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"The military played a critical role in the twentieth century history of the Iberian Peninsula. They triggered and conditioned political developments and became both an important source of support and concern for Portuguese and Spanish governments. This compelling study is a comparative historical analysis of the instruments that governments used to control the military throughout two stages of Iberian recent history: first, Salazar's and Franco's dictatorships and, second, the transitions and early democratic periods (until 1986). In Portugal, the military, which had handed power over to a civilian dictator, Salazar, became a threat for the regime and ended up causing the downfall of the authoritarian Estado Novo with the Carnations revolution in 1974. In Spain the military, which helped Franco to defeat the Republic in 1939 remained loyal to the dictator's principles and posed a threat to democracy, culminating in the 23F coup attempt in 1981. This book explores the discrepancy between the experiences of two countries that share such strong political, social and geographical similarities"--
List of contents
PART I: AMBITIONS AND CHOICES 1. Civil-Military Relations and Policy Instruments 2. An Interdisciplinary Analytical Framework PART II: PORTUGAL 3. History of Contemporary Civil-Military Relations in Portugal 4. The Estado Novo's tools of Government 5. Tools of Government in the Portuguese Transition to Democracy PART III: SPAIN 6. History of Contemporary Civil-Military Relations in Spain 7. Francoist Tools of Government 8. Tools of Government in the Spanish Transition to Democracy PART IV: COMPARISONS AND EXPLANATIONS 9. Comparisons and Explanations 10. Conclusions
About the author
José Javier Olivas is a Fellow and Associate to LSE IDEAS and the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also Co-founder and Editor of Euro Crisis in the Press, as well as Director of the online voting and debate platform Netivist.
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“The analysis of forms of control of the military in these two regimes is novel and makes a useful contribution to the existing literature. This book will be of interest to researchers concerned with the nature of civil-military relations in non-democratic and democratising regimes.” (Thomas O’Brien, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, February, 2016)
Report
"The analysis of forms of control of the military in these two regimes is novel and makes a useful contribution to the existing literature. This book will be of interest to researchers concerned with the nature of civil-military relations in non-democratic and democratising regimes." (Thomas O'Brien, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, February, 2016)
