Spanish politics has been transformed. Using new techniques, this book looks at 30 years of Spanish political history to understand party competition, the impact of the EU, media-government relations, aspirations for independence in Catalonia and the Basque region, and the declining role of religion.

Laura Chaqués Bonafont is Professor of Political Science at the University of Barcelona and Research Fellow at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). She is the director of the Spanish Policy Agendas Project (www.ub.edu/spanishpolicyagendas). Her main research interests are the analysis of agenda dynamics in comparative perspective, with special reference to the impact of the media, and interest groups.Anna M. Palau is Assistant Professor at the Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science at the University of Barcelona and member of the Spanish Policy Agendas Project. Her research focuses on the analysis of policy dynamics, Europeanization, media and public opinion and government-opposition dynamics. Her work has been published in Comparative Political Studies, West European Politics, Journal of Public Policy, and Journal of Legislative Studies, among others.Frank R. Baumgartner is the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He is one of the founders and directors of the US Policy Agendas Project and has published such books as Agendas and Instability in American Politics, The Politics of Attention,and The Politics of Information, all with Bryan D. Jones.

List of TablesList of FiguresAcknowledgementsGlossaryPART I: THEORY AND METHODS1. Policy dynamics in Democratic Spain2. Data and methodsPART II: THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN SPAIN3. Broken promises4. The government opposition game5. Media and politics in SpainPART III: POLICY ISSUES IN AN AGENDA-DYNAMICS APPROACH6. Political decentralization7. Europeanization8. Framing the abortion debatePART IV: CONCLUSIONS9. Transformations in Spanish Politics, 1982-2013ReferencesAppendicesIndex