacuchos"), of moderate and progressive liberals.

In the Cortes of 1867 the moderate predominance left practically no parliamentary representation to the Unionists, thus diminishing the political base of the regime, in the midst of a growing opposition, which organized itself outside the system (night of San Daniel, Pact of Ostende).

The coup d'état of Pavia (January 3, 1874), which violently broke into the Cortes, and the subsequent dictatorship of Serrano, suspended the democratic institutional life.

The political system of the Restoration was strongly criticized, especially since the disaster of 1898, when people began to speak of "regenerationism" (Joaquín Costa, Oligarquía y caciquismo, Gumersindo de Azcárate, El régimen parlamentario en la práctica).

The political system lived in crisis until Primo de Rivera's coup d'état (September 13, 1923), which among other things was a way to avoid the scandal of the parliamentary investigation of the Annual disaster of 1921 (Picasso report of 1922–1923).

As notable exceptions were the obtaining of a deputy's seat by Pablo Iglesias (1910) or the electoral success of the Lliga Regionalista (1901), in both cases in strongly urbanized and industrialized constituencies, less influenced by the caciquismo.

[24] Parliamentary oratory reached its highest historical level with debates such as the recognition of the right to autonomy of the regions (a problem that Ortega considered unsolvable, coining the concept of "conllevancia") or that of women's suffrage (between Clara Campoamor and Victoria Kent).

From 1942 onwards, the so-called Cortes Españolas functioned, which gave institutional support to Franco's personal dictatorship, especially as the initial totalitarian rhetoric was abandoned.

The 1977 elections brought to parliament several generations of politicians who had not had the opportunity to experience parliamentary life (Felipe González, Enrique Tierno, Miquel Roca, Xabier Arzallus, Josep Benet, Joaquín Satrústegui, Lluís Maria Xirinacs, Juan María Bandrés), as well as some survivors of the 1936 generation (almost all of them from the Communist Party): Santiago Carrillo, Dolores Ibárruri, the poet Rafael Alberti; José María Gil-Robles, who ran for the Christian Democracy of Joaquín Ruiz Jiménez, did not obtain any representation, nor did the extreme right) and some ex-Francoist politicians (around Manuel Fraga or Adolfo Suárez, depending on their degree of openness).

The opening of the nineteen autonomous parliaments has multiplied Spanish parliamentary life, and has produced some of the episodes of greatest political tension: the Ibarretxe plan and the reform of the Statute of Catalonia.

[32] The most relevant moment of this period was the attempted coup d'état, through the assault on Congress during the vote for the investiture of Calvo-Sotelo, after the resignation of Adolfo Suárez.