The Spanish Constitution defines political parties as an expression of pluralism, channels for the will of the people and instruments for political participation.

It supports their creation and activity and lays down that their structure and working must be democratic.

By defining them as essential elements of political life, the Constitution provides them with a framework of legal secutiry and seeks to prevent them from endangering the democratic system, either because of their organization or authoritarian practices.

The legal regulation of political parties is to be found in the Law of Political Parties of 1982, where the freedom to set up political parties is dealt with in detail and a few criteria are provided for their democratic working. Up to the present time, no party has been suspended or dissolved by judicial authorities. The Law also establishes the basic rules for the public funding of parties. The basic criterion is parliamentary representation.

On the death of General Franco, a process of political transition began which was to lead to the creation of a State coherent with the modernization which had taken place within society itself. The basic principles underlying this process could be none other than those of democratic constitutionalism. The work done by the political parties and forces was decisive in that constituent process, to the extent that it has been explained as a result of the operation of two decisive factors: the Crown and politico-social pluralism.

On the eve of the 1977 general election there where in Spain a large number of political parties and groups who put up many different candidates for election. The natural flourishing of pluralism following the end of an anthoritarian experience explains the proliferation of parties of all kinds, some of them organized around some notable figure, while others lacked any support outside a limited territorial area. These parties, added to those which had been active in their opposition to the Franco regime, gave rise to a very confusing political scene in which it was very difficult to find any traces of a system, owing to the insubstantiality of many of these groups.

Nevertheless, we must single out as one of the most outstanding features of that time the operation which led to the creation of the Union of the Democratic Centre. This group emerged as an electoral coalition consisting of small political parties belonging to the moderate opposition and a large number of independent figures.

In the socialist camp, the chief problem was to ascertain the specific weight of each of the main parties of this type: the PSOE and the PSP, although the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) seemed to take shape as the main gruop in this area.

The communist party, the last to be legalized, was the other left-wing option with a chance of election success.

The Popular Alliance was, if the UCD (Union Centro Democratico) is excepted, the only option for the right with any chance of success, although it was identified with the previous regime.

Finally, we must emphasize the substance and following within their respective regions of nationalist parties and movements, the most important examples of which were to be found in the Basque Country and Catalonia (PNV, Euskadiko Ezkerra, Esquerra Republicana, Convergencia Democratica, etc.).

The elections of June 15th 1977 simplified the complex scene and laid the foundations for a system of parties which has been gradually consolidated in the course of the subsequent elections in 1979, 1982, 1989 and 1993.

The results of the 1982 general election led to the rise to power of the Spanish Socialist Party, a situation which has persisted up to the present time, and the consolidation of the Popular Coalition, as it was then (now the Popular Party) as the second largest political group in the country.