Trends in the Evolution of the Party System in Spain in the Post-Franco Period

Spain in the post-Franco period developed bipolar party system, which was defined by the political and ideological rivalry of two most dominant factions: conservatives and social-democrats. The rest of the parties for the time were no more than allies and supporters of the primary ones. However, eventually new alliances were able to capitalize on the crisis of the old parties and shake the dominance of the established political system. Major factors of the change were the difficult economical circumstances created by the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Unsatisfied with the solutions proposed by the two major parties, general population turned to the ones with new ideas. The next step of development turned out to be a multiparty model with wider involvement of new alternative “actors”, which seems to be a long-term trend. Author points out high complexity of the formation of monoparty cabinets of ministers in the future, the creation of government coalitions becomes inevitable. The conclusion is drawn that due to the absence of a “coalition culture”, the development of which was not necessary before, as well as the noticeable polarization of political forces and the growth of mutual rejection at the level of leaders and party elites, the solution of this task in modern Spanish realities threatens to turn into an endless political marathon and is fraught with a significant increase in political instability in the coming years.