12/3/2012

Today in Social Sciences, we have started checking the exercises. Alejandro has checked the exercise 17 about how the I Republic was procalimed, what its main problems were and how it ended. After that, Sara has checked exercise 18 about how the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy arrived.

When we have finished to correct the exercises, Paqui has showed us a power point about Spain under the Restoration (1875-1902). We have seen a photo of Alphonse XII and she has explained us a photo of Sagasta and Cánavas. She has said that the political system of the Restoration is very curious, let's we see it.

We have copied a scheme about Restoration, with the things that we are going to see:

- Alphonse XII's reign (1875-1885)

- Mª Cristina of Habsburg'regency (1885-1902)

- Alphonse XII's reign (1902-1931)

Then, Paqui has started doing a chart on the blackboard, she has written for title: Restoration political system and in one side: Past mistakes Cánovas wanted to avoid and in the other side: how? After that she has said us that we have had to read the Restoration point from the book and say to her what we have to write in each part of the chart. In past mistakes Cánovas wanted to avoid were:

-Permament instability in the government and due to constant wars (Carlist War)

-Constant intervetion of the army in politics.

-Preference of the monarch for one only party and the exclusion of the opposition parties.

-Continuos change of the laws and Constitutions with every change of government.

In how?:

- He tried to exclude the army from politics, but this wasn't completely possible.

-Bipartisan political systme, with two parties which agreed in basic things and could alternate in power without provoking instability: they had to accept the Bourbon monarchy and the Constitution. These were the dynastic parties: The Conservative Party, led by Cánovas, and the Liberal Party, led by Sagasta.

- The monarch had to be neutral (arbitration role) and not to show preference for any party.

Constitution of 1876: it couldn't be changed when the government changed.

But this system wasn't perfect.

PROBLEMS:

- The opposition parties (the republicans, the workers'parties, the carlists, the nationalists) were excluded from power.

- The dynastic parties represented a very small minority (an elite) of society. If elections were free, they wouldn't have been chosen. This is why they had to manipulate the elcetions. The manipulation had 2 stages: the ecasillado and the pucherazo.

When we have finished with that, Paqui has continued explaining us. She has compered Enrique with the minister of the Gobernación, he did a chart to prepare the elections with the deputies of every party in all the politics.

And that's all for today, Paqui hasn't given us any exercises for homework.