Politics, Violence and Electoral Democracy in Spain: the case of the CEDA, 1933-1934

When Ideology Takes Precedence over Historical Understanding: The Role of the ‘Right' in the Spanish Interwar Crisis

“…More importantly, after the Socialist-led insurrection of October 1934 (seen by its organizers as defending democracy), Gil Robles repeatedly refused, despite the demands of the authoritarian monarchist right, to use the failed violent attempt to overthrow a legally constituted government as a pretext to launch a wave of terror similar to that witnessed in Nazi Germany after January 1933. 10 So it is evident that some historians are still resistant to recent scholarship showing that the CEDA was not a time-bomb waiting to detonate and destroy Republican democracy. The degree of resistance is related to the progress made in recent years by other historians in revealing the plurality and complexity of Spanish conservatism during the interwar period.…”