Democracy in constituent moments: A political-fhilosophical exploration of the 1977–78 constitutional debate in Spain

Abstract

This research focuses on the Spanish constitutional debate of 1977–78. It checks how some of the main arguments and ideas set out there had a large influence on the renewal of the political vocabulary of the nation. After an initial political change from dictatorship between 1975 and 1977 to calling the first general election in June 1977, Parliament, in its deliberative sessions, became the main source of modernization of both political language and institutions. I argue that by analyzing the arguments presented in that constitutional debate the meanings of a cluster of political concepts such as freedom, democracy, equality, pluralism, sovereignty, political reform, political autonomy, nation, nationalities (nacionalidades), self-rule, and self-determination can be brought to light.

Their semantic changes informed the design of the country’s new political institutions. From a methodological point of view this research assumes an interdisciplinary rationale that combines political philosophy, conceptual history, and parliamentary history. It suggests an approach to political philosophy that attends to the argumentative rhetoric of a constituent assembly. Further, it proposes to understand conceptual history from the perspective of, first, the historical semantics of the two constituent moments of twentieth-century Spain, 1931 and 1977–78 studied in chapter one and chapter two, and second, of the constitutional sessions held between May and October 1978 as analyzed from chapters three to six.

I argue that the political ideas and reflections debated in the Constituent Assembly are relevant to political philosophy. In that sense, political philosophy is understood in this study as an approach to investigate the argumentative usages of classic political concepts in the light of the controversies raised during the constitutional sessions.