Abstract
Law and politics are pieces of the same cloth. We are accus tomed to believing that in democratic polities law relates one way to politics while in non-democratic polities the relationships are quite differ ent. Indeed, we are predisposed to believe in many instances that in authoritarian political systems, like Spain under Franco, law and legal system elites are fundamentally irrelevant actors—save as pawns of those in command. This article argues that the law and legal system elites were important political actors during the transition from authoritarian to non- authoritarian politics under Franco and that the Spanish case provides us with a rough map toward our understanding of system changes in other arenas as well.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.