La comunicación política en la España democrática (1976-2012)

Abstract

The Spanish transition from dictatorship to democracy allowed the development of a democratic political communication in the style of the one that had been applied in the most developed European countries and in North America.
The period opened in 1976. The parties that attended the first general elections in democracy had no experience in electoral communication and strategy. But since those initial moments, evolution and improvement have not stopped, with the incorporation of new techniques and the transversal use of contributions from Advertising, Marketing and Sociology to achieve effective political communication.
The purpose of this article is the description of the way in which this evolution has taken place. The aim is to explain what political communication has been like in Spain from 1976 to 2012, with what main actors it has been told, what roles each of them has developed and in what legal framework and in what political environment has been developed.
But before approaching the object in a systematic way, it seems significant, because of its extravagance and its relevance, to look at a specific period whose climax was the attack on March 11 at the Atocha station that, as is known, caused 200 deaths.