This book analyzes the patterns of continuity and change and provides a nuanced, critical evaluation of the concept of a ‘second transition’. Three broad questions are addressed. First, to what degree do the developments under Zapatero’s Socialist government represent a departure from prior patterns of Spanish politics? Second, what accounts for the continuities and departures? Finally, the project begins to assess the implications of these developments. Are there lasting effects, for example, on political participation, electoral alignments, interparty and inter-regional relations more broadly?
This book was published as a special issue of South European Society & Politics.
Bonnie N. Field is Assistant Professor of Global Studies at Bentley University, Massachusetts, USA. She has published articles in Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Democratization, PS: Political Science and Politics, Party Politics, Revista Española de Ciencia Política, and Electoral Studies. She is co-editor (with Kerstin Hamann) of Democracy and Institutional Development: Spain in Comparative Theoretical Perspective, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008.