Why was the Transition successful, Paul and Raul?

Paul Preston, a British expert on the Spanish transition, said one of its lessons was that ''the longer a dictatorship has lasted and the nastier it is the more likely it is that the opposition will relinquish its demands for revenge.'' He added, ''Any improvement is worth going for, and you get the kind of broad consensus that was the key in Spain.''

Raul Morodo, a Spanish politician and author, was more blunt. ''The key factor in the transition was fear, and fear produced the consensus,'' he said. Spaniards feared a return to the anarchic bloodletting of the civil war; they were determined not to let it happen again. King Juan Carlos feared the anti-monarchist sentiments among the newly legalized Socialists. The military feared a purge, and the left feared the military. By turning its back on old scores, and on its own blood-stained history, Spain achieved the transition.
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