The Cortes Generales (English: "General Courts") is the Spanish legislature. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house, and the Senate, the upper house. The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution. However, because Spain is a European Union (EU) member-state, it shares its legislative authority with the council and parliament of the EU.
History of the Cortes
Origins: the Feudal Age (8th-12th centuries)
The system of Cortes started in the Middle Age with the appearance of the feudalism. A Corte was an advisory council made up by the feudal lords . The King had the ability to call and dismiss them, but, as the lords of the Corte had the army and the money, the King usually signed treaties with them to pass bills for war at the cost of concessions to the lords and the Cortes.
The rise of the bourgeoisie (12th-15th centuries)
With the reappearance of the cities near the 12th century, a new social class started to grow: people living in the cities were neither vassals (servants of feudal lords) nor nobles themselves. Furthermore, the nobles were experiencing very hard economic times due to the Reconquista; so now the bourgeoisie (Spanish burguesía, from burgo, city) had the money and thus the power. It's somehow happy to see that things have always been as they are now: who has the money has the power. So the King started admitting representatives from the cities to the Cortes in order to get more money for the Reconquista. The frequent payoffs were the Fueros, grants of authonomy to the cities and their inhabitants. At this time the Cortes already had the power to oppose the King's decisions, thus effectively vetoing them. In addition, some representatives (elected from the Corte members by itself) were permanent advisors to the King, even when the Corte was not in session.
The Catholic Monarchs (15th century)
Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic Monarchs, started a specific policy to diminish the power of the bourgeoisie and nobility. They greatly reduced the powers of the Cortes to the point they simply rubberstamped monarch's acts, and brought the nobility to their side. One of the major points of friction between the Cortes and the monarchs was the power of rising and lowering taxes. It was the only matter that the Cortes had under some direct control; when Queen Isabella wanted to fund Christopher Columbus's trip, she had a hard time battling with the bourgeoisie to get the Cortes' approval.
The Imperial Cortes (16th-17th centuries)
The role of the Cortes during the Spanish Empire was mainly to rubberstamp the decisions of the ruling monarch. However, they had some power over economic and American affairs, especially taxes. The Senate appeared here, as a king-appointed legislature, in contrast to the bourgueois lower house. The Siglo de oro, Spanish Golden Age of literacy, was a Dark Age in Spanish politics: Netherlands declared itself independent and started a war. Some of the last Habsburg monarchs did not rule the country, but left this task in the hands of viceroys governing in their name, the most famous being the Count-Duke of Olivares, Philip IV's viceroy. This allowed the Cortes to became more influential, even when they did not opposse to King's decisions (or viceroys' decisions in the name of the King).
The First Republic Parliament (1873-1874)
When the monarchy was overthrown, the King of Spain was forced into exile. The Senate was abolished because it had been appointed by the King. A republic was proclaimed and the Congress of Deputies members started writing a Constitution. The new regime was supposed to become a federal republic, with the power of Parliament being nearly supreme (see parliamentary supremacy, although Spain did not use the Westminster system). However, due to many problems Spain was not ready to become a republic; after several crises the republic collapsed, and the monarchy was restored.
The Restoration Cortes (1874-1930)
The regime just after the First Republic is called the Restoration. It was a constitutional monarchy, with the King as a rubberstamp to the Cortes' acts. The Senate was restored as an elected House the King could appoint senators for.
Little after the Soviet revolution , the Spanish politic parties started polarizing, and the left-winged PCE and PSOE blamed the Government for supposed election cheating (the Government denied any cheats). In the meantime, some Restoration leaders were murdered (presumably by extreme leftists). Deprived of that leaders, the regime entered a general crisis leading to a dictatorship (1921-1930) and to the establishment of the Second Republic. The Senate was abolished during the dictatorship.
The Second Republic Parliament (1930-1939)
The Second Spanish Republic was established as a presidential republic , with the President of Republic being the Head of State. He had the power to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister (altough he had to "listen to the Parliament" (which was unicameral) before an appointment) and to dissolve the Parliament, thus calling for new elections. The first term was the constituent term, with the ex-monarchist leader Niceto Alcalá Zamora as President of the Republic and the Jacobin leader Manuel Azaña as Prime Minister. The majority in the Cortes (and thus, the Government) was held by a coalition between Azaña's party and the PSOE. A remarkable deed is universal suffrage, allowing women to vote.
The elections for the second term were won by the coalition between the Radical Party (center) and the CEDA (right). Initially, only the Radical Party entered the Government, with the parliamentary support of the CEDA. But, at the middle of the term, some corruption scandals sunk the Radical Party and the CEDA entered the Government. This led to rebellions by leftist parties that were quickly suffocated. Then, the leftist minority in the Cortes told Alcalá Zamora "rebellions were consequence of social refusement to right-winged government" and advised him to call for new elections, what he did.
The third elections were won by a small margin by the leftist parties. The left coalition used a legal twist (If the President calls for anticipated elections twice, and the elected Parliament thinks that last was unjustified, it can dismiss President of the Republic and elect a new one) to dismiss Alcalá Zamora and put Azaña in his office.
During the third term, the leftist party tried to wipe out right-winged opposition (including death menaces in the Parliament, readable today in the parliamentary Diary of Sessions). That pressure over right-winged parties led to rebellion, which led to the Spanish Civil War, putting the end to the Second Republic.
The Cortes Generales under the Franco's regime (1939-1978)
Attending to his words, Franco's intention was to replace the always-crashing party system with an "organic democracy ", where the people could participate directly in the nation's politics without any parties.
However, such "good" intentions never materialized. Franco assumed the office of Head of State for life, and established an unicameral legislature (the Congress of Deputies, or Legislative Assembly), made up by more than 400 "representants" (Spanish procuradores, singular procurador) appointed by himself. There was little democracy during this period, but there was the possibility of referenda, where only the family heads could vote. The regime started a "shy" opening process by the 1960s, with the boom of tourism.
Last updated: 08-16-2005 16:16:30
