Appraises the turbulent development of the Spanish economy over the last fifty years and places current economic problems in their historical context. The author examines the economic, political and social problems inherited from the Franco era and their evolution into the present. The book includes: * a detailed discussion of economic development under Franco, including the boom years of the 1960s followed by the decline of the early 1970s; *an analysis of the decade of economic crisis which only ended in 1985; *an evaluation of the economic successes achieved by the Gonzalez government during the second half of the 1980s; *an analysis of why, despite serious attempts to revitalize the industrial sector, Spain still has one of the highest levels of unemployment in the OECD.
