This is a study on Spain´s path from dictatorship towards democracy in the period of 1975 to 1982. The examination is based on Robert Dahl´s theory of democratization, fundamentally describing three alternate paths, moving a society from one of the states closed hegemony, inclusive hegemony or competitive oligarchy into the state polyarchy. According to Dahl, polyarchy is the closest ideal of a democracy. Dahl´s transformation paths are based on two dimensions: political competition and political inclusiveness. Prior to 1975, Spain was a closed hegemony and transformation could have gone directly to polyarchy or by way of either inclusive hegemony or competitive oligarchy. The results obtained in this study demonstrates that political competition and political inclusiveness developed in parallel in Spain, which was the prerequisite for the rapid transition. Most crucial was that the elections and the referendums occurred within a very short period of time. According to Dahl, elections can be categorized as political competition as well as political inclusiveness. Therefore, it can be concluded that Spain followed the path moving directly from closed hegemony into polyarchy without moving via inclusive hegemony or competitive oligarchy.

This thesis refers to Latin-American immigration to Spain during the last twenty years (1990 - 2010). This thesis is divided in two main parts. The first part is devoted to a general overview and also to the most important aspects related to the emigration of Latin Americans into Spain. The individual chapters are focused on the following topics: discussion and development of research of immigration in Spain, the roots of Latin American emigration, Spain as the destination of emigrants, migration policy of Spain, the composition of the Latin American population living in Spain, the integration of Latin American immigrants in Spanish labour market and Latin American gangs in Spain. The second part of this thesis is dedicated to a research focusing on the coexistence of Spanish and Latin Americans in the Iberian Peninsula. Based on the survey the following aspects are examined: the reasons of Latin Americans leading to emigration to Spain, experience of Latin American emigrants with attitude of Spanish people towards them, attitude of Spanish towards immigrants and last but not least the integration of Latin American immigrants into the Spanish society. My thesis is based on available materials concerning the issue, i.e. existing studies focusing on immigration at the present time, and statistical...

Regional parties are among the younger topics of political science research, their issue is not addressed by too many authors, and therefore we do not find many works that would contribute to this not very researched area. One of the authors, who included regional parties in her research, is Bonnie Meguid. She introduced the concept of niche parties, dealing with the success of "parties of gaps" compared to mainstream parties. In this work, the concept of niche parties is applied to Spanish regional parties to determine whether the concept is suitable for regional parties and whether we can speak of Spanish regional parties as niche parties. The analysis of the concept will be performed based on five established criteria, based on the work of Meguid and Wagner, who followed up on her concept and expanded it. Eight regional parties from six Spanish regions, selected based on several conditions, will be examined. The source basis of this work are party documents of selected regional parties, especially their election programs.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston University / Tonight we will recreate musical moments from the plays of Don Pedro Calderon De La Barca, who lived from 1600 until 1680. During his long span of life he dominated the brilliant Baroque playwrights and poets for several generations. He took the rich heritage of drama forms which Juan Del Encina, Tirso De Molina, Lope De Vega and many others had created, and under the magnificent patronage of the Hapsburgs--Philip III, Philip IV, and Carlos II--Calderon brought the one-act sacred plays, called autos sacramentales, to their definitive form. For us he is particularly interesting for the enormous amount of music he employed in his plays, and the creative ways in which he used the musical forms , and because he wrote the first librettos for Spanish opera and for the musical comedies, called zarzuelas. Calderon produced three types of plays: the one-act sacred plays, the three-act comedies and three-act dramas [TRUNCATED]

This dissertation examines images of single combat in Romanesque art. Between the mid-eleventh century and the first decades of the thirteenth century, representations of head-to-head battle between two human opponents were abundant, especially in architectural sculpture. The appearance of these combats is concentrated in northern Spain and southwestern France, although this imagery is found throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Only a small number of these images are identified by labels or accompanied by an explanatory text. However, those few examples show that the motif of single combat served different purposes and conveyed a variety of meanings, ranging from representations of historical figures to encounters drawn from epic literature to allegorical renderings of spiritual battle. Despite the prevalence of this iconography, this dissertation is the first study to address the entire corpus of Romanesque single combats. Beginning with the few examples to include a contemporary text, it addresses the variety of identities and meanings attached to the single combat motif in eleventh- and twelfth-century works. Analysis of those examples sheds light on the interpretive problems that arise for the larger body of unlabeled images comprising the corpus, whose significance is assessed by considering both formal attributes, and the spatial, functional and visual contexts in which the motif appears. Finally, the dissertation brings new focus to the motif’s temporal and geographic characteristics by addressing the high concentration of combat images in parts of Spain and France. Examination of the discourses concerning the early crusades and the Iberian ‘reconquest’ suggests that these images acted not just as representations of those locally prevalent events, but as visual components aimed at promoting the Iberian cause and aligning peninsular warfare with endeavors in the Holy Land. This dissertation shows that the single combat motif coincides with and reflects a crucial shift in the ways violence and conflict were conceived and addressed in Christian society. Considered within the context of the contradictory discourses on fighting circulating at this time, this multivalent motif is shown to reflect the many meanings battle held for medieval viewers. / 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

The goal of this essay is to investigate the works of Galdós and Lorca and how they shapedthe position of women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Feminist literarytheory is used to elucidate how debates about the position of women developed and whatmechanisms our writers used to highlight injustice towards the female figure. They alsoexplored how women could also be sexist with those of the same gender. The results showthat the works reflect a degree of awareness of both Lorca and Galdós regarding theposition of women in Spanish society and in their own way they denounced it with theirprose. They exposed with their lyrics the difficulties women were going through. / El objetivo de este ensayo es investigar las obras de Galdós en Doña Perfecta y Lorca enLa casa de Bernarda Alba y cómo representaron la posición de la mujer a finales del sigloXIX y principios del XX. La teoría literaria feminista se utiliza para dilucidar cómo sedesarrollaron los debates sobre la posición de las mujeres y qué mecanismos se utilizan enlos textos para resaltar la injusticia hacia la figura femenina. También exploraron cómo lasmujeres también podrían ser sexistas con las del mismo género. Los resultados muestranque las obras reflejan un grado de conciencia tanto de Lorca como Galdós en cuanto a laposición de la mujer en la sociedad española y a su manera lo denunciaban con su prosa.Expusieron con sus letras las dificultades por las que pasaban las mujeres.

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This study examines the determinants of internal migration in Spain. It pays close attention to a key variable that has been little studied so far, taxes. That is, we analyze whether the difference in taxes between the autonomous communities of Spain is a determining factor for Spanish citizens when deciding to move. In addition to taxes, other determinants such as GDP, geographical distance between regions, unemployment and amenities are also analysed. The study is based on the theory of Gravity model and Pooled OLS and fixed effects specifications are used. The findings reveal that the tax effort has a positive effect on migration, but its magnitude is small.