Limits to redistribution in late democratic transitions: the case of Spain

This chapter reviews the experience of one country from the European periphery, Spain, in the period 1960 to 1990. It addresses the possibilities to build up an operative welfare state after recent democratization—past the golden age of economic growth in Western economies, and during the second globalization. The new context made it difficult to develop determined redistributive policies where they had been absent before. Economic distress, increasing capital mobility, and new tax ideas challenged the chances of progressive taxation. Furthermore, the recent dictatorship cast long-lasting shadows in the new representative institutions. This study of the Spanish experience is thus an analysis of time-specific and polity-specific constraints on redistribution, which other new democracies might have faced or could encounter in the near future