SPAIN

History

Early cultural groups that inhabited the area included the Celts, Phoenicians, and Greeks. Rome invaded the area, followed by other groups including the Moors. The Moors held on until the 1400's when parts of Spain became united, a period of nationalism prevailed, and the age of exploration and colonization began. Wars and internal conflict reduced the dominance which Spain had amassed, and into the 1900's internal political and social difficulties continued. Civil war erupted in 1936 and for three years Spain was torn by foreign powers involved in Spain's civil war. The government was a dictatorship until 1975, when a monarchy was re-established in the country.

A powerful world empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain ultimately yielded command of the seas to England, beginning with the defeat of the Armada in 1588. Spain subsequently failed to embrace the mercantile and industrial revolutions and feel behind Britain, France, and Germany in economic and political power. Spain remained neutral in World Wars I and II. In the second half of the 20th century Spain played a catch-up role in the western international community. Continuing problems are large-scale unemployment and the Basque separatist movement (ETA).

Government

The country of Spain is divided into 50 administrative provinces, with each province being further divided. There is a monarch, a premier and cabinet, a bicameral parliament, and judicial system. A large number of political parties compete for governmental leadership. The legal system is based on local custom, Spanish law with European legal influence.

Police

There are four police forces in Spain: The Civil Guard has approximately 60,000 employees; the National Police Force, has approximately 50,000 employees, and the Municipal Police has about 40,000 officers, which are employed by individual municipalities. Next to these there are Autonomic Police forces.

The Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) is a police force with a military structure deployed in all rural areas of the country. The force is responsible to the Ministry of the Army and can obtain assistance from the military if necessary. Police functions include avoiding smuggling, patrol, traffic enforcement, guard borders and criminal investigation. The police are armed with pistols and have available submachine guns and other military equipment as well as transportation is available if necessary. Military personnel hold higher level positions in the guard. Special units are available for crowd control and intelligence.

The National Police Force (Policia Nacional) is a civillian police force deployed in urban areas of the country. The force is responsible to the Ministry of the Interior and has its own recruitment and training policies, separate from the Civil Guard. Police functions include passport control, aliens registration, security, patrol, and criminal investigation. Crowd-control units are trained to deal with urban violence. This force is the administrative part of the police service. The police are armed and have various vehicles for transportation.

The Municipal Police are responsible to the local municipality and are recruited by local government. Local autonomy prevails. The primary police function is traffic control. Most police personnel do not carry weapons.

The Autonomic Police Forces for more information about them please be refered to the answers to the questionnaire of Catalunya and the Basque Country. Navarra has also an Autonomic Police Force but unfortunately there is no information available from them.

It is possible to find all four police forces functioning in the same police district.

Jails, prisons, and courts are deployed throughout the country. The court system consists of a supreme court, regional high courts, provincial courts, and municipal courts.

Economy

Spain’s mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is three-fourths that of the four leading West-European economies. Its centre-right government successfully worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the European single currency on 1 January 1999. Moreover, the Aznar administration has continued to advocate liberalisation, privatisation, and deregulation of the economy and has introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment, nonetheless, remains the highest in the EU at 20%. The government, for political reasons, has made only limited progress in changing labour laws or reforming pension schemes, which are key to the sustainability of both Spain’s internal economic advances and its competitiveness in a single currency area. Adjustment to the monetary and other economic policies of an integrated Europe will pose difficult challenges to Spain in the next few years.