Why Democracy Failed

Simpson, James; Carmona, Juan

doi:10.1017/9781108766999

Cited by 20 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 129 publications

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“…The SCW started in 1936 as a result of a failed military coup, by an extreme right‐wing faction of the army, against the legally constituted Republican government formed in 1931. The war came after a period of heightened social and political polarization, which, in spite of internal differences, led to a clear‐cut divide: Left, that is, Republican/loyalist, versus Right, that is, Nationalist/rebel (e.g., Balcells, 2017; Domenech, 2013; Simpson & Carmona, 2020). The coup rapidly split the army and the territory into two camps.…”

Section: The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)mentioning

confidence: 99%

War and city size: The asymmetric effects of the Spanish Civil War

González‐Val

Silvestre

2023

Journal of Regional Science

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Populations are affected by shocks of different kinds, and wars, a priori, may be among the most prominent. This article studies the effect of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) shock on the distribution of population, especially on cities. One of the main contributions of this study is that it underlines the importance of distinguishing between winning and losing sides, an aspect which until now has been largely overlooked. While previous research on war shocks has also tended to be concerned with inter‐state wars, this paper concentrates on a civil war. We take advantage of a new, long‐term, annual data set. Our results show that, overall, the Spanish Civil War did not have a significant effect on city growth. However, we also find a significant and negative effect in the growth of cities that aligned themselves with the losing side. These results are robust to heterogeneity in the effect of the war shock, measured as war severity and duration. Although short lived, the temporary effect on growth results in a permanent effect on the size of cities on the losing side.

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Section: The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)mentioning

confidence: 99%

War and city size: The asymmetric effects of the Spanish Civil War

González‐Val

Silvestre

2023

Journal of Regional Science

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A Difficult Consensus: The Making of the Spanish Welfare State

Espuelas

2022

Standard of Living

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Before 1977, the Spanish government was unable (or unwilling) to increase taxation to finance new social programs. As an alternative to this lack of fiscal capacity, Spanish policy makers in the early 20th century promoted contributive social insurance schemes (mostly financed from employers' and employees' contributions). To avoid social conflict in rural areas, rural laborers were also included in these programs. This, however, generated strong business opposition, especially from rural landowners and small-sized, labor intensive businesses (which were predominant in Spain). With the advent of democracy in 1931 new social plans were devised, but redistribution demands focused on land reform. After the Spanish civil war, Franco's dictatorship consolidated a conservative social insurance model. Social benefits were kept very low and funding relied on employers' and employees' compulsory contributions. Labor movement repression and trade protectionism allowed companies to easily transfer the cost of social insurance to wages and consumer prices. The introduction of income tax, after the restoration of democracy in 1977, gave way to a new social protection model. Taxfunded, non-contributory programs increased and social protection was extended to those without stable ties to the labor market. By 1977 wage dispersion had replaced property incomes concentration -particularly land ownership-as the main source of income inequality, and demands for tax-and-transfer redistribution replaced 1930s expropriation demands. Social spending growth, however, stagnated after the signing of the Maastricht treaty, before Spain reached the European levels.

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Inequality and Poverty

Prados de la Escosura

2024

Frontiers in Economic History

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This chapter assesses how the rewards of sustained economic growth were distributed over time. The evolution of income inequality resembles a wide inverted U with a peak in 1916, and a Kuznets curve results when the Gini coefficient is plotted against real per capita income. The functional distribution of income led personal income distribution until the early 1950s, while the dispersion of labour incomes took over from then onwards. Although growth and inequality do not move together over time, in the last century, the main phases of economic growth went hand-in-hand with inequality decline. The substantial fall in absolute poverty resulted from growth but also from inequality reduction during the interwar period and the late 1950s, and was eradicated by 1975.

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Why Democracy Failed

Cited by 20 publications

References 129 publications

War and city size: The asymmetric effects of the Spanish Civil War

War and city size: The asymmetric effects of the Spanish Civil War

A Difficult Consensus: The Making of the Spanish Welfare State

Inequality and Poverty

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