Contemporary Spanish Politics - Tapa dura

Having been fully revised and updated to reflect the considerable changes in Spain over the last decade, José M. Magone gives a fresh insight into the formal and informal workings of this dynamic southern European democracy. Thoroughly examining Spain’s historical background, political culture, core political institutions and foreign policy making, each chapter provides a research-based overview of the studied topic which can then be used as the basis for further research by students.

Key themes of the book include:

• recent history of Spain after Franco's death
• Spain’s political culture, institutional framework and political economy
• foreign policy making; the reaction to the global anti-terrorist coalition and the Madrid bombings
• policy making process and the system of interest intermediation
• party system and electoral process
• the dynamics of regional/territorial politics and the Basque problem
• external relations with the European Union, the Mediterranean and Latin America
• constitutional reform
• immigration.

New chapters to this edition:

• Interest groups and civil society
• Media and Politics

Richly illustrated with maps and biographical details of key actors and presenting large amounts of statistical and quantative data make this book an indispensable source of information for students, academics and the wider public interested in Spanish politics.

José M.Magone is Professor in Regional and Global Governance at the Berlin School of Economics. He was Reader in European Politics at the University of Hull.  Among his publications are Politics of Southern Europe (2003), The Developing Place of Portugal in the European Union (2004), The New World Architecture (2006)