Short Bio
Alan Granadino holds a PhD in History and Civilization from the European University Institute in Florence. He is currently a Simone Veil Fellow at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a recipient of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the Complutense University of Madrid. His research focuses on the political, social, and intellectual history of contemporary Europe, with particular emphasis on European integration, European social democracy, the Nordic model, and Spanish foreign policy during and after the transition to democracy.
Project description
Granadino’s project has the aim to analyse the ideological transformation of Spanish socialism in connection to the Europeanization of Spanish politics between 1977, when Spain inaugurated its new democratic system and its democratically elected government applied to join the EC, and 1996, when the socialist party (PSOE) 14-year tenure in government came to an end. This period also marked a significant shift for the EU, which expanded from 9 to 15 members, and started to implement the Maastricht Treaty. The project contends that the argument that during these years PSOE transitioned from social democracy to neoliberalism must be examined in the light of historical evidence and must be further developed by connecting it to Europeanization. Assuming a relationship between the ideological transformation of Spanish political parties and Spain’s integration into Europe, the main question of this project is how did this transformation occur, and in what ways is it related to the integration process? To explore the impact of Europeanization on the ideological evolution of Spanish socialism, the project adopts a broad perspective. First, it pays attention to the evolving domestic and international environments in which PSOE operated. Second, it considers various platforms of European cooperation available to Spanish socialists. This entails examining spaces for cooperation and exchange of ideas both within and outside of European institutions. For example, the Socialist International, the Council of Europe, the Confederation of the Socialist Parties of the European Community / Party of European Socialists, the Socialist Group in European Parliament and the bilateral relations between socialist parties and governments. However, it also acknowledges the importance of the contacts that the Spanish socialists had with other European colleagues with different ideological backgrounds in the EC/EU institutions and even in NATO.
By addressing this question, the project also aims to critically engage with the predominant European narrative, which frames the EC/EU as a global promoter of democracy and human rights. This narrative originated in the 1960s and 1970s, when transitions to democracy in Southern Europe and the prospect of enlargement to include Spain, Portugal, and Greece gave the EC a new drive, contributing to the definition the Community's political values. However, democracy itself was never clearly defined within the EC context. This is unsurprising, given that from the late 1960s, democracy became a contested concept, leading to numerous attempts to define its meaning, content, and relationship with the EC/EU. Considering the roots of this European narrative, the impact of Europeanization on the Spanish socialist party offers a lens through which we can approach and discuss the evolving relationship between the EC/EU and democracy before and immediately after the end of the Cold War.