Democratic weakness and political violence. The case of the Spanish spring in 1936: individuals and incentives
Manuel Álvarez Tardío
Faculty of Law and Political Science
King Juan Carlos University, Madrid
ORCID: 0000-0002-2712-2687
Published: 21/12/2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/ahi.2024.3.2
ABSTRACT: This article deals with political violence in Spain during the first half of 1936. This is the most decisive period for democratisation during the Second Republic (1931-1936). Here, it will be pointed out that analyses of political violence have incurred a recurrent problem: deducing from a theoretical relationship between violence and some factors (economic, social or cultural) the existence of causality that would not require to be proven wrong. A specific case is examined to highlight some important aspects of the circumstances in which political violence is unleashed in the context of the breakdown of democracy. The importance of studying this violence from a point of view that is not restricted by a misleading cause-effect relationship will be shown. On the contrary, this article maintains that the perspective of incentives is capital. That perspective lets us understand the weight of violence in political action when the institutions that must guarantee pluralism are weak or partial, as was the case in the months prior to the Spanish Civil War.
KEYWORDS: Spain, politics, violence, democracy, republic, 20th century.
