Post by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora (Conrica) on Feb 24, 2012 13:43:57 GMT
3. A Constitution of Justice
The Spanish Constitution of 1931 meant the beginning of the Second Spanish Republic, the second period of Spanish history to date in which the election of both the positions of Head of State and Head of government were democratic. It was effective from 1931 until 1939. The Republic " was the culmination of a process of mass mobilisation and opposition to the old politics of notables."[1]
According to the historian Mary Vincent the Constitution envisaged "a reforming regime with an explicit and self-conscious view of what modernising Spain should entail. A secular state operating according to the rule of law with an admittedly ill-defined sense of social justice would open the way for an educated body of citizens to enjoy 'European' prosperity and freedom."[2]
A constitutional draft prepared by a commission under a reformist Catholic lawyer Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo having been rejected , an amended draft was approved by the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1931. It created a secular democratic system based on equal rights for all citizens, with provision for regional autonomy. It introduced female suffrage, civil marriage and divorce. It permitted the state to expropriate private property, with compensation, for reasons of broader social utility. It also established free, obligatory, secular education for all and dissolved the Jesuits. According to Frances Lannon however, the articles on property and religion, with their exaltation of state power and disregard for civil rights, "virtually destroyed any prospect there had been for the development of a Catholic, conservative, Republicanism."[3]
The constitution, essentially establishing an anticlerical government, in general broadly accorded civil liberties, but insisted on strict separation of church and state - which proved controversial for Catholics. Commentators have noted that this hostile approach to church-state relations, and claim it was a significant cause of the breakdown of of the republic and of the civil war. Yet these commentators tend to be enabler voices for francoist forces hell bent on justifying their absurd anti-secularism.
The Second Spanish Republic lasted from April 14, 1931 to July 18, 1936 (military uprising) or April 1, 1939 (republican defeat by Francoist rebel forces).
Bibliography:
[1] Francisco J.Romero Salvado, Politics and Society in Spain 1898-1998 p.69
[2] Mary Vincent, University of Sheffield, review of Romero's Politics and Society in Spain 1898-1998 , 'Reviews in History' April 2000
[3] Frances Lannon, p.20 the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 ISBN 978-1-84176-369-9[/size]