41
Spanish democracy also had its characteristic founding moment – in consensus rather
than revolution. Yet for reasons too complex to be analyzed in the space (and time) here
available, that consensus has been thoroughly lost. Indeed Spain’s recent traumatic experience
with elections in the aftermath of terrorism reveals just how severe the erosion of consensus has
been – especially over issues of national identity and regional politics. Indeed the electoral loss
of the PP on March 14, 2004 owes much to the overwhelming rejection of that party in the
country’s pluri-national periphery where PP policy and rhetoric was deeply, and widely,
resented.
52
In closing one caveat is in order: Spain could in no sense of replicated the Portuguese
road to democracy just as Portugal could not have chosen to do the reverse. The two Iberian
paths to democracy involved much effort and political craftsmanship but they were also
thoroughly constrained by existing circumstances and challenges. Democracy born in revolution
may be different, but that difference is not available to all countries. Nonetheless, democracy is
a system characterized by much openness and by its potential to be reshaped by ideals and
examples. It is in that light that the differences between Portugal and Spain take on added
meaning – well beyond the geographic limits of the Iberian peninsula.
52
On this see Robert Fishman, “On being a Weberian (after March 11-14)”< paper
presented at conference on One Hundred Years of Objectivity, University of Montreal, March
2004.
Convention