Word: francos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Warring Factions. Whoever, and whatever, comes after Franco will not have an easy time of it. Since the civil war, Franco has been the absolute authority in a land whose citizens are by nature anarchists. The keynote of his rule has been "paz social," but even the wily Caudillo has been hard-pressed at times to keep peace amid the warring factions that have made up his regime...
...civil war has faded, the factions and their causes have changed, but the battles go on. There are now three political power spheres that are almost bound to collide in their rush to try to fill the post-Franco vacuum. Strangely enough, the Movimiento Nacional is not one of them. It has been reduced by Franco to a powerless bureaucracy, without credo and virtually without following, deprived even of the fascist ideals on which it was founded...
Division of Powers. There is a growing possibility that Franco himself may step in to smooth the transition. He is aware of the problems that his death will create, and, painful though it may be, finally seems to be doing something to try to lessen them. Three times in the past 18 months, his speeches have referred to the need to "institutionalize" the regime. With his approval, the first tentative drafts of a new "institutional law" were debated behind the closed doors of last year's final Cabinet meeting...
...share of Franco's powers to a premier. According to high government officials, there is unanimous agreement, at least within the Cabinet, that Franco's powers should be divided so that his death will not paralyze the regime. But there is no agreement yet, nor any indication from Franco, on when or how the pre mier should be chosen. The liberals in Franco's Cabinet favor direct popular election, would like to see the premier removed entirely from Franco's control, empowered to choose his own Cabinet and held responsible only to an enlarged and more...
...most important factor. It is to the length of one man's life, and the rapidity of his action, that the continuity of Spain's economic, social and political advancement is tied. True democracy in the Western sense may not be on the horizon, for Franco believes - and many of his enemies agree - that Spaniards are so strong-willed that they need a firm hand to keep them in line. The fear is that if Franco disap pears before he has put his house in order, the social fabric of Spain will be stretched to its limit...