Catholic Roots and Democratic Flowers Political Systems in Spain and Portugal

Subjects:

• Political Science » Comparative Politics
• Multicultural Studies » European Studies

Reviews:

• Catholic Roots and Democratic Flowers is an admirable textbook for students who are entering a study of the history and politics of the Iberian countries. Its low-key, balanced style and its careful, restrained judgements will help the introductory student to approach phenomena about which they know little without any burdern of ideological memories that may no longer be pertinent. The inquisitive student might even ask the most important question about contemporary Iberia: Given where they were not so long ago, how did they get to where they are today? It might also tempt the senior sociologist or political scientist who has paid little attention to Spain or Portugal in the last wuarter century to ask the same question and perhaps to revise some obsolete stereotypes about the two countries, about Iberian Catholicism, about how to "modernize," and about what it means to be European.
  —Political Science Quarterly Summer 2002

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Introduction
• The Long Sweep of Iberian History
• The Franco and Salazar Regimes
• The Transitions to Democracy
• Political Culture: The Iberian Melody
• Interest Groups and the Political Process
• Political Parties and Elections
• Government and the Role of the State
• Public Policy: Domestic and Foreign
• Conclusion: Roots and Flowers