Franco

The Routledge Dictionary of Politics, Third Edition

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde (1892–1975) was a Spanish army officer, the youngest general in Europe, when he joined a group of officers in rebellion against the short-lived Second Republic in 1936. During the course of the ensuing Spanish Civil War (1936–39) he rose to pre-eminence among the senior officers of the nationalist army, and was made head both of the army and of the provisional government. His success in these roles, and also his ability to unify the disparate elements, made him the supreme power in Spain once the nationalists had won the Civil War. He ruled Spain as an absolute dictator, as head of state, as prime minister (until 1973), as head of the only legal political party and as supreme commander of the armed forces until his death.

Although he took increasingly less interest in most detailed policies, his ruthless use of well-picked subordinates and his skilful control of mass support allowed him to remain virtually unchallenged, and ensured that his ideology prevailed. He was more or less committed to a corporatism in the style of Mussolini, though much closer both to the Roman Catholic Church and the military which became major supporting institutions to his rule as Caudillo.

Over the nearly 40 years of his rule he changed somewhat both the actual policies and the justifying ideology of his system, allowing Spain slowly to modernize economically and, to a lesser extent, to liberalize socially. There was never a clear theory or ideology, never a substantive ‘Francoism’, but always a firm adherence to a conservative, religious, anti-communist and authoritarian orientation, with the ultimate appeal being to a glorious Spanish past sanctified by the sacrifices of the Civil War. Largely because of Franco’s own preparations, Spain moved easily into a constitutional liberal monarchy on his death, although there were initially a number of attempts at coups d’état in his name which he would almost certainly have rejected were he alive.