Abstract

During Franco's dictatorship the representation of the individuals was replaced in favour of the so-called "natural unities" of society: the family, the municipality and the trade union. This formula, known with the name of "organic democracy", was applied in all the representative institutions of the State, at both the national level and the provincial and municipal level. In this way, the Spanish Parliament (the "Cortès") and the entities of local government ("Diputaciones" and "Ayuntamientos") changed its political nature and readjusted its election mechanisms to adapt themselves to the new organicist canon. The aim of this article is to analyse the ideological basis in which the political representation model of the Francoism was founded on, study its articulation through the different organs and evaluate its consequences, estimated in an inappropriate channelling of social demands and the exclusion of the citizens regarding the main country's decisions.