Since the death of Franco in 1975, Spain has passed from repression through renewal to democracy, restored for the first time since 1936. Having survived the threat to its very existence in 1981, democratic Spain?now a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?seems as secure as any of its European neighbors. The acces

In few places, contends Professor Arango, do illusions obscure reality as they do in Spain. The Spaniard as well as the foreigner has believed and sustained the myths; the scholar as well as the poet. For the Spaniard, myth became the substitute for action in a world in which Spain was increasingly a nonparticipant. This book analyzes the political system created by Franco. His study continues into the present period of transition between an authoritarian past and a democratic future. The myths put to rest, Spain is viewed as a contemporary modernizing nation and is examined as such.