A National Culture of Corruption? Spain in Transnational Perspective (18th-19th Centuries)

Both stereotypical representations of Spain and academic texts have insisted on the notion of secular backwardness (a kind of Spanish Sonderweg), systemic abuse and political decadence. This chapter seeks to examine the Spanish national culture of corruption. Starting from early Iberian political Modernity, we will review the historical crossroads at which the transformations of the state and power relations in Spain were situated. This involves assessing the conceptual mutations, practices and discourses of good and bad governance, together with the configuration of public opinion, the cultures of power, secrecy and transparency, the capture of the state and public resources, as well as the impact that corruption cases had on citizens' distrust of institutions and anti-politics. In order to overcome the stigmas that projected the image of a corrupt society, the "sacralisation" of the state and the administration was a functional response of the monarchy and hegemonic liberalism to shield their legitimacy. However, the limits to freedom of the press, the fragile mechanisms of oversight, the excessive weight of the executive power - including the precarious division of powers - and the caciquist system deepened the ill-impression on corruption. In short, addressing the distinctive elements of "national cultures of corruption" will help us to recognise the modalities of the exercise of power, and to examine the nuances of the process of political modernisation from a comparative and transnational perspective, overcoming the myth of a supposedly unpolluted North as opposed to a corrupt South.