Search results for ""author javier moreno-luzon""

This book is a new short history of Spain during a crucial period, the reign of Alfonso XIII (1902-1931). Traditionally, this has been seen as a time that epitomised the worst features of 'old Spain': a backward country, poor and chronically unequal, with a government dominated by a tiny oligarchy ruling over a corrupt system -- an anomaly in Western Europe. However, this study, in line with the most recent historiography, offers a new insight into the period as one that was actually characterised by extensive modernisation in Spanish society and politics. Spain experienced, albeit in an unbalanced way, many of the changes already in progress in other European countries, such as urbanisation, industrialisation, mass migration, the rise in literacy, secularisation, and the emergence of mass politics. It then suffered profound conflicts associated with these changes, and a political dynamic of reform and reaction, revolution and counter-revolution. The book is divided into four main sections, dealing, chronologically, with the beginnings of the regenerationist era, the climax of the liberal monarchy, conflicts during the crisis of liberalism, and the military dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. Primarily a political history, it also touches on social, cultural and economic issues, and offers a comparative European perspective. Last but not least, there is a special interest in the problems of nation-building, a central theme of the period, and the competition between different versions of Spanish nationalism and regional nationalist movements -- above all, Catalanism and Basque nationalism. Overall, the Spanish situation is presented here not as a unique case but as a variation within the difficulties that were encountered all across continental Europe in achieving the transition from classical liberalism to mass democracy.

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Los himnos y las banderas sirven para identificar a casi todas las instituciones con arraigo popular y desde luego también a las naciones y a los estados, pero en el caso de estos últimos esos emblemas están sometidos a cambios más o menos radicales en función de las situaciones políticas y los acontecimientos históricos que les afectan. Este libro, dotado de un abundante aparato de imágenes a todo color , trata de esa identificación simbólica entre pueblos y comunidades , especialmente relacionados con la historia de España , a través de la fuerza expresiva de unos versos orquestados musicalmente, o del flamear al viento de unas banderas, por los que no solo se cataliza la emoción patriótica, sino también las ideologías que aúnan las voluntades de millones de individuos ., y por las que se llega a ofrecer hasta la vida.

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Electoral and parliamentary arenas play a crucial role in the configuration and dynamics of modern polities. This book explores the practices of citizenship and unveils the fabric of representation in the Iberian countries, during a significant period of liberal politics, that is, from its apogee to its collapse (from the 1870s to the 1920s). Part One examines the evolution of electoral norms and behaviour, as well as the recruitment profile of MPs. Portugal and Spain share fundamental features, such as the extensive clientelistic mobilisation of voters, the dissemination of fraud and corruption, the supremacy of governmental parties and the prevalence of the politics of notables. Part Two focuses on Parliament, questioning constitutional models, internal procedures, legislative action and political activity, as well as coetaneous perceptions and images of the institution and its actors as portrayed in novels, newspaper chronicles, cartoons and photographic reports. This collection of essays offers a detailed and cogent analysis, as well as a vivid picture, of the politics of representation in Portuguese and Spanish liberalism, revealing significant similarities and differences through cross-country comparisons.

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