The Franco Dictatorship: A Proposal for Analysis in Terms of Political Cultures

Abstract

This chapter proposes the study of the Franco dictatorship through the prism of the analytical tool of political culture. The main argument is that the aforementioned approach enables us to pose new questions and direct our analytical focus from different angles. Mainly, it allows us to go beyond a confirmation of the internal heterogeneity of the regime to examine the extent to which this was not exclusively an instance of a hybrid structure, but of a political force made up of diverse components—fascists and reactionary nationalists—whose various movements and specific actions all eventually gave shape to the regime. Consequently, the attention is directed to both, the fascistized nature of the dictatorship and actors, each understood as a political culture in itself with its own ambitions, which converted Francoism into a conflictive space in which each of its political cultures struggled to express themselves and gain power.