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The main aim of this research is to reveal the political and educational commitment illustrated by a relevant part of Spanish cinematography for the establishment of the democratic regime in Spain after Francisco Franco's death in 1975. This commitment was very noticeable during the first years of historical period so-called Transición. The film ¡Arriba Hazaña! (Gutiérrez Santos, 1978) has been used as paradigmatic case. Several mass-media and the public channel, Televisión Española, also showed their commitment to this cause (Martín Jiménez, 2013). The historical-educational methodology applied to sources such as specialized monographs, scientific and disclosure papers, interviews with film critics and the director, Gutiérrez Santos, has been used. This research followed eight steps proposed by Pérez Millán (2014) to analyse the film: viewing, reconnaissance of signs, determination of structure, reading of story line, contextualization, supplementary information, reading of meaning and corroboration; and also employed Fairclough (1995) and Van Dijk (1995) recommendations about critical discourse analysis have been employed. The results obtained could demonstrate that films such as ¡Arriba Hazaña! were used as space of political, social and educational reflection aimed at supporting a still incipient democracy, and as tool of non-formal learning destined to train citizenship in new procedures, attitudes, and values characteristic of democratic regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking into account an interdisciplinary methodology that stablish the connection between the past situation and the current situation, this paper analyse the relationship between the Holy See and the Spanish State during the Second Republic, the Franco dictatorship and democracy. In this way, we will see advances and setbacks in the separation of church and state, as well as the problems that arise in this relationship today. All this situation is due to a bad process of the democratic memory in Spain during the Transition, which produces constitutional inconsistencies and democratic anomalies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing corpus of studies about political elites in Spain has tended to focus on national and regional parliaments and executives, rather than on the municipal level of government. And yet, it is in these local settings that politicians acquire skills and political experience, develop their notions of democracy, and often start their political careers. Exploring patterns of political recruitment in Spanish local democracies allows us to look at some of the literature findings on this topic and check whether they also apply at the municipal level in Spain, enhancing in this way our understanding of who governs our cities, too. This article analyzes Spanish mayors' social profiles, their patterns of professionalization and their political ambitions, trying to address questions such as: do municipal leaders share a common background? Are they amateurs or professionals in politics? Is the municipal level the first stage of an identifiable political career of Spanish representatives? In responding to these questions, this paper draws on survey data from a representative sample of 303 mayors in municipalities with populations larger than 10 000 inhabitants. The analysis confirms that Spanish mayors follow to a great extent the patterns found in studies of political elites and particularly those of local executives in other countries in Europe, but with some distinctive singularities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]