International Journal of Iberian Studies 21.1

IJIS_21_1_00-FM 5/31/08 10:22 AM Page 1
International Journal of Iberian Studies

Volume 21 Number 1 2008
The scope of IJIS
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International Journal of Iberian Studies Volume 21 Number 1 © 2008 Intellect Ltd

Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/ijis.21.1.3/1
Academic cheating in Spain and

Portugal: An empirical explanation
Aurora A.C. Teixeira INESC Porto; Faculdade de Economia,
CEMPRE, Universidade do Porto
Maria de Fátima Rocha Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Portugal
Abstract Keywords
Despite its obvious interest and potential for concern, empirical research on the tertiary education
cheating phenomenon among university students has almost exclusively been academic standards
carried out in the United States, usually covering only a few universities in a given cheating
region. Little is known about cheating in European universities, let alone the Iberian Spain
Peninsula. In this article we aim to contribute towards filling this gap by presenting Portugal
evidence of this illicit behaviour in Portugal and Spain. Based on a survey of under-
graduate students on Economics and Management courses, we conclude that there
is a pervasive ‘culture’ of cheating in these two countries, reaching relatively high
levels in universities. Using econometric techniques, which control for a wide set of
variables likely to influence a student’s propensity to cheat, we found that Spanish
students are relatively more prone to breaching the academic code of conduct than
their Portuguese counterparts, and that the implementation of Honour Codes by
universities constitute a promising approach in curbing cheating in academia.
1. Introduction
Through its effect on the quality of the education system, cheating influ-
ences the assessment of the stock of human capital, usually calculated on
the basis of the ‘quantity’ and ‘quality’ of education (Barro and Lee 2000;
Hanushek and Kimbo 2000; Teixeira 2005). Cheating tends to reduce the
efficiency of a country’s education system by distorting honest competition
among students (Magnus et al. 2002). The phenomenon of cheating in uni-
versities is of overwhelming importance, since students engaging in it are
least likely to have the necessary skills for their future professional lives, and
awarding them a degree will most probably lead to various kinds of damage.
Indeed, the entry of unfit professionals into the job market may lead to
‘social ills’, since these future workers will almost certainly be unable to
perform properly, possibly resulting in harm to human life and damage both
to their colleagues and to the institution that trained them. What is more,
the entire educational environment may also be affected, since the magni-
tude of cheating means that more effort has to be spent controlling it – an
effort that could be better applied to learning (Dick et al. 2003).
IJIS 21 (1) 3–22 © Intellect Ltd 2008 3
Cheating is a concept that is hard to define. Dick et al. (2003) mention

a wide range of possible kinds of cheating, deciding that, on the whole,
cheating is the breach of defined and accepted rules and standards.
Cheating in examinations is one form of academic fraud widely alluded to
in studies dealing with this matter (e.g. Bunn et al. 1992; McCabe and
Trevino 1997; Tibbetts 1999; Sheard and Dick 2003; Hrabak et al. 2004).
Despite its recognised magnitude, the empirical evaluation of cheating
phenomena among university students has been almost exclusively
focused on the US context, covering usually on a few universities in a
given region. Furthermore, non-US related studies involve a narrow scope
of countries/regions, such as Australia, Japan, Israel, and Russia, and, in
Europe, The Netherlands and Croatia. In this context, it is fair to say that
little is known about cheating phenomena in Europe. In this article we
aim to contribute to filling this gap by presenting evidence on such sanc-
tionable breaches of university rules in the two Iberian countries: Portugal
and Spain.
In addition to the determinants of copying, on which the existing liter-
ature has mostly focused, we propose an innovative, more wide-ranging,
econometric specification that includes a variable which quantifies the
magnitude of the ‘benefits’ that students perceive they will gain from
cheating, such as a better grade, in comparison with not cheating.
Moreover, another ‘contextual’ determinant is also suggested for the prob-
ability of cheating, namely, whether or not the educational establishment
has a code of honour. The article is organised as follows. The next section
presents an overview of existing studies on the topic of academic cheating.
In Section 3 the methodology applied in gathering the data is described,
and Section 4 presents the statistical description of data. The econometric
specification used for evaluating the phenomenon and the results are
detailed in the final section.
2. On the determinants of cheating behaviour: a review

With Becker’s seminal study (1968), the economics of crime gained
renewed importance. Formalising illegal behaviours in terms of a cost-
benefit analysis, Becker (1968) defended the economic rationality of people
committing criminal acts. He believed that criminal behaviour resulted
from the maximisation of the individual utility function in certain risk situ-
ations. Crimes were thus only committed if the resulting gains outweighed
the expected punishment (Garoupa 2001). There are other complementary
forms of theorising illegal behaviour, as described by Ehrlich (1973) and
Wolpin (1978). The first study (Ehrlich 1973) not only followed the same
line of reasoning as Becker’s model (decisions weighted for costs and bene-
fits) but also developed a time allocation model for legal and illegal activi-
ties, and made it possible to forecast changes from legal to illegal activities,
as well as the magnitude of each of these (Horvath and Kolomaznikova
2002). The studies by Becker, Ehrlich and Wolpin were among the more
formal approaches, regarded as pioneering in the analysis of the economics
4 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

of crime. More recent studies on cheating (e.g., Bunn et al. 1992; Kekvliet 1 Rocha and Teixeira
(2005b) account for
and Sigmund 1999) are of an essentially empirical nature. They are based the distinct forms of
on econometric specifications consistent with the assumption of a relation theorising illegal
between fraudulent behaviour and the notion of costs and benefits resulting behaviours and adapt
Becker’s crime model
from it. Thus, these studies are adaptations of Becker’s crime model to aca- (1968) to cheating.
demic dishonesty.1
Most of studies that examine the prevalence of cheating in universities
in quantitative terms (cf. Table A1 in Appendix) show that the extent of
cheating is considerable – affecting over one third of students. In one of
the pioneering studies by Bunn et al. (1992), involving an analysis of two
higher education courses in Microeconomics in Alabama (USA), the
authors found that half the students surveyed admitted to having copied.
They also found that cheating was ‘normal’ among students, with 80 per
cent of them saying that they had seen a colleague cheating and half
saying that they had seen a colleague being caught copying. Apart from
the prevalence of the phenomenon, such illicit behaviour seems to be quite
well accepted among the student community, with 28 per cent of students
admitting to knowing colleagues who copy regularly. The widespread
occurrence of the phenomenon seems to be explained by the fact that
most students (70%) do not see cheating as a serious offence. In another
context (two public universities in the United States) and covering more
courses (six Economics classes), Kerkvliet (1994) collected data in two dif-
ferent ways (direct response and random response questionnaires), and
found that in the random response questionnaire (which he felt guaran-
teed greater confidentiality and thus more honest answers), 42 per cent of
students indicated they had copied in an exam at least once.
In a later study, covering twelve classes in the two universities,
Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999) estimated that an average of 13 per cent of
the students surveyed had copied at least once. But there was considerable
disparity among the groups, ranging from 0.2 per cent in the least ‘deceit-
ful’ class to 32 per cent in the one where cheating was most prevalent.
The authors say this disparity is due to the different measures of ‘intimida-
tion’ used in the various classes (number of tests per student; who is in
charge of discipline surveillance in the universities; space per student in
the exam hall; number of test versions used by the teacher; type of exam).
Taking a larger population than that covered in the Bunn et al. (1992)
study, Nowell and Laufer (1997) looked at two higher courses in the
United States (Economics and Accounting) and concluded that the
average propensity for dishonesty was around 27 per cent. More recently,
and with reference to other scientific areas, findings by Sheard and Dick
(2003) in a study on postgraduate students in Information Technology at
a university in Melbourne (Australia) showed that 9 per cent of students
admitted to being involved in serious forms of cheating in exams. In other
study on illicit behaviour among students from the 2nd to the 6th year of
Medicine, in a Croatian university, Hrabak et al. (2004) found that 94 per
cent admitted to having committed some kind of deceit at least once
Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation 5

during their studies. When it came to copying answers from other col-
leagues and using ‘cheat sheets’ (crib sheets), the percentages were
52.2 per cent and 34.6 per cent, respectively. Furthermore, a considerable
percentage (66.4 per cent) of Psychology and Management students in
three Dutch universities admitted to having cheated (Bernardi et al. 2004).
Most studies systematically indicate a number of determinants for
student dishonesty. These may be grouped into factors associated with
student characteristics; factors related to the institution, variables influ-
encing the likelihood of the phenomenon being detected and the respective
cost of detection; and also causes associated with the benefits of cheating
(when they are not caught) and the benefits of not copying. In what
follows we provide a brief account of these factors, summarised in
Table A2 in Appendix.
The average mark/grade that the student achieves in his/her course is
a determinant of cheating used in most of the studies – Bunn et al. (1992),
Kerkvliet (1994), Nowel and Laufer (1997), Kerkvliet and Sigmund
(1999), and Hrabak et al. (2004). Usually a negative correlation is
expected between the average course grade and cheating in an exam, as it
is reckoned that students with a high average course grade would gain less
from cheating than those with lower averages. Most of the authors
(Kerkvliet 1994; Nowell and Laufer 1997; Kerkvliet and Sigmund 1999)
do not find the course average to be statistically significant, that is, results
were inconclusive in this regard. Nonetheless, Hrabak et al. (2004) argue
that the student’s course average could be relevant in explaining attitudes
to cheating. They take the view that students with a higher average grade
have a more negative attitude to cheating than those with a lower one,
and also disapprove of swapping questions by phone during an exam, and
of using personal relations to pass an exam.
Besides the students’ average grade/mark, we suggest here that a criti-
cal determinant of the propensity to cheat, linked to the cost/benefit idea,
is the students’ perceived ‘benefits’, since they expect to obtain a higher
grade if they copy successfully. Along this line of reasoning, we tested the
following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: The likelihood of cheating rises when the difference
between the mark/grade the students expect if they copy, compared with
the mark/grade that they expect if they do not, is positive.
Hypothesis 2: The probability of cheating is higher, the greater the value
of the difference between the mark the students say they expect if they copy
and the mark they expect if no cheating takes place.
Contextual factors and the environment, peer pressure and attitudes
towards academic dishonesty are also other conditioning factors for the
development of illicit academic practices. In fact, Bunn et al. (1992) found
that the likelihood of cheating is directly related to observing others doing
so, and the perception of the extent to which students routinely copy. In
other words, the probability of a student having already copied is condi-
tioned by his/her beliefs in relation to other students who copy.

Furthermore, these authors assess the students’ perception in relation to 2 Some of the highest-
the severity of the punishment for copying, and use this and other indica- rated universities in
the world, such as
tors of the ‘cheating climate’ as perceived by students to evaluate their per- Stanford, present their
ception of the percentage who copy. They find evidence for the belief Honour Code on the
homepage of their
among students that, given the negligible impact of intimidation measures website
and expected punishments, it is very unlikely that they will be caught (http://www.stanford.
edu/dept/vpsa/judicia
copying. In addition, they find that students do not think cheating is a laffairs/guiding/honor
serious crime, which could contribute to the occurrence of higher rates of code.htm). We can
thus read that “[t]he
this phenomenon. Thus we put forward: Honor Code is an
Hypothesis 3: In copying-favourable environments where permissive- undertaking of the
ness towards cheating is high, students’ propensity to cheat tends to be students, individually
and collectively: a)
higher. Conversely, the higher and more serious the perceived sanctions, that they will not give
the fewer incentives students have for dishonest behaviour. or receive aid in
examinations; that
The role of ‘codes of honour’ was examined by McCabe et al. (2003). they will not give or
The honour code is a group of practices used mostly in American universi- receive unpermitted
aid in class work, in
ties where the students are trusted not to cheat and administer responses the preparation of
to cheating.2 McCabe et al. do not directly analyse the influence of codes of reports, or in any
other work that is to
honour on the probability of cheating. Instead, they assess whether this be used by the
phenomenon has an effect on the academic integrity of university staff in instructor as the basis
terms of their attitudes and behaviour. McCabe et al. found that staff of grading; that they
will do their share
employed in universities which have a code of honour have more positive and take an active
attitudes towards policies to enforce academic integrity and are more part in seeing to it
that others as well as
willing to allow the system to take measures to warn and discipline stu- themselves uphold the
dents. Furthermore, McCabe et al. confirmed that, where there is no code spirit and letter of the
Honor Code; b) The
of honour, university faculty members believe that students should be faculty on its part
responsible for monitoring their peers, since they recognise the fairness manifests its
confidence in the
and efficiency of their institutions’ policies of academic integrity. Following honor of its students
this line of argument we hypothesise here that: by refraining from
Hypothesis 4: In universities where ‘codes of honour’ exist, the propen- proctoring
examinations and
sity to cheat among students is lower. from taking unusual
Differences in education systems across countries and social factors are and unreasonable
precautions to
likely to constitute an important factor in explaining students’ propensity prevent the forms of
to cheat. For instance, Diekhoff et al. (1999) detect differences and simi- dishonesty mentioned
above. The faculty
larities in American and Japanese students who cheat in exams. will also avoid, as far
Weighting the limitations associated with the distinct composition of the as practicable,
academic procedures
two samples (both in terms of size and factors associated with various that create
demographic characteristics, such as gender, age and school year), the temptations to violate
data reveal that, in comparison with the Americans, Japanese students are the Honor Code; c)
While the faculty
more prone to copying in exams. They further say that the Japanese alone has the right
system, which assesses academic success/performance with one or very and obligation to set
academic
few types and periods of assessment, creates greater pressure on the stu- requirements, the
dents, and more incentives to copy. Moreover, and in terms of social students and faculty
will work together to
involvement, Diekhoff et al. (1999) consider that if cheating is viewed as establish optimal
widespread, it is harder for Japanese students to resist the pressure to conditions for
honorable academic
cheat and aid their fellow students to do so, given the deep-rooted group work.”
and team orientation among Japanese students. In a complementary

3 In Rocha and Teixeira study, Magnus et al. (2002) conducted an experiment on students in sec-
(2005b) a detailed ondary, higher and postgraduate education, in five different areas –
description of the
different methods is Moscow, rest of Russia, Netherlands, USA and Israel – and show that both
provided presenting the level of teaching and the zone lead students to have distinct opinions
their relative
strengths and about academic dishonesty. On average, Russian students are against
weaknesses. denouncers, contrary to the views held by American students where
‘snitching’ is tolerated. It was also found that, on average (except for
Russia), secondary school pupils are less tolerant of denouncing when com-
pared with students in higher education, and the latter are less tolerant
than postgraduates who have more understanding for denouncers.
To the best of our knowledge, no study has so far been conducted on
student dishonesty in the Iberian countries, thus little is known about
such behaviour among Iberian university students. Therefore we hypothe-
sise that:
Hypothesis 5: The propensity to cheat is influenced by the countries’
education systems and social factors.
It is important to point out that there are other factors indicated in the
literature that can influence dishonest behaviour among students, which
we also consider in our analysis, such as gender (Kerkvliet 1994; Nowell
and Laufer 1997; Kerkvliet and Sigmund 1999; Tibbets 1999; Hrabak
et al. 2004), year of study (Nowell and Laufer 1997; Kerkvliet and
Sigmund 1999; Hrabak et al. 2004), and student status (Nowell and
Laufer 1997). However, the strength of these variables is not clear cut and
there is no consensus about them.
3. Methodology for quantifying the phenomenon of

student dishonesty
The main problem when analyzing cheating in higher education is that it
is hard to measure, and researchers have generally used their own obser-
vations to assess this type of behaviour (Nowell and Laufer 1997). There
are four ways to obtain data on student dishonesty (Kerkvliet and
Sigmund 1999): direct yet discrete observation of the phenomenon; the
‘overlapping error’ method; the ‘random answer questions’ method; and
the ‘inspection via direct questions’ method. In this study, we have opted
for the last method. Although this method takes no account of problems
associated with any sensitivity to the kind of questions asked (like the
random answers method), meaning that it can induce deviation in the
estimates for student dishonesty (Kerkvliet and Sigmund 1999), it does
have simplicity of implementation in its favour and a wealth of output for
analysis. This is why ‘inspection via direct questions’ it is often the proce-
dure used (e.g. Bunn et al. 1992; Magnus et al. 2002; Sheard and Dick
2003; Hrabak et al. 2004).3
We devised a one-page questionnaire in the line of Bunn et al. (1992)
embracing a range of questions focusing on the main determinants associ-
ated with fraudulent student behaviour and adding new variables/ques-
tions which, in our view, were likely to influence cheating propensity

(cf. Section 2). The questionnaire was implemented only for Economics and
Management courses. In the case of Portugal, all eleven public universities
were surveyed, encompassing 2,805 students. In Spain, we sent question-
naires to three universities with which our school has Erasmus Agreements,
gathering 974 responses. This was a ‘convenient’ sampling criterion since
contacts were rapidly established (through the corresponding university’s
Erasmus exchange coordinator) and guaranteed a certain degree of desired
comparability between courses, given that to participate in Erasmus
Mobility Programmes, universities must meet certain academic require-
ments. As a result, we received a total of 3,779 valid questionnaires.
4. Statistical description of the data

Our survey on cheating propensity among Portuguese and Spanish under-
graduate Economics and Management students points to an average
cheating propensity of close to 67% per cent. Thus, similarly to the studies
reviewed in Section 2, we conclude that the phenomenon of cheating in
universities reaches very high levels. It should be noted that studies using
a comparable methodology to this one had estimated cheating probabili-
ties between 50 per cent (Bunn et al. 1992) and 62 per cent (Rocha and
Teixeira 2005a). Focusing also on cheating practices, Hrabak et al. (2004)
had pointed to figures between 34.6 per cent and 52.2 per cent.
To pinpoint differences and similarities in cheating behaviours between
these two Iberian countries, both the propensity to cheat and the observa-
tion of cheating in exams was analysed. Table 1 presents the results on fre-
quency of cheating and Table 2 figures for the frequency with which
students observe others copying.
Undergraduate Economics and Management students admitted to
cheating to a greater extent in Spain than in Portugal (nearly 80 per cent
Total percentage of students in Probability of cheating

each country cheating (sometimes ⫹ often % of total valid
Countries Never Sometimes Often or Always ⫹ always ⫺ %) responses (n ⫽ 3757)
Portugal 37.6 60.0 2.4 62.4 74.1
Spain 20.3 73.1 6.6 79.7 25.9
Table 1: Frequency of cheating in Portugal and Spain.

Source: Calculations made by the authors based on direct survey conducted in the period February 2005–June 2006.
Total percentage of students in

each country Probability of observing Total percentage of
Countries Never Sometimes Often or Always cheating (%) responses (n ⫽ 3769)
Portugal 7.5 68.6 23.9 92.5 74.2
Spain 2.6 47.4 50.1 97.4 25.8
Table 2: Frequency of ‘observing others copying’ in Portugal and Spain.

Source: Calculations made by the authors based on direct survey conducted in the periods February 2005–June 2006.

against slightly over 60 per cent, respectively). The proportion of those

who claimed never to have copied in Portugal (37.6 per cent) is almost
double the Spanish figure. As to the frequency with which students in
each of these two countries engage in illegal practices during exams, the
evidence reveals that the highest proportions of students admit to cheating
sometimes in exams, and only a very small proportion admit to cheating in
exams often or always. In both cases the percentages are higher in Spain
where 79.7 per cent admitted to cheating in at least one exam compared
to 62.4 per cent in Portugal.
Observing other students cheating (Table 2) may constitute an indirect
measure of cheating propensity and a reasonable indicator of a generalised
‘culture’ of cheating.
Our research revealed the alarming fact that in both countries over 90
per cent of students (92.5 per cent in Portugal and 97.4 per cent in Spain)
admitted to having seen others committing illegal behaviour in exams –
and in Spain approximately half of the students claimed to observe such
behaviour often or always. Thus, we can conclude that there is a pervasive
‘culture’ of cheating in the Iberian Peninsula, where the vast majority of
students have observed others cheating. Nevertheless, the pattern of the
frequency of the phenomenon is somewhat different in these two coun-
tries, as the high frequency of observing others cheating is more clearly
detected in Spain (50.1 per cent) than in Portugal (23.9 per cent of stu-
dents). The pervasiveness of cheating is further confirmed by the percent-
age of students who admitted knowing someone among their closer
friends or relatives who copies regularly, again to a greater extent in Spain
(85.7 per cent) than in Portugal (59.4 percent).
Such pervasiveness is to a large extent explained by the opinion and
attitude of students regarding fraudulent behaviour. From our study we
found that, on the whole, only 10.4 per cent of the student respondents
reckoned that cheating was a serious problem and around one third recog-
nised that it deserved some concern. For the majority (55.3 per cent),
cheating was either not a problem or only a trivial problem (Figure 1).
In the Iberian student culture, cheating is a non-issue, even though
both countries have preoccupying levels of cheating. It should be noted
that in Spain, where the magnitude of cheating is greater, a considerable
majority of students (65.3%) does not perceive it as a problem. Even more
disturbing is that nearly half of all the respondents (46.7%) believed that
cheating was an intentional act and only 11.7 per cent thought that
cheating had occurred due to ‘last-minute’ panic.
Another disquieting finding is that more than half of the students
(55.6%) asserted that they would study (even) less if there were no supervi-
sion/invigilation during exams and/or no sanctions for illegal practices,
suggesting that they would cheat to an even greater extent if there were no
deterrents. In Spain the figures are again more alarming than in Portugal
(65.8% against 52.1%, respectively). Furthermore, the percentage of stu-
dents who admitted that they would spend much less time studying if there

were no sanctions or supervision in exams is quite significant: in Spain,

36.9 per cent and in Portugal, 27 per cent.
As seen in Figure 2, the general environment in both countries is quite
permissive towards academic misconduct. The highest penalty students
Figure 1: Students’ opinion regarding cheating by country.

Source: Calculations made by the authors based on a direct survey conducted in
the period February 2005–June 2006.
Figure 2: Expected sanction for cheating by country.

Source: Calculations made by the authors based on direct survey conducted in

expect from various types of deceit is that their exam will be annulled
(given a mark of 0) (over 60 per cent in both countries) and only around
20 per cent anticipate severe sanctions for fraudulent misconduct.
In Spain, a huge percentage (73.3%) of students who admitted to
having copied at some point have been caught by academic staff, profes-
sors and/or invigilators. The figure in the Portuguese case is also signifi-
cant (50.3%). Yet being caught has not prevented widespread academic
misconduct in these countries, which further proves the ineffectiveness of
the sanctions. We could conclude that both countries run an ineffectual
university teaching system. This ineffectiveness is aggravated by the stu-
dents’ widespread expectations of greater gains (higher marks/grades) if
their cheating goes undetected. This explains why misconduct is so preva-
lent in both countries. Figure 3 shows similar student expectations in both
countries, with 73.4 per cent of the students expecting a better mark/grade
from cheating and only 6.5 per cent consider the possibility of a lower
mark/grade after copying.
Only some schools/universities in Portugal have some kind of binding doc-
ument regulating cheating practices, the majority of which focus on deceitful
practices in exams. None of the Spanish schools in the analysis have any type
of written document in this regard. Moreover, we found that in schools that
do have some type of written regulation (identifying and stipulating sanctions
in cases when cheating is detected) or (more rarely) an honour code, the
propensity to cheat is substantially lower in the latter case (Figure 4).
Although at first glance age tends to be related to the year of schooling
(2nd, 3rd, or 4th) in which the student is enrolled, the results across the board
Figure 3: Expected gain (in terms of a better mark/grade) as a result of cheating

successfully, by country.
Source: Calculations made by the authors based on a direct survey conducted in
Figure 4: Cheating propensity by existence of honour code and by country.

Figure 5: Cheating propensity by age and by country.

reveal a strong relationship between the propensity to copy and students in

the final years of their degree, that is, when closer to graduating (Figure 5).
For the total sample, students enrolled in the final year (4th year)
reveal a 72.5 per cent likelihood of cheating compared to 62 per cent for
those in their 2nd year. When analysing each country individually, in
Spain, the highest likelihood was found among 3rd-year students (86.8%),
even higher than in the 4th year (78.7%) and the 2nd year (75.9%), as
Figure 6 clearly shows.
Most of the students surveyed (87.9%) were ‘Normal’ or ‘Regular’ stu-
dents (students enrolled normally in full-time programmes). Students who
Figure 6: Cheating propensity by schooling year and by country.

actively involved in student organisations (‘activist’ students – ASs) and

those working part-time (WSs) only accounted for 2.4 per cent and 8.6
per cent respectively of the students surveyed, yet these two groups proved
to be even more likely to engage in academic misconduct, namely 70 per
cent in the case of ASs and 70.5 per cent in the case of WSs, against the
67.6 per cent of the so-called ‘regular’ students. This may reflect the fact
that ASs and WSs have less time to devote to their studies.
As to the question of whether higher or lower performing students are
more likely to cheat, the data in this exploratory analysis revealed an
inverse relationship between good performance (for which their average
academic grade or Grade Point Average, GPA) was used as a proxy), and
their likelihood to cheat, but it was not very significant. Considering the
overall sample, 60.4 per cent of the better students (with average grades of
80 per cent or higher) admitted to cheating, which is a smaller proportion
than their weaker colleagues (with average grades of 50–60%), among
whom 69.8 per cent were likely to cheat, in other words, a 10 point gap.
This tendency was evident in both countries (cf. Figure 7).
Generally speaking, with the application of the statistical instrument of
Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient we found that the probability to
cheat appears statistically and positively correlated with the variation in
the benefits gained from successful copying; the frequency with which
other students are seen cheating and being caught copying; familiarity
with those who copy regularly; time spent studying for an exam for which

Figure 7: Cheating propensity by grade point average and by country.

there will be no surveillance/sanctions; and the age and the year in which
students are enrolled. Finally, older students and those who are closer to
concluding their degrees are more inclined to cheating (see Table A3 in
Appendix). The negative correlations can be summarised as follows.
Students who are enrolled in schools that have codes of honour are, in
general, less likely to cheat in exams. So are students with average
marks/grades (GPA) of approximately 63 per cent or above, and those who
perceive that the penalties for cheating are severe.
5. Assessing the determinants of academic cheating: model

specification and results
The aim was to assess which are the main determinants of the propen-
sity to cheat among university students. The statistics supporting these find-
ings are appended at the end of this article (Tables A3 and A4). The results
are as follows. As to the potential determinant ‘grade average’, as seen
above, a negative correlation is usually expected between good student per-
formance (average course mark/grade) and their propensity to cheat in an
exam. Indeed, our results show that students with a high average grade
would have less to gain from cheating than those with a lower average, that
is, the opportunity cost for the former is higher than for the latter. Thus, our
results corroborate those of Hrabak et al. (2004): students with a higher
average reveal a lower propensity to cheat than those with a lower one.
As to the potential determinant ‘expected gains’, we found that stu-
dents who expect a positive increase in their grade through cheating do
tend to cheat relatively more than those who do not expect to gain from
cheating, although the difference is unexpectedly small. Thus Hypothesis 1

is corroborated, but only just. Furthermore, the value of the difference

between the expected grades from cheating and from not cheating does not
impact on the propensity to cheat, that is, Hypothesis 2 is not corrobo-
rated by the data. In brief, the relevant issue for students is any gain from
cheating rather than the amount of gain they manage to achieve. Whether
they believe they might gain an additional 5 or 15 points does not seem
relevant in explaining their propensity to cheat.
As to contextual factors and the environment, peer pressure, and atti-
tudes towards academic dishonesty as factors, these emerged as important
conditioning rather than explanatory factors for the development of illicit
academic practices. Similarly to Bunn et al. (1992), we found that the like-
lihood of cheating is directly related to observing others doing so. The per-
ception of the number of students who routinely copy, in other words the
general propensity of students to cheat, is conditioned by their beliefs in
relation to other dishonest practices. Those that perceive cheating as a
more problematic/serious issue tend to cheat less. Moreover, factors such as
students’ perception of the effectiveness of existing mechanisms to prevent
cheating; the severity of the corresponding punishment (proxied by indica-
tors such as ‘has seen others being caught cheating’); the influence of
invigilators on the amount of time spent studying (how much less the
student studies if there are no invigilators); and the expected sanction for
cheating (from minor or no sanctions to getting expelled from the
University) – all produced mixed results. On the one hand, students who
admitted to studying much less for exams where there would be no invigi-
lators tended to cheat more. Those that expected more serious punishments
presented a lower cheating propensity. On the other, having seen others get
caught tends to be associated with a higher degree of cheating. This latter
aspect seems to indicate that, in some measure, a punitive environment dis-
courages cheating, but seeing others become the victims of it does not.
Among student characteristics as potential factors, such as gender, age
or status as regular/full time enrolled student, or part-time student, or
‘activist’ student, only the year of schooling was found to have some effect
on cheating propensity. Results reveal that on average students who are
close to finishing their degree (i.e., are enrolled in the final year) have a
higher propensity to cheat.
Instead, cultural and social factors intrinsic to the country of origin
were found in our case to be more relevant in explaining cheating propen-
sity. Hypothesis 5, which assumes that the propensity to cheat is influ-
enced by a country’s education system and social factors, is corroborated
by our data – differences do exist between the Spanish and Portuguese
education and social systems in this regard. In particular, there is a clearly
higher propensity to cheat in exams in Spain than in Portugal that is not
explained by other factors. Although beyond the scope of the present
study, it would be of great interest to those involved in the maintenance of
academic standards to explore the reasons behind these differences
between Spanish and Portuguese students.

Finally and most importantly, the existence of a university ‘code of

honour’ as a factor that has a statistically significant and negative associ-
ation with cheating was explored. Our findings confirm that in universities
that have them, the propensity to cheat among students is lower – in other
words such codes have a deterrent effect. Thus, our fourth hypothesis is
corroborated. In fact, the present study reveals that, regardless of the
country, context or student characteristics, the practice of instituting
honour codes has significantly curbed deceitful acts among students.
Therefore we have identified an issue that should be taken up by educa-
tional policymakers in Spain and Portugal. There is an urgent need for
both universities and government to reflect on the need for appropriate
codes of honour, like those applied in some renowned universities such as
Stanford and Harvard. We also agree with Dick et al. (2003: 182) who
correctly pointed out that ‘. . . deterring cheating is far more effective than
detecting and punishing cheating due to the costly nature of formal
responses to cheating, so academics should focus their time and energy on
pre-empting cheating rather than detecting cheating’. The existence of
honour codes comprises an excellent measure for pre-empting cheating.
The recognition and quantification of the phenomenon of cheating in
universities is an important (first) step in raising awareness among stu-
dents and staff, so that ultimately cheating can become unacceptable. It is
our belief that a feasible option in this direction includes gradually intro-
ducing codes of honour in each university/school.
Acknowledgement
The authors are deeply grateful for insightful comments and suggestions from two
referees and the Editor of the IJIS. The authors are also indebt to a large number of
colleagues, both in Portugal and Spain, who help in the implementation of the
survey and who, due to privacy reasons, are not named here. To all students that
answered the survey a word of gratitude.
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Appendix
Countries Number of Magnitude

IJIS_21_1_01-Texeira
Studies/authors Level of education Courses (n⬚) (n⬚ univ/country) students of ‘cheating’

Bunn et al. (1992) University – Undergraduate Microeconometrics (2) USA (1) (Alabama) 476 50.0%
Kerkvliet (1994) University – Undergraduate Economics (6) USA (2) 363 42.2%
5/31/08
Nowell and Laufer University –Undergraduate Economics and Accounting (2) USA (2) 311 27.0%
(1997)
McCabe and Trevino University –Undergraduate – USA (9) 1793 30.0%
(1997)
Diekhoff et al. (1999) University –Undergraduate Sociology and Psychology USA (1), Japan (3) 392, 276 20.0% (USA)
10:26 AM
related courses (6) 55.4% (Jap)

Pulvers and Diekhoff University –Undergraduate Behavioral and Social Sciences, USA (2) (Midwest) 280 11.6%
(1999) Criminal Justice, Economics
and Physical Education (18)
Page 19
Kerkvliet and Sigmund University –Undergraduate Economics (12) USA (2) 597 12.8%
(1999)
Tibbetts (1999) University –Undergraduate Introductory Behavioral USA (1) (Mid-Atlantic) 598 39.0%
Science (6)
Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation

Magnus et al. (2002) Secondary, University – Economics Russia (Moscow and 885 –
Undergraduate provincial Russia), USA;
and Postgraduate Netherlands; Israel
Sheard and Dick University – Postgraduate Information Technologies Australia (1) (Melbourne) 112 9.0%–38.0%
(2003)
Bernardi et al. (2004) University – Postgraduate Psychology and Management (2) Netherlands (3) 220 66.4%
Hrabak et al. (2004) University – Undergraduate Medical Sciences Croatia (1) (Zagreb) 827 34.6%–52.2%
Rettinger et al. (2004) University – Undergraduate Arts (4) USA (1) (North-eastern) 103 53.0%–83.0%
19
Table A1: Magnitude of academic dishonesty among students found in previous studies.
Groups of determinants Determinants Studies

Student characteristics • Gender Kerkvliet (1994)
• Course average grade Nowell and Laufer (1997)
• Consumption of alcohol Whitey (1998)
• Academic Year of studies Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999)
• Religious preference Tibbetts (1999)
• Student Status Bernardi et al. (2004)
• Have failed at least a year Hrabak et al. (2004)
• Moral factors and kind of personality Rettinger et al. (2004)
• Motivation and Competence
Factors related with • Dimension and level of Class Nowell and Laufer (1997)
the educational • Category of teachers Whitey (1998)
institution • Existence of ‘honour code’ Pulvers and Diekhoff (1999)
• Classroom environment Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999)
McCabe et al. (2003)
Cost of detecting • Teacher’s academic category Bunn et al. (1992)
academic dishonesty • Existence of verbal warnings Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999)
regarding the resultant
consequences of cheating
in exams
Probability of detecting • Number of tests by students Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999)
cheating whose goal is maintaining good
behaviour
Benefits of cheating • Spatial class occupation by student
(in case of not getting • Number of exam versions employed
caught) by the instructor
• Type of exams
• Expected grade/mark Whitey (1998)
• Number of “free” hours by the Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999)
student in the term
• Type of Courses
Benefits of not copying • Average number of weekly hours Kerkvliet (1994)
of study Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999)
Others factors • Students’ opinion of those that Bunn et al. (1992)
copy or commit other types
of academic dishonesty
• Students’ perception of the percentage Kerkvliet (1994)
of students that copy and rival
group behaviours
• Intensity of work (“Workload”) McCabe and Trevino (1997)
• Pressure not to fail Nowell and Laufer (1997)
• Type of courses Whitey (1998)
• Country/region Diekhoff et al. (1999)
• Students’ background Magnus et al. (2002)
• Students’ origin Sheard and Dick (2003)
Hrabak et al. (2004)
Table A2: Groups of factors influencing the propensity to cheat, based on previous studies.

Mean ␴ Min Max 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **
Probability of cheating 0.669 0.471 0 1 0.115 0.083 ⫺0.050 0.296 0.277 ⫺0.082 0.212 0.127 ⫺0.102 ⫺0.236 0.014 0.038 0.106***
Expected (1) ⌬Gain Cheating 0.734 0.442 0 1 0.677*** ⫺0.187*** 0.077*** 0.092*** ⫺0.021 0.029 0.149*** ⫺0.014 ⫺0.042** 0.032* 0.026 ⫺0.037**
IJIS_21_1_01-Texeira
benefits (2) D⌬Gain Cheating 13,57 17,89 ⫺100 100 ⫺0.194*** 0.086*** 0.087*** ⫺0.045** 0.032* 0.148*** ⫺0.004 ⫺0.058*** 0.015 0.032* ⫺0.044**
Opportunity (3) Grade 62,73 8,37 50 100 0.031* 0.022 0.086*** 0.029 ⫺0.073*** 0.020 0.000 0.023 ⫺0.104*** 0.006
cost
Context – (4) Frequency with 3,042 1,015 1 5 0.457*** 0.032* 0.291*** 0.080*** ⫺0.042** ⫺0.238*** 0.037** 0.040** 0.140***
5/31/08
permissibility which the act of

and cheating is
permeability observed (1:
never . . . 5: always)
(5) Familiarity with 0.657 0.475 0 1 0.033* 0.289*** 0.119*** ⫺0.038** ⫺0.262*** 0.085*** 0.045** 0.138***
someone that
10:26 AM
cheats regularly
(6) Opinion regarding 2.416 0.849 1 4 0.034* ⫺0.016 0.131*** 0.075*** 0.004 0.019 0.004
cheating (1: not a
problem . . .
Page 21
4: serious problem)
Sanctions (7) See someone being 0.563 0.496 0 1 0.072*** ⫺0.033* ⫺0.165*** 0.025 0.060*** 0.121***
caught cheating
(8) Amount of study 1.572 1.774 0 6 0.030 ⫺0.045** ⫺0.022 ⫺0.027 0.003
if there is no
surveillance
Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation

(0: no influence . . .
6: study less 50%
or more)
(9) Expected sanction 3,012 0.845 1 5 0.155*** 0.056*** ⫺0.030 0.011
for cheating
(10) Honour Code 0.578 0.626 0 2 ⫺0.074*** ⫺0.103*** ⫺0.074***
Student
characteristics (11) Gender 0.579 0.494 0 1 ⫺0.082*** 0.014
(12) Age 21.67 2,96 17 59 0.403***
21
(13) Schooling year 2,056 0.829 1 3
(1: 2nd year . . .
3: 4th year)
Table A3: Descriptive statistics.

Note: significance levels ***1 per cent; **5 per cent; *10 per cent.
Model
␤ˆ Exp(␤ˆ)
Expected Benefíts (1) ⌬GainCheating 0.477*** 1.610
(2) D⌬GainCheating ⫺0.004 0.996
Opportunity cost (3) Grade ⫺0.987*** 0.373
Context – permissibility (4) Frequency with which the act of 1.312*** 3,712
and permeability cheating is observed
(5) Familiarity with someone that
cheats regularly 0.438*** 1.550
(6) Opinion regarding cheating ⫺0.408*** 0.665
Sanctions (7) See someone being caught cheating 0.418*** 1.519
(8) Invigilators’ influence on amount 0.302*** 1.353
of study
(9) Expected sanction for cheating ⫺0.391*** 0.676
Honour code (10) Honour code ⫺0.542*** 0.582
Countries (11) Country (Spain ⫽ 1; Portugal ⫽ 0) 0.638*** 1.893
Student characteristics (12) Gender (Fem ⫽ 1) ⫺0.127 0.881
(13) Age ⫺0.103 0.902
(14) Schooling year 0.281** 1.324
(15) Status_Assoc 0.239 1.270
(16) Status_worker ⫺0.109 0.897
Constant 3.695** 40.248
N 2971
Cheated 2065
Not cheated 906
Percentage corrected 75.6
Nagelkerke R Square 0.248
Hosmer and Lemeshow 14.97 (0.160)
Test, Chi-Square
(p-value)
Table A4: Determinants of academic dishonesty among university students (Maximum Likelihood estimation).
Note: significance levels ***1 per cent; **5 per cent; *10 per cent.
Contributor details
Aurora A. C. Teixeira is Assistant Professor in Economics at the Faculty of Economics,
scientific coordinator of UITT (INESC Porto) and an associated research fellow at
CEMPRE, University of Porto. She studied at the Science and Technology Policy
Research Unit at the University of Sussex, UK, where she received her Ph.D. Her
research focuses on the measurement and role of human capital in countries’ long-
term growth. Recent works were published in the European Planning Studies,
International Journal of Technology Management, Portuguese Economic Journal, Portuguese
Journal of Social Science, The International Journal of Organisational Transformation and
Social Change, and the Brazilian Innovation Review. She received an award from the
Portuguese Economic and Social Council for her study on Portuguese growth Capital
Humano e Capacidade de Inovação. Contributos para o estudo do crescimento Económico
Português, 1960–1991. She is co-editor of Multinationals, Clusters and Innovation: Does
Public Policy Matter? (Palgrave 2006). Contact: Aurora A.C. Teixeira, Faculdade de
Economia do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200–464 Porto, Portugal.
E-mail: ateixeira@fep.up.pt
Maria de Fátima Rocha is Professor at the Universidade Fernando Pessoa. She received
(2006) her Ph.D. from Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto. She has
written several works on academic fraud and has recently published in the Journal
of Research in Comparative and International Education.

IJIS_21_1_02-Banus 5/31/08 10:27 AM Page 23
ACIS Conference Keynote Paper

Article. Spanish language. doi: 10.1386/ijis.21.1.23/1
En busca de la utopía: los Estudios

Ibéricos, ¿puente o frontera?
In search of utopia: Iberian studies as
bridge or frontier
Enrique Banús Universidad de Navarra
Abstract Keywords
Iberian Studies pose a fascinating problem from the point of view of hermeneutics – hermeneutics
the study of theories of how to understand matters from another’s point of view. prejudice
Given its vocation of building bridges, Iberian Studies have to face the problem Iberian studies
that pre-judices and the history of any academic discipline weigh heavily on such cultural mediation
an undertaking. An uncontaminated, unprejudiced position is neither possible nor
desirable. Together with a close examination of such pre-judices and their action hermenéutica
of transmitting knowledge about ‘otherness’, this article offers a reflection around prejuicios
the possibility of Iberian Studies as a ‘science of mediation’. Estudios Ibéricos
mediación cultural
Los estudios ibéricos plantean un apasionante problema desde el punto de vista de la
hermenéutica – el estudio de las teorías de como entender los asuntos desde el punto
de vista del otro. Dada su vocación de tender puentes, los estudios ibéricos se enfrentan
a la problemática de que los pre-juicios y la historia de cualquier disciplina académica
tienen un peso importante en esa tarea. La asepsia, la posición no-contaminada, no
sólo es imposible, sino también indeseable. Junto a una descripción detallada de la
estructura de esos pre-juicios y de su acción en la transmisión de los conocimientos
sobre una ‘alteridad’, el artículo ofrece también una reflexión en torno a las posibili-
dades para una ‘ciencia de mediación’ como son los estudios ibéricos.
Permitan que les presente a Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

Fue un ingeniero americano que trabajaba en la fuerza aérea; es probable- 1 La historia de la Ley
mente el descubridor de esa ley que nunca falla: la ley de Murphy.1 Una de de Murphy no está
tan clara. Parece que,
sus derivaciones, ciertamente no descrita por el propio Murphy es que, en una en 1949, refiriéndose
entrevista, jamás saldrá publicado lo que has dicho. Por eso, es garantía de a uno de los técnicos
que colaboraban en
salud no leer las entrevistas que a uno le hacen. No debería ser lo mismo en el un experimento que
contexto científico. Sin embargo, hace algunos años acudí, en representación no funcionaba,
Murphy declaró: ‘Si
de mi Universidad, a un encuentro sobre estudios europeos organizado por

esa persona tiene una otra dignísima Universidad europea. Fuimos interviniendo allí unos y otros, y
forma de cometer un días después nos llegó un informe en que se afirmaba que el Profesor Banús
error, lo hará’. En una
publicación de 1952, había comenzado su intervención con un “llamado” (que dirían en algunos
la frase pasa a ser: países) a una ciencia carente de prejuicios. Yo había dicho exactamente lo
‘Todo lo que pueda
salir mal, pasará’, contrario: que la ciencia carente de prejuicios no existe, que toda ciencia
aunque el autor no la tiene sus pre-juicios (en el sentido más neutro del término), que también las
pone en relación con
Murphy (cf. Sack recepciones ‘científicas’ sólo a primera vista son asépticas, que están mar-
1952). Es Lloyd cadas por ciertas decisiones previas, que con buena razón deben designarse
Mallan, en Men,
Rockets and Space Rats,
como prejuicios, como explicaba Müller-Seidel (1969: 19). Es más; necesitan
quien en 1955 unos pre-juicios si no quieren enloquecer: en Filología, por ejemplo, cuando
relaciona ambas nos dedicamos a la Literatura (qué pena que no exista en castellano algo así
cosas. Parece que la
frase con la que se como una “Literaturwissenschaft” alemana), aunque podemos perdernos en
suele citar esta ley la pregunta de qué es un texto, utilizamos textos sin cada vez plantearnos (y
(‘Lo que pueda salir
mal, saldrá mal’), plantear a nuestros estudiantes) si ese texto realmente es un texto; partimos
nunca fue de la base de que un texto es un texto, etc.
pronunciada por
Edward Murphy. Hay pre-juicios que nacen del hecho de que la Filología, la Historia o
2 En Wikipedia se
cualquier otra ciencia desde la que nos acerquemos a los estudios ibéricos,
encuentra la creencia es una ciencia que tiene una historia, que ha llegado hasta aquí porque
en una ciencia sin cientos y cientos de colegas nuestros han trabajado antes que nosotros.
prejuicios. Véase, si
no, este sabroso Algunos de sus descubrimientos, algunas de sus elucubraciones, algunas
comentario en una de sus interpretaciones han ido creando escuela, entrando en el acervo
discusión: ‘Pues no:
wikipedia no está común de la ciencia, formando “tradiciones”.
para explicar la Dentro de cada disciplina hay tradiciones diferentes, posicionamientos
historia, wikipedia
se hace por y para varios. Ahí entra en juego la propia biografía, la historia personal, que ha
pequeños burgueses que ido dejando un poso de actitudes, de simpatías y antipatías, de “Weltan-
quieren la verdad
simple y llana’
schauungen” (visiones del mundo) en plural, porque no siempre nuestra
(Mercedes 2007). visión es monolítica, sino que encierra matices, incluso pequeñas con-
Y si se encuentra en tradicciones que nos hacen humanos). También ella configura nuestros
wikipedia, quiere
decir que muchos pre-juicios y en muchos casos nos lleva también a optar por una de entre
están convencidos. las diferentes tradiciones profesionales.
(Todas las citas de
internet han sido Pero vivimos insertos no sólo en una ciencia, sino en una cultura, si
revisadas el 22 de por cultura entendemos ‘that complex whole which includes knowledge,
enero de 2008.)
belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society’, por utilizar la clásica definición
de Edward B. Tylor (1871: 1). También esa cultura nos proporciona un
“set” de prejuicios, de visiones, sobre “nosotros”, siempre a la busca de la
respuesta a la acuciante pregunta de quiénes somos, esa cuestión que
forma parte de la terna que se dice marca todos los empeños de la filosofía:
“¿Quiénes somos?, ¿de dónde venimos?, ¿a dónde vamos?”
Y ahí aparecen también las imágenes, los estereotipos del “otro” – lo
cual enlaza directamente con los Estudios Ibéricos, que suponen eso: un
encuentro con la alteridad.
No, no existe la ciencia libre de prejuicios.2 Y es con todo este batibur-
rillo con el que nos dedicamos a los Estudios Ibéricos, en los que nos con-
vertimos en mediadores, en transmisores, en constructores de puentes. Y
nos insertan en todo un intercambio de mensajes sobre un ‘otro’ específico,
intercambio del cual van emergiendo y se van modificando las opiniones
24 Enrique Banús
dominantes, las modas y también, con la fosilización de algunas de estas 3 No fue Unamuno,
sino Menéndez Pidal
modas, la mentalidad colectiva, la actitud de una sociedad frente a otra. el ganador de dicho
Además, en ese intercambio de mensajes ocupamos una posición especial, certamen.
pues estamos investidos de autoridad, la autoridad de los llamados expertos.
Y ya está dicho todo lo esencial. Se trata, pues, simplemente de
analizarlo más en detalle —¿un ejemplo de aquel dicho: “por el análisis a
la parálisis”? — y de aportar algunos ejemplos.
Algunas tesis que intentan probar lo dicho

TESIS I
Hay pre-juicios que nacen del hecho de que la filología, la historia o
cualquier otra ciencia desde la que nos acerquemos a los estudios ibéricos,
es una ciencia que tiene una historia, que ha llegado hasta aquí porque
cientos y cientos de colegas nuestros han trabajado antes que nosotros.
Algunos de sus descubrimientos, algunas de sus elucubraciones, algunas
de sus interpretaciones han ido creando escuela, entrando en el acervo
común de la ciencia, formando ‘tradiciones’.
‘Un cantar seco y ferozmente latoso. (. . .) Literariamente es aquello una lata,

una monumental lata, que ni por sus descripciones, ni por los caracteres, ni
por nada sobresale mucho’.
(Unamuno 1977: 52, 53; cursiva original)
Así se desahogaba Unamuno en dos cartas de 1894, tras haber presentado

una gramática y un glosario del Poema del Cid al concurso convocado por
la Real Academia Española en 1892.3 En 1920, en cambio, se refería a la
obra como ‘el viejo y venerable Cantar de mio Cid, en que el alma del pueblo
de Castilla balbuce sus primeras visiones’ (Unamuno 1968: 1025).
¿Por qué este cambio de actitud? ¿Qué ha pasado en esos menos de
treinta años? El cambio de tono en Unamuno se corresponde con una
modificación en la valoración del Cantar en general. Sobre todo las obras
de Menéndez Pelayo y Menéndez Pidal han contribuido, por ejemplo, a que
la “rudeza” ahora se valore positivamente como “natural” expresión del
pueblo. Se defiende ahora también la veracidad histórica del Poema. Por
estos y otros argumentos, se considera que el Poema es una obra de gran
valor. Su estilo se considera ahora desde la categoría de “poesía popular” o
“natural”. Evidentemente, todo ello se basa en prejuicios, tanto sobre la
existencia de “espíritus nacionales” como sobre las características del
carácter nacional español (o castellano).
Esta recepción coincide en elementos esenciales con las opiniones de
dos autores, Menéndez Pelayo y Menéndez Pidal, cuyo rango de “autori-
dad” ha llegado a ser indiscutible, si por autoridad se entiende el resultado
de un proceso de recepción y, con ello, de escritura de la historia de una
disciplina. No es necesario que en todos los casos haya una influencia
directa de los dos autores, es decir, una experiencia de lectura; simple-
mente contribuyen a crear un clima de opinión que se transfiere por las
diferentes instancias de mediación.
En busca de la utopía: los Estudios Ibéricos, ¿puente o frontera? 25
4 Esta percepción La propia filología hispánica mantiene (o ha mantenido durante largos

probablemente tiene períodos) estereotipos respecto de la propia literatura. Otro de sus mitos ha
mucho que ver con
Ludwig Pfandl (véase sido Lope de Vega, representante genial del carácter nacional,4 visión que
Pfandl 1929). tiene una larguísima pervivencia y puede alcanzar temáticas muy alejadas
5 Es un tópico ya en el tiempo, como la recepción de García Lorca en Dámaso Alonso. En
con una cierta
antigüedad. No efecto, en su conocido artículo de 1952 Federico García Lorca y la expresión
extraña que de lo español, Dámaso Alonso parte de que España es diferente: ‘Salió
Bouterwek llame a la
época post-lopesca
España más agria y más suya, más cerrada, más trágica, más obsesio-
‘Geschichte des nante que las otras naciones’. Y, si ‘todo pueblo necesita expresarse a sí
Absterbens der alten mismo’, ‘la autoexpresión hispánica’ será distinta: para describirla, sólo
spanischen Poesie
und Beredsamkeit’ sirven ‘imágenes torrenciales o eruptivas’ (Alonso 1952: 271). ‘Terrible
(1804: 553). intensidad de lo peculiar, violencia casi brutal de su exteriorización: he ahí
la presencia de España. Es ése el genio arrebatado de lo español, que
algunas veces estalla produciendo extraños seres contorsionados, visiona-
rios’ (Alonso 1952: 271s), ‘verdaderos estallidos de sustancia hispánica’
(Alonso 1952: 272), por ejemplo el Arcipreste de Hita y Lope de Vega, que
reunió ‘en el haz de su genio todos los elementos de hispanidad’ (Alonso
1952: 273). Y tras Lope, el desierto (otro tópico de la historia literaria),5
hasta que llegara García Lorca, cuyo arte ‘es función hispánica en abso-
luto’ (Alonso 1952: 274):
Hacia nuestros días se concentraron, pues, de nuevo las esencias hispánicas,

se condensó toda nuestra dispersa tradición [. . .]; y surgió de este modo el
arte de García Lorca. Surgió porque sí, porque [. . .] tenía que cumplirse la
ley de nuestro destino: España se había expresado una vez más.
(Alonso 1952: 274s)
Este es ‘el destino de la personalidad artística de Federico García Lorca: ser

expresión de España’ (Alonso 1952: 279). Federico, pues, ‘tenía que ser’
(Alonso 1952: 274).
Hay muchos otros ejemplos de tradiciones intra–filológicas que respon-
den a pre–juicios. Se puede recordar, por ejemplo, que hasta los años sesenta,
la historiografía (francesa) de la literatura francesa mantuvo que en Francia
no había existido el Barroco. Al prejuicio había contribuido sin duda Gustave
Lanson (1923), cuando dividía el siglo XVII en ‘La preparación de las obras
maestras’, ‘La primera generación de los grandes clásicos’ y ‘Los grandes
artistas clásicos’, sin dejar lugar al Barroco. Como escribía Aguiar e Silva
(1986: 277), ‘gracias (. . .) a los esfuerzos de muchos estudiosos extranjeros
y de algunos críticos e historiadores franceses’ se ha superado esa fase, pero
el debate no está cerrado; en una historia de la literatura relativamente
reciente se propone la tesis de que la aceptación de una época barroca en
Francia a partir de los años sesenta no había sido sino una moda apologética
y polémica. Según Mesnard (1990: 23), la noción de un Barroco literario
‘rápidamente reveló su fragilidad y sus límites’.
Muchos de estos mitos giran en torno al “carácter nacional”. Las histo-
rias de la literatura son un magnífico arsenal para encontrar estereotipos
26 Enrique Banús
sobre el país cuya literatura se está transmitiendo – junto con esos 6 Por ejemplo, en la
estereotipos, por supuesto. Baste el ejemplo de A New History of Spanish Lit- importante Historia y
crítica de la literatura
erature publicada en 1961 y reeditada en 1991 por Richard Chandler y española, editada por
Kessel Schwartz. En ella desarrollan un catálogo bastante exhaustivo de Francisco Rico en los
años 1980–1992.
las ‘racial characteristics’ (sic) que ‘one may consider [. . .] as typical of the
7 Quien quiera ejemplos
Spanish people as a whole’ (Chandler y Schwartz 1961: 8). Si bien es puede consultar las
cierto que ‘any listing of the so-called essential characteristics [. . .] neces- páginas de discusión
en Wikipedia en
sarily remains incomplete and imperfect’, los autores realmente se conceptos como
esfuerzan en reducir al mínimo esa imperfección y hablan de “ikurriña” o
simplemente el debate
en torno a la grafía
stoicism, a sense of dignity and personal worth, individualism, democracy, alternativa “Euskadi”
and humor (. . .), mysticism, (. . .) a feeling of social equality (. . .); an atti- o “Euzkadi”.
tude of self-criticism; a disdain for creature comfort and a lack of desire for 8 Los “memoriales de
ratonera” eran
material possessions; a sense of the absurd (. . .); an adventuresome spirit; a
escritos que cualquier
preoccupation with death (. . .); a tendency to react first with the emotions ciudadano de Navarra
and secondly with reason. podía depositar en un
buzón (“ratonera”)
(Chandler y Schwarz 1961:17) cuando se reunían las
Cortes; cf. Iribarren
1956.
Y como ‘generalizaciones sobre la cultura y literatura’ indican: ‘dualism’,
‘popular spirit’, ‘individuality’, ‘improvisation’, ‘lack of intellectual
concern’, ‘criticism and discontent’ (Chandler-Schwartz 1961: 17–20).
Conviene indicar que algunas historias recientes de la literatura están
escritas desde una perspectiva que relativiza esas percepciones,6 pero no
cabe duda de que han tenido una gran fuerza. Y para quien crea que se
trata de un tema superado, baste recordar el reciente (y aun existente)
debate en torno a la llamada “memoria histórica”, que ha puesto sobre la
mesa la falta de consenso en la interpretación básica de las coordinadas
históricas. O basta recordar los conflictos identitarios en torno a culturas o
naciones sin Estado, que también se mueven en unos niveles de debate
marcados por imágenes distintas.7
La fuerza del mito es tal que puede llegar a contradecir la lógica. Sirva
un ejemplo tomado no de la literatura sino de otro ámbito de la cultura: la
gastronomía. No está muy lejano el tiempo en que a la tortilla de patatas
se le llamaba tortilla española, lo que evoca que está íntimamente ligada a
una identidad. Pues bien, hay quien – a saber con qué fundamento –
afirma que ‘el origen de este plato se hunde en la noche de los tiempos’
(Ballesta 1998). Tiene una cierta lógica: si tan inherente es a una cultura,
es obvio que sus orígenes están en un ámbito previo a la historia . . . por
mucho que sea bien sabido que la patata es un producto de importación de
América del Sur y por mucho que la primera mención documental de esa
tortilla no se dé hasta un anónimo “memorial de ratonera”, dirigido a las
Cortes de Navarra en 1817.8
Es muy difícil vivir al margen de esas tradiciones. Seremos capaces de
revisar algunas de las más burdas –las “deconstruiremos”–, pero en
otros casos nos mantendremos –consciente o inconscientemente– dentro
de ellas.

9 En lo que sigue se ha TESIS II

optado en parte por Ahí entra en juego la propia biografía, la historia personal, que ha ido dejando un
ejemplos tomados de
páginas de internet: poso de actitudes, de simpatías y antipatías, de ‘Weltanschauungen’ (en plural,
es quizá el medio más porque no siempre nuestra visión del mundo es monolítica, sino que encierra
consultado y que
quizá más difunda los matices, incluso pequeñas contradicciones que nos hacen humanos). También ella
“conocimientos”. configura nuestros pre-juicios y en muchos casos nos lleva también a optar por
10 Se suele remontar una de entre las diferentes tradiciones profesionales.
hasta la Edad Media,
en que España,
Incluso Hans Robert Jauss, el gran teórico de la teoría de la recepción
empeñada en la reconoce que en el horizonte de expectación –uno de los conceptos clave
Reconquista, en su visión- se expresan también elementos biográficos –recuerdos, remi-
quedaría aislada (ver
Sánchez-Albornoz niscencias, asociaciones– que no son compartidos. Aparte de muchas
1952). Ernst-Robert otras implicaciones, este posicionamiento biográfico tiene una gran impor-
Curtius dedica el
Excurso XX de tancia en un campo como los estudios hispánicos, marcados por tantos
Literatura Europea y debates, tantos temas conflictivos, tantas visiones encontradas: baste
Edad Media latina a
“El ‘retraso’ cultural recordar términos como “las dos Españas”, “España como problema”,
de España”, que “España sin problema”, “España invertebrada”, “la España eterna”, el
interpreta como algo
positivo, como
debate Américo Castro versus Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, la “memoria
condición para que el histórica” . . . Es un campo preñado de historia, preñado de imágenes, en
Siglo de Oro enlazara que incluso el rechazo de la imagen se hace en nombre de la imagen; un
con la Edad Media (cf.
Curtius 1965: 525). ejemplo: junto a los temas relacionados con Lope de Vega o del erasmismo
11 Véase al respecto el en España, el conocido hispanista José Montesinos abordó muchos otros
magnífico artículo de en sus escritos de los años anteriores a la Guerra Civil; así surgieron
Bernecker 2004.
artículos o notas que luego dieron lugar a su libro Ensayos y estudios de lite-
12 Véase, como un ratura española, publicado en 1970. Allí se incluye un artículo de 1934 en
ejemplo entre
muchos: ‘La ausencia que reaccionaba frente al trabajo de Ludwig Pfandl. Escribía Montesinos:
de lo maravilloso, y
hasta de lo
mitológico, en Vivimos en la urgencia de elaborar nuestros criterios, de recuperar nuestro
nuestras letras sentido. No nos inquietarían todos los romanticismos del mundo si sin-
contrasta con su
prodigalidad en
tiéramos en torno nuestro una juventud entregada a esa tarea de revalorar
otras literaturas’ la cultura española [. . .]. Quisiéramos esta tarea magnífica de reconquistar a
(Díez-Echarri/Roca España, de hallar el sentido de España.
Franquesa 1982: 13).
Montesinos 1970: 165
13 Edgar Allison Peers
dirá que el
romanticismo es ‘una Es en nombre de España en que se rechaza otra visión
característica
fundamental de la de España
literatura y del arte de También otros tópicos han gozado de gran aceptación a lo largo de muchos
España’ (Peers 1962:
I, 22s). Frente a ello,
tiempos:9 la visión de un cierto retraso cultural10 o de un Sonderweg, un
Llorens (1989) camino especial español11 ha sido altamente popular precisamente en cír-
subrayará la culos hispanísticos. Quizá ya no está tan difundido el tópico del realismo,
importancia del
retorno de los suave pero constante, de la literatura española,12 que ha convivido pacífi-
emigrantes. camente con el del romanticismo esencial,13 pero sí se mantienen los del
14 La web del Centro gusto antitético de la literatura española (conceptismo versus cul-
Nacional de
Información y
teranismo,14 escuela sevillana versus escuela salmantina,15 modernismo
Comunicación versus 9816 – movimiento éste que, una vez más, mostraría el “camino
Educativa (entidad del especial” español, pues sería autóctono, una reacción a la pérdida de
Ministerio de
Cuba, etc.).
28 Enrique Banús
De nuevo: es muy difícil sustraerse a este clima, a estas influencias ambien- Educación) presenta
tales, dentro de las cuales el posicionamiento muchas veces es consecuencia unas bonitas tablas en
que se contraponen
de simpatías personales, de vivencias, de la biografía más que de la ciencia. culteranismo y
conceptismo.
TESIS III 15 Son innumerables las
páginas web que
Además, vivimos insertos en una cultura, entendida en el sentido amplio que hablan de esa
refleja la definición de Tylor. También esa cultura nos proporciona un conjunto de contraposición. Un
ejemplo especialmente
prejuicios y de visiones sobre “nosotros”, siempre a la busca de la respuesta a la claro: Fray Luis de
acuciante pregunta de quiénes somos. León ‘preside la
Y esto nos mete de lleno en un tema difícil: la identidad colectiva, su escuela salmantina
opuesta a la
necesidad . . . y su problemática. No cabe duda de que, al menos desde los ampulosidad y el
años 80 del siglo pasado, la identidad colectiva es un tema estrella.17 formalismo de la
escuela sevillana’
Mucho se espera de ella. Para el Presidente del Gobierno vasco, por (Alvarez Hidalgo).
ejemplo, para conseguir la paz es necesario ‘construir una identidad nueva Numerosos ejemplos
de esta contraposición
y renovada’ (El Mundo: 2003: 8). Para Michel Bassand, experto en desar- en las historias de la
rollo regional, ‘a region will be more of a dynamic and authentic partner literatura se
encuentran en Banús
of the other regions of Europe and the rest of the world if its identity is 1989.
living’ (Bassand 1993: 185). Es más: ‘a region without identity is manipu-
16 Esta contraposición
lated by others’ (Bassand 1993: 185).18 -hoy superada en la
Anthony Smith, el gran experto en el tema de la identidad nacional, se literatura
científica . . . no
pregunta con cierta sorpresa: ‘Why is it that so many people remain so necesariamente
deeply attached to their ethnic communities and nations at the close of the en el imaginario
colectivo- fue
second millennium?’ (Smith 1999: 3). popularizada por
No cabe duda de que esto es así, a pesar de la sorpresa de Anthony Guillermo Díaz-Plaja
Smith; a pesar de que, como afirmaba Philip Schlesinger en 1991: en Modernismo
frente a Noventa y
‘“Cultural identity” is nowhere defined’ (Schlesinger 1991: 146).19 Y en Ocho (1966).
los años transcurridos desde entonces parece que tampoco se ha pro- 17 El Catálogo de la
ducido esa clarificación. Y a pesar de que incluso cabe preguntarse si la Library of Congress
muestra más de
aplicación del concepto de “identidad” fuera de la persona, tiene sentido.20 10,000 referencias a
libros cuyo título
TESIS IV incluye el término de
identidad cultural.
Y es con todo este batiburrillo con el que nos dedicamos a los “Estudios Ibéricos”, Una breve revisión
que nos insertan en todo un intercambio de mensajes sobre un “otro” específico, de los títulos indica
que muy pocos son
intercambio del cual van emergiendo y se van modificando las opiniones domi- anteriores a 1980 y
nantes, las modas y también, con la fosilización de algunas de estas modas, la que la profusión de
estudios relacionados
mentalidad colectiva, la actitud de una sociedad frente a otra. con ese tema va
Armand Mattelart afirma que la identidad cultural, en cierta medida, ha aumentando hacia el
final del siglo.
venido a sustituir al modelo nacional, pero ‘easily slips into a nationalist affir-
mation of the superiority of one group over others’ (Mattelart 1984: 110). 18 Philip Schlesinger
asocia el auge de este
En efecto, en la historia se ha comprobado muchas veces que existe una término con la
tendencia muy consolidada a considerar la propia identidad en relación a Conferencia sobre
Políticas Culturales
otras, estableciendo relaciones construidas estereotipadas y simplificadas.21 organizada por la
La identidad colectiva se ha establecido en muchos casos ‘by means of UNESCO en 1982 en
México: ‘At Unesco’s
differentiation from other group identities’ (Firchow 1986: 185);22 la World Conference on
noción de alteridad a menudo se ha convertido en sinónimo de antago- Cultural Policies in
Mexico City, “cultural
nismo (Jenkins-Sofos 1996a: 286). Esto habitualmente sólo puede llevar a

identity” became a definiciones en términos negativos, como dice Boyce (1998: 306), indi-
keyword’ (Schlesinger cando más bien lo que “no somos” y excluyendo a quienes “no son”. Por
1991: 144).
ello, conceptos como el ingles ‘nationhood’ tienen capacidad tanto de
19 A no ser que se
entienda que excluir como de incluir, según explican Jenkins y Sofos (1996: 2).
este párrafo del De este modo se presentan o se crean y se consolidan identidades colecti-
documento final
de la Conferencia vas con los valores y actitudes que se consideran inherentes a ellas – muchas
de México es una veces de forma nada ingenua, sino manifestando –o precisamente ocultando-
definición: ‘es una
entidad dinámica en
intenciones políticas, deseos de aglutinar sociedades o de disgregarlas.
constante mutación
en la que hay que TESIS V
reconocer, no
obstante, invariantes Además, los “Estudios Ibéricos” nos convierten en mediadores, en transmisores,
culturales definidas en constructores de puentes.
por la historia,
las lenguas y la Aun los no expertos en educación sabemos que la educación tiene un
psicología comunes’ importante efecto socializante, es decir, transmite categorías, valores,
(UNESCO 1982:
62, Recomendación relatos que ayudan a saberse encuadrado en una sociedad, a tener “un
núm. 6). lugar en el mundo”.23 De esa forma se concreta la tendencia (y la necesi-
20 Dice, por ejemplo, dad) de la persona a huir del vacío. A ello contribuimos los mediadores, los
Lapierre: ‘Le concept expertos, los profesores.
de l’identité collective
(. . .) n’explique rien’ Por eso, parece importante entender el estatuto epistemológico del
(Lapierre 1984: 196). mediador, partiendo de la base de que es un receptor-emisor,24 es decir,
Por ello, se puede
afirmar con Kreckel realiza por dos veces un proceso de selección e interpretación (‘compren-
que se debe rechazar sión en acción’, según Steiner 1991: 18). Por ello, con Steiner, ‘un intér-
cualquier
transposición del
prete es un descifrador y un comunicador de significados’ (1991: 18).25 En
concepto de identidad ambos momentos se activarán sus pre-juicios y sus intereses. En un primer
personal al plano paso, aplicando lo que Donati señala para los actores sociales, se puede
colectivo (cf. Kreckel
1994: 13) y concluir decir que los mediadores, ‘desde su personalidad, interiorizan e interpretan
con Straub: ‘the una cultura’ (Donati 1995: 64). Ya en el primer momento de la labor
foregoing manner of
speaking of ‘collective mediadora, es decir, en la recepción, su relación con el mensaje es her-
identity’ is menéutica, es decir, su propia situación y sus expectativas interaccionan
scientifically
untenable’ (Straub de forma circular con el mensaje.26
2000: 71). Por otro lado, la re-emisión no es idéntica a la recepción, sino que – de
21 Es lo que hace Xabier nuevo – supone una selección y una interpretación. Y esto no sólo porque
Arzalluz cuando afirma: ‘la creencia de que se puede expresar bien todo lo que se comprende bien
‘Del Ebro para abajo,
todos están contra es muy ingenua’ (García Yebra 1983: 339). Es más: si se dice que el
nosotros’ (El Mundo emisor –el autor – tiene en cuenta a los receptores (o –mejor, su idea de
2002).
ellos) ya en el momento de la producción (teoría del “lector implícito”27),
22 ‘According to the
sociological
esta presencia de los receptores será aun mayor en el proceso de re-
hypothesis, every We- emisión del mediador, es decir, en su segunda selección e interpretación;
group implies como señala Ehrismann, el mediador ‘transmite bajo el interés (. . .) que
necessarily the
existence of the cree más apropiado o que le afecta más’ (1975: 15).28
others, and it is based La reflexión sobre el estatuto epistemológico del mediador parte de la
upon the distinction
between us and the idea de que mediación, siempre, significa “transformación del mensaje”; el
others’ (Skiljan 1998: mediador, por tanto, tiene algo de “autor”. El mediador garantiza que el
828).
mundo del “otro”, en este caso, el mundo ibérico ‘sea noticia y siga siendo
23 La acertada expresión noticia’ (Steiner 1991: 43). Y frente a quienes consideran a los media-
está tomada del título
dores como “perturbadores” se les puede recordar, con metáfora de
30 Enrique Banús
Steiner, que ‘el eco enriquece’ (Steiner 1991: 344). A la paradoja que de una película del
supone el hecho de que el mediador da mayor difusión y permanencia a argentino Adolfo
Aristarain (1992).
una obra cultural, siempre reinterpretándola, Escarpit (1973) la llamará
24 Tiene una cierta
‘traición creadora’; Guyard hablará de tantas ‘belles infidèles’ en la traduc- tradición la imagen
ción (Guyard 1958: 34) y Steiner de la ‘paradoja de la traición por mag- del “hacedor de
puentes”, sobre todo
nificación’ (Steiner 1991: 341), mientras que Pierre Bourdieu (1993: para el traductor;
284) recuerda que ‘hay errores de lectura que son muy eficaces’. Es decir, Guillén (1985: 72) la
utiliza también para
si bien el mediador, en muchas ocasiones, no es el “inventor” de las los ‘intermediarios’.
novedades que puedan dar origen a un cambio social, sí es el transmisor
25 Con Jauss se puede
necesario para que se llegue a formar una “masa crítica” que permite el decir que se trata de
surgimiento de nuevos estados de opinión y también contribuye a que se ‘une compréhension,
elle-même
vayan introduciendo en el imaginario colectivo. Dispone de un cierto poder productrice’ (Jauss
sobre el “producto cultural”: puede darle continuidad y nueva difusión o 1989: 61).
revelar sentidos hasta entonces no explorados y, en cualquier caso, con- 26 Gracia (1996:
tribuye a conformar tradiciones receptoras.29 En el caso explícito de los 168) concreta esa
participación activa
“Estudios Ibéricos”, muchas veces seremos quienes, ante los receptores del lector en ‘filling
(estudiantes, en muchos casos) seremos vistos como los que han de orga- lacunae, tying
artifacts to meanings,
nizar un ‘univers of meaning’ (en palabras de Davis y Schleifer (1991: 49), reconstruction, and
que parafrasean a Northrop Frye). evaluation’.
27 Como es sabido,
TESIS VI el término es de
Wolfgang Iser,
Con ello –repitiendo en parte una tesis anterior- el mediador queda inserto en todo aunque quizá éste
un intercambio de mensajes sobre un “otro” específico, intercambio del cual van lo entienda de otro
modo al que aquí se
emergiendo y se van modificando las opiniones dominantes, las modas y también, sugiere, es decir, como
con la fosilización de algunas de estas modas, la mentalidad colectiva, la actitud de aquel acto de lectura
prescrito en el texto
una sociedad frente a otra. (cf. Iser 1972: 9 y
Este proceso es complejo: conviene recordar aquí la “two step flow 1976). Más claro en
Naumann 1971, que
hipothesis”, presentada en 1955 por Katz y Lazarsfeld, según la cual los lo entiende como
procesos de formación de opiniones muchas veces se realizan no por el imagen del lector en
contacto directo, sino bajo influencia de la comunicación intermedia, en la conciencia del
autor.
muchos casos con la autoridad de los ‘opinion leaders’. En efecto, bajo el
28 Gracia (1996: 145)
título La influencia personal: el individuo en el proceso de comunicación de masas afirma que ‘authors
(Personal Influence: the part played by people in the flow of mass communica- often have in mind
specific groups of
tions), los autores presentan un estudio sobre el alcance que tienen las persons as audience’.
relaciones humanas en el flujo de las ideas transmitidas desde los medios
29 Como recuerda Frye:
de comunicación. Para ello, se basan en unos estudios de tipo ‘panel’30 ‘Whatever popularity
realizados en Decatur, una pequeña ciudad de 60,000 habitantes en el Shakespeare and
Keats have now is
estado de Illinois, en el medio oeste de Estados Unidos. equally the result of
Se apartan con ello de la imagen hasta entonces prevalente, ‘la de una the publicity of
criticism. A public
masa atomizada compuesta por millones de lectores, oyentes, etc., dis- that tries to do
puestos a recibir el Mensaje; y que cada Mensaje es un estímulo directo y without criticism,
poderoso a la acción, que obtiene una respuesta inmediata y espontánea’ (. . .) loses its
cultural memory’
(Katz y Lazarsfeld 1979: 18). (Frye 1990: 4).
Para los autores, esta perspectiva había proyectado una imagen poco 30 Lazarsfeld fue uno de
verosímil de la sociedad – ‘caracterizada por una organización social los pioneros de este
método, consistente
amorfa y una escasez de relaciones interpersonales’ (Katz y Lazarsfeld

en una serie de 1979: 18)-, de los públicos y de la capacidad de los propios medios para
entrevistas repetidas llegar hasta ellos. Sin embargo, las investigaciones sobre los efectos, asegu-
sobre el mismo
grupo de sujetos ran Katz y Lazarsfeld, han ido incorporando factores que han llevado a un
(Picó 2003: 116). ‘rechazo gradual del esquema con el que empezó la investigación: por un
31 Una vez convertido lado, el omnipotente medio que lanza el mensaje y, por otro, la masa atomi-
en autoridad, el
mediador puede zada que espera su recepción sin nada más entre uno y otra’ (Katz y
sustituir el contacto Lazarsfeld 1979: 22).
directo con los
fenómenos a
Ante ello, plantean la teoría del ‘flujo en dos etapas’ de la comuni-
estudiar, ya sean cación. Según esta teoría, que ya había presentado Lazarsfeld años antes
textos, realidades en The People’s Choice (publicada por vez primera en 1944), los mensajes se
sociales . . .
Américo Castro, transmiten desde los medios hasta las personas en dos etapas: ‘Ideas often
malévolamente, flow from radio and print to the opinion leaders and from them to the less
señalaba que el
alumno de Filosofía y active sections of population’ (Lazarsfeld et al 1968: 151). En todas las
Letras de principios ocasiones en las que Lazarsfeld había puesto a prueba esta hipótesis, se
del siglo pasado ‘no
está obligado a haber habían obtenido resultados que confirmaban la teoría: ‘La fuente de influ-
leído cierto número encia que pareció más determinante para cambiar las ideas de los votantes
de textos españoles de
importancia capital,
fue la influencia personal’ (Katz y Lazarsfeld 1979: 34).
ni a entenderlos
correctamente (. . .). Es en este contexto en que se puede considerar a
Con saberse la prosa
de Fitzmaurice-Kelly, los mediadores
el alumno tiene TESIS VII
bastante’ (Castro
1924: 216). Además, en ese intercambio de mensajes ocupamos una posición especial, pues
estamos investidos de autoridad, la autoridad de los “expertos”, puesto que ocupamos
lo que Baldick (1987: 25) denomina ‘privileged standpoint of cultural authority’.31
Jauss (1989: 67) habla, como de un fenómeno especial, de la experien-
cia del sujeto receptor susceptible de fundar una tradición. Es la situación
de todos los que trabajamos en el ámbito académico: estamos fundando
una tradición – que continuarán (con sus propias variaciones) quienes nos
escuchan a lo largo de los años, teniendo que rendir cuentas de aquello
que han escuchado de nosotros -¡los exámenes!-, y (en menor medida)
quienes nos leen.
Ahora bien, Gaiser – refiriéndose a la crítica literaria – habla de que el
impacto del juicio crítico será mayor o menor según el prestigio y la influ-
encia del crítico, y según el grado de influencia del medio en el que publica
su recensión (Gaiser 1993: 99). Trasladado a la docencia, una cierta
autoridad del profesor (o profesora) existe siempre (o casi siempre) por el
mero hecho de ser profesor: hay una institución reconocida como apta
para conceder títulos que nos arropa. A la autoridad personal se unirá,
además, la autoridad mayor o menor de la institución en que trabajemos.
No hay duda de que en el imaginario colectivo, con razón o sin ella, el
nombre de cada universidad evoca connotaciones bien distintas.
La autoridad se basa en que el receptor no suele ser consciente de que
el mediador, como dice Max Aub respecto del historiador de la literatura,
‘es escritor de tercera o cuarta mano, porque no puede llevar a cabo su
cometido de otra manera. Su excelencia no depende de su saber sino del de
los demás’ (Aub 1974: 9).
32 Enrique Banús
Un corolario necesario 32 El 23 de enero de

Dice Mafalda, en uno de sus análisis del mundo contemporáneo, que una 2008, se decía al
respecto: ‘El número
de las causas de sus males es que en este mundo hay muchos más ‘proble- de wikipedistas es de
mólogos’ que ‘solucionólogos’ (cf. Quino 1992: 475). Uno podría escapar a 609.845 y continúa
creciendo’ (Wikipedia
la crítica, implícita en esta frase, apelando a que, como intelectual, ‘estoy 2008). Se refiere a la
aquí para preguntar, no para dar respuesta’ como decía Max Frisch (1950: edición en español. La
mayor wikipedia, la
127) citando a Hendrik Ibsen. Pero al menos se deberían esbozar algunos edición en inglés,
pasos que ayuden a salir de la perplejidad que puede causar la reflexión tiene registrados a
6.166.659 usuarios,
sobre la posición del mediador entre culturas, del experto en Estudios es decir, redactores.
Ibéricos que trabaja en el ámbito universitario.
33 En realidad, es un
No se trata de presentar aquí un curso abreviado de teoría del tema debatido cuál
conocimiento científico aplicado a las humanidades y, más específicamente, fue exactamente su
papel en los inicios,
a los estudios de área, sino de dar algunas pistas, comentadas y ejemplifi- pero no cabe duda de
cadas. Quizá parezca extraño utilizar para ello Wikipedia como punto de que fue relevante.
De hecho, en febrero
referencia, pero qué duda cabe de que se trata de una de las mayores de 2001 se convirtió
“comunidades del saber” que existen.32 en el editor único de
la enciclopedia, status
¿Podría la solución consistir en la asepsia: los datos, sólo los datos? “Los que mantuvo hasta su
datos no se interpretan” – dicen. La respuesta es fácil: “No, pero se seleccio- renuncia el 1 de
nan”. La asepsia: es la filosofía “wiki”. En su versión realista suena así: ‘se marzo de 2002.
busca una referencia que defienda tu postura y se pone’ (Alfaro 2007). En

su versión más noble, suena así: ‘es necesario sustentarse en fuentes verifi-
cables’ (Alfaro 2007a). Otra posibilidad es lo que wikipedia considera uno
de sus cinco pilares: ‘El punto de vista neutral’ (PVN). Establece que la enci-
clopedia debe contener hechos y que sus artículos deben ser escritos sin
sesgos, presentando adecuadamente todos los puntos de vista existentes
sobre tales hechos. (. . .) algo que según Jimbo Wales, fundador del proyecto,
(. . .), es «absoluto e innegociable»’ (Wikipedia 2002). Esto puede llevar a
extremos tales como la convicción de un wikipedista de que ‘de acuerdo al
punto de vista neutral, ninguna organización “es” terrorista. Es conside-
rada así por gente que se debe identificar apropiadamente, pero por ese
relativismo el tema no es apropiado para una tabla o lista’ (Thialfi 2007).
Ahora bien, el concepto de “neutralidad” como presentación de todos
los puntos de vista es utópico. ¿Cómo presentar todos los puntos de vista
que, además, habrían de presentarse desde todos los puntos de vista? Nos
acercamos al mapamundi escala 1:1 de que hablara Borges.
Y la propia historia de Wikipedia da idea de las limitaciones de este
método y de posibles soluciones. En efecto, Larry Singer, uno de sus fun-
dadores,33 el 15 de septiembre de 2004 anunció un proyecto alternativo,
“Citizendium”, presentado como ‘the world’s most trusted knowledge
base. A wiki with experts and real names. A new knowledge society’
(Citizendium 2006): es decir, una enciclopedia con ‘un sistema mucho
más estricto en la edición de los artículos, no permitiendo la edición
anónima e imponiendo un orden jerárquico entre sus usuarios basado en
los méritos intelectuales que les sean reconocidos’ (Wikipedia 2006).
Volvemos, pues, a los expertos, reconocidos incluso desde ese mundo de la
“democracia intelectual”.

34 Menéndez Pelayo Los Estudios Ibéricos son, pues, cosa de expertos que no pueden pre-
se mete con ella: tender ni la asepsia ni la presentación de todos los puntos de vista. ¿Qué
‘¿Por qué no había
industria en España? actitud tomar, pues? Parece lógico aplicar aquel ‘ven y lo verás’ del
Por la Inquisición. Evangelio, el ‘quien tenga dinero y ocasión, que viaje, de Johann Gottfried
¿Por qué había malas
costumbres, como en Herder (1967: 359) – en el acercamiento, el viaje, está el verdadero
todos tiempos y conocimiento. Pero ya nos previene el zorro en El Principito de Antoine de
países, excepto en la
bienaventurada Saint-Exupéry: ‘Lo esencial es invisible a los ojos de los hombres. Sólo se ve
Arcadia de los bien con el corazón’ (2007: 93), con lo que podría haber casos en los que
bucólicos? Por la
Inquisición. ¿Por qué
se puede invertir el refrán: ‘Ojos que ven, corazón que no siente’. ¿La
somos holgazanes los empatía como condición necesaria para los Estudios Ibéricos?
españoles? Por la Y sí, es cierto; por ejemplo, el viaje no siempre ha aportado conocimien-
Inquisición. ¿Por qué
hay toros en España? tos. Lo sabemos de la literatura de viajes. Los expertos en este tipo de lite-
Por la Inquisición. ratura han comprobado que –como escribió Uwe Japp (1976: 23)- en ella
¿Por qué duermen los
españoles la siesta? se mezclan las observaciones con las proyecciones, o que la percepción del
Por la Inquisición. viajero depende de su actitud previa. Hans-Joachim Possin (1972) –en Reisen
¿Por qué había malas
posadas y malos und Literatur (Viajes y literatura) ha establecido que incluso la literatura de
caminos y malas viajes autobiográfica es una ficción.
comidas en España,
en tiempo de Madama
Para el ámbito hispánico hay un ejemplo bien claro: Madame d’Aulnoy,
D’Aulnoy? Por la viajera del XVII de gran influencia, escribió un libro, según Freixa, muy
Inquisición, por el popular en Inglaterra y que, traducido por primera vez en 1692, alcanzó su
fanatismo, por la
teocracia. ¡Qué furor onceava edición en 1808’). Menéndez Pelayo, desde su peculiar perspectiva,
clerofóbico domina a arremeterá contra ella, por la visión sesgada que transmite . . .34 y hoy no sólo
ciertos hombres!’
(Menéndez Pelayo se puede decir que se trata de relatos ‘que la crítica posterior ha considerado
1876: 132–140). falsos’ (Freixa 1994), sino que hay quienes –posiblemente sin razón afirman:
35 Así aparece, como ‘Madame D’Aulnoy: la influencia de un viaje que nunca tuvo lugar’.35
uno de los puntos de
un curso de postgrado
Otro ejemplo, referido a los viajeros a España, es también bien cono-
(Varela 2007). cido: el paso de la imagen ilustrada a la imagen romántica, tan contra-
36 El escritor Javier puestas, se da sin que cambie esencialmente la percepción del país: cambia
Martínez Reverte la valoración . . . y cambian los relatos de viajes cuando ha cambiado la
recuerda así sus clases
de griego: describe valoración (cf. sobre todo Brüggemann 1956 y Walz 1965).
cómo del Homero con Por tanto, tampoco el conducir hacia el contacto directo es la solución
que se encontró en el
colegio no quedaba
simple que a todos se nos ocurre. ¿Habrá que mantener la distancia? En
sino ‘la dificultad de mis tiempos de estudiante cursaba por los Institutos de Filología Románica
sus aoristos, la en Alemania la leyenda de que Ludwig Pfandl, el famoso hispanista que
maraña del lenguaje
griego, la selva de tanta influencia tuvo, jamás quiso viajar a España por no perder la nece-
palabras que saria distancia a su objeto de investigación. Supongo que será leyenda
trabajosamente hay
que ir encontrando en urbana, como se dice ahora. No parece que consiguiera esa distancia,
un diccionario. ¿Y además, pues hay quien ha hablado precisamente de la ‘escritura emo-
dónde está Homero,
dónde el espíritu que cional de Pfandl’ (Ingenschay 1996: 60). ¿Habrá que volver al dictum del
quiso comunicar en zorro y enseñar a ver con el corazón? ¿La empatía como solución, el no
sus obras, dónde su
valor en la historia de
juzgar desde fuera, sino introduciéndose en la cultura del “otro”? Una
la cultura humana?’ cierta dosis de posición es necesaria, sin duda. Una cierta dosis de pasión
Y concluye: ‘Es también, al menos para evitar el tedio.36
ciertamente triste,
pero la enseñanza de Pero, de verdad, ¿sólo se ve bien con el corazón? ¿Y qué decir del caso
Homero resulta en Heinrich Beck? El suizo Heinrich Beck tuvo que abandonar Alemania en
buena parte
1933, perseguido por la Gestapo por haber editado un periódico prohibido.
34 Enrique Banús
Tres años después de su llegada a Madrid se encuentra en la sala de espera indigerible para un
de un médico, y para matar el tiempo toma una de las revistas que hay por estudiante normal’
(Martínez Reverte
allí y descubre a un autor al que permanecería vinculado toda su vida: 1973: 10).
Federico García Lorca.37 Tras su muerte, en 1936, con la mediación de 37 ‘Fue como si m
Thomas Mann y Georg Kaiser, consigue lo que él llama derechos exclusivos hubiera alcanzado el
rayo (. . .). Empecé a
para la traducción de García Lorca al alemán (Beck 1981: 120)38 – durante traducir, como
décadas las únicas traducciones publicadas en alemán van a ser las de Beck. borracho, sin pensar
en otra cosa, enfermo,
Y la primera recepción es entusiástica; los receptores no se escandalizan por bombardeado, (. . .)
este Lorca ‘beckiano’: sus prejuicios coinciden con los de la audiencia,39 con encarcelado,
lo que la crítica puede afirmar con entusiasmo: García Lorca es ‘la voz de hambriento (. . .),
daba igual: yo
España’ – así lo dice un crítico (Rischbieter: 1962: 464). Pero luego se irá traducía’ (Beck 1981:
abriendo paso una recepción mucho más matizada y finalmente crítica: el 119).
texto de Beck –según afirma algún crítico, con expresiones que muchos 38 Francisco, el hermano
del poeta, le envía un
otros suscribirían- es ‘getragen’ (ceremonioso) y ‘betulich’ (afectado) telegrama desde
(Siebenmann 1988: 17s.); uno de los autores que estudia la recepción de Nueva York, en que
García Lorca en Alemania utiliza la expresión, ciertamente nada positiva, de habla de traductor
autorizado. Beck lo
Edelkitsch, que es como decir ‘horteradas con nivel’ (Rogmann 1981). En interpreta de aquella
realidad, con sus traducciones Heinrich Beck transmite un García Lorca que manera.
es más “español”, más “andaluz” que el original, al menos de acuerdo con 39 Sobre la imagen de
España en Alemania
los estereotipos al uso: García Lorca suena –en versión Beck– muy barroco y, véase Brüggemann
por lo tanto, muy español, con todos los elementos que se corresponden con 1958 (con una buena
ello: “pasión”, “temperamento”, “misterio”, “orientalismo”, pero también presentación de la
imagen “ilustrada” y
“violencia” –aquí se encuentra una buena parte de la “España negra”– y “romántica” de
barroquismo, mucho barroquismo, que –según algunos influyentes filólogos España) y
Brüggemann 1956,
de otros tiempos- es uno de los elementos constitutivos de la literatura Walz 1965.
española – y del carácter español (véase sobre todo Pfandl 1929). El propio 40 Un indicio del déficit
Beck subraya una y otra vez que García Lorca es andaluz (1981: 13) y de encuentro con
el texto se puede
barroco (1981: 24). Y le engloba en la imagen que tiene de España, donde encontrar incluso en
abundan la ‘irracionalidad’ y el ‘misticismo’. la estadísticas sobre
los libros y la lectura
que, en España, dan
Nemo dat quod non habet – nadie da lo que no tiene cuenta del desfase
De nuevo, ¿cuál es la clave? Quizá un punto importante sea, simplemente, entre la producción
–muy amplia–, la
ser conscientes de la problemática y hacerla transparente, transmitirla. compra –bastante
Además, procurar el encuentro con las fuentes, sabiendo que, por parte de considerable– y la
lectura de libros –más
los estudiantes, ¡hay miedo a las fuentes! (cf. Banús 2006).40 bien escasa–. En
Por eso, tantas veces el estudiante busca por ejemplo en internet datos 2000 se editaron en
España 62.224 libros
previos a la lectura, luego, introducciones, prólogos, carátulas . . . Con (con lo que, en cifras
Böhler (1975: 68) se puede recordar que en la recepción de un libro absolutas, ocupa el
influye la valoración de la cubierta y su diseño gráfico. ¿Cómo no van a tercer lugar en la
Unión Europea), se
influir prólogos y comentarios? Aconséjese a los estudiantes –diríamos casi facturaron más de
en estilo moralizante de un predicador- huir de prólogos e introducciones 2.5 millones de euros
(un 70% de hogares
como de tentación diabólica y enfrentarse al texto o a cualquier otra reali- compran libros,
dad sin otras armas que las de su preparación intelectual, su capacidad de aunque un 35% no
más de cinco libros al
raciocinio y una buena dosis de optimismo y confianza en la razón. año); el porcentaje de
Pero, además, atemoríceseles frente a la búsqueda de seguridades. lectores de libros no
profesionales está por
Combátase, por ejemplo, en los estudiantes la confianza en las explicaciones

debajo del 60% (datos por simples relaciones causa–efecto; es muy popular el establecer puentes
de: Ministerio de entre el autor y su texto, siguiendo la máxima de Hirsch: ‘the meaning of
Educación, Cultura y
Deporte (ed.) 2002). a text is the author’s meaning’ (Hirsch 1969: 25). La web -¡he aquí otra
prueba de lo dicho!- presenta múltiples ejemplos de ello. Dice así una
página dedicada a Borges: ‘Conocer a un escritor es entender su universo:
sus fuentes literarias, sus temas recurrentes, sus obsesiones y sus sueños’
(Hadis 2002).
Eso sí: déseles libertad de disentir. Yo tuve la suerte de estudiar en el
Colegio Alemán de mi ciudad, que en tiempos del franquismo no estaba
reconocido, así que el último curso debíamos hacerlo en el Instituto. El
paso de un pequeño y familiar colegio a un instituto anónimo atemorizaba
algo. Allí nos encontrábamos con profesores desconocidos, catedráticos de
Instituto – entre ellos el de Literatura, joven, pero que infundía gran
respeto. Cuando nos devolvió el primer comentario de texto que hubimos
de hacer en casa yo observé con terror cómo mi texto estaba lleno de lla-
madas a bolígrafo rojo, en mayúsculas, que decían: NO, adobado a veces
con signos de admiración. Mis expectativas sobre la nota eran acordes con
esas anotaciones. Al girar la hoja vi más “Noes” y, al final, un comentario
que, más o menos, decía: ‘No estoy de acuerdo en muchas cosas, pero está
bien argumentado.’ Y ponía un 10 como nota.
Eso es honestidad, actitud quizá un poco devaluada tras la deconstruc-
ción que Marco Antonio hace de ella en el Julio César de Shakespeare, pero
actitud estrictamente necesaria si se quiere que los Estudios Ibéricos no
sean sin más la traslación de unos prejuicios y estereotipos procedentes de
aquí (la propia biografía) y de allá (la tradición, la historia de la disciplina).
Se habla tanto de libertad de cátedra (y bueno es hablarlo, ahora que el
mercado quiere imponernos los contenidos de lo que hemos de transmitir
en la Universidad), ¿por qué se habla tan poco de responsabilidad de
cátedra? La responsabilidad de cátedra es precisamente la que nos impulsa
a ese difícil equilibrio entre pasión y distancia, entre transmisión de la
complejidad y acercamiento a la realidad, entre personalidad que sabe
seleccionar y ascesis que sabe tomar distancia de los propios prejuicios.
El origen de toda esta problemática es la complejidad del mundo
humanístico en que nos movemos. Pero la complejidad es riqueza. Y las cien-
cias humanas y sociales –y, por tanto, los Estudios Ibéricos- son guardianes de
esa riqueza, frente a todos los intentos de simplificación de las ideologías y
las modas.
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Contributor details
Enrique Banús, M.A., Ph.D. (Comparative Literature, German Literature, Romance
Literature, University of Aachen, Germany). Currently Director of the Centre for
European Studies at the University of Navarre, where he teaches European
Literature and Cultural Studies. Jean Monnet personal Chair in European Culture.
Director of the Masters in Cultural Management at the Universitat Internacional de
Catalunya in Barcelona. Contact: Centro de Estudios Europeos, Universidad de
Navarra, E-31080 Pamplona, Spain.
E-mail: ebanus@unav.es
40 Enrique Banús
IJIS_21_1_03-Platero 5/31/08 10:28 AM Page 41
Open Forum
Open Forum. English language. doi: 10.1386/ijis.21.1.41/3
Outstanding challenges in a
post-equality era: The same-sex marriage
and gender identity laws in Spain
Raquel Platero Complutense University of Madrid
Abstract Keywords
Spain has captured international attention with regards to equality for sexual Gay, lesbian and
minorities, recently approving laws that allow same-sex couples to marry under transgender rights
the same conditions as different-sex couples (Law 13/2005) and that allow same-sex marriage
transgender people to change their name in the register without having to go intersectionality
through compulsory surgery (Law 3/2007). Using intersectionality as a frame-
work for my analysis, I explore the limitations of the notion of equality in both
legal texts by adding an analysis that includes not only sexuality, but also gender,
ethnicity, age, and class. Both laws aimed at satisfying the demands of social
movements and were designed to overcome inequality and have a relevant sym-
bolic impact. Despite this, it is argued, they were not framed to transform society
in depth. Both laws are contributing to reproduce inequality by not taking into
account multiple discriminations.
The regulation of sexuality has evolved rapidly in recent years, with the cre- 1 In chronological
ation of not only new sexual identities and social movements around sexual order: Catalonia (Law
10/1998 reformed by
practices, but also new civil rights. According to Laraña and Gusfield (1994), Law 3/2005), Aragon
we have been witnessing the way that complex social networks have arisen (Law 6/1999),
Navarra (Law
in developed capitalist societies, and seen how groups were organised around 6/2000), Valencia
sexuality along with the incipient women’s movements, and then went on to (Law 1/2001),
Madrid (Law
claim a collective identity of their own and also took to the streets. 11/2001), Balear
Lately, sexual minorities have been normalised through several public Islands (Law
18/2001), Asturias
policies in Spain: from the decriminalisation of homosexuality with the new (Law 4/2002),
Civil Code (1995) to the consecutive adoption of civil partnership laws in Andalusia (Law
twelve autonomous communities,1 and the changes in the Civil Code which 5/2002), Canary
Islands (Law 5/2003),
allow marriage between same-sex couples (Law 13/2005) and the Law of Extremadura (Law
Registration of Rectification of Sex – the latter unfortunately known as the 5/2003), Basque
Country (Law
Gender Identity Law (3/2007) (see Platero 2007a). These changes have 2/2003), and
taken place at the same time as public services for gays and transgenders

Cantabria (Law have been created in Madrid, Vitoria

1/2005).
and Euskadi, to name but a few, and
2 The Regional Civil some intersectional gender and sex-
Register Offices grants
certificates of birth, uality policies adopted in Coslada
death, marriages and and Barcelona; and some specific
the ‘family bookl’,
changes of name, programs developed, such as the
recognition of Program for Gays, Lesbians and
children, initiating
and certifying the
Transgenders (2005) and the
acquisition of Spanish Catalonia Interdepartmental Plan of
nationality, 2006 (Platero 2007c). However,
emancipation of Figure 1. Approval of same sex
minors, tutorship, transgender people’s organisations
marriage in Parliament, Madrid, June
modification of errors had made clear requests for compre-
in legal documents, 2005.
etc. Source: Courtesy of United Left Party hensive treatment, inclusion in the
(Izquierda Unida Federal). Social Security benefits, attention to
the case of transgender people in jail
and other demands such as the right of asylum, labour and social inclu-
sion. The Socialist Government’s approach was to compartmentalise each
one. Only when the draft law was finally published, did it show that only
one of the demands deeply linked to the quality of life and working oppor-
tunities of LGTB people was covered, namely the acknowledgement of the
right to register a rectification of a person’s name (Interview with Rebeca
Rullán, July 20th, 2007) (see Figure 1).
In this article, I will focus on two of the most popular policies: the same-
sex marriage law and the law that allows transgender people to change
their names at the Civil Register Offices.2 I will argue that these laws, whilst
extending intimate citizenship in Spain, also simultaneously contribute to
the reproduction of inequalities. In arguing this, I will use the concept of
intersectionality to describe the mutual relationships which establish differ-
ent structural inequalities that generate not only specific vulnerabilities to
exclusion, but also lead to specific modes of resistance (see Crenshaw
1989). The term ‘intersectionality’ is becoming more frequent in gender
studies and sociology, and it refers to multiple inequalities and possible rela-
tionships and hierarchies between gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disabil-
ities, class, and so forth (Verloo 2005). In political terms, it has to do with
the expressions ‘multiple discriminations’ or ‘multiple inequalities’, in the
sense that these are easier and most frequently used in Spanish than the
term ‘intersectionality’ (interseccionalidad). Moreover, expressions like multi-
ple inequalities or discrimination leave out the many interactions between
these inequalities. For instance, the experiences that lesbians go through
are not limited to a double ‘lesbian’ and ‘woman’ identity – it is the interac-
tion between both of these and the extension, or duplication, of inequality
that has the more complex impact and requires a deeper analysis. Is it pos-
sible that the laws designed to contribute to equality among people who are
traditionally excluded due to their non-normative sexualities, are at the
same time discriminating against such people? Who and how? Is there any
specific gender discrimination within these policies?
42 Raquel Platero
The right to get married 3 Spanish Law no.

In Spain same-sex marriage did not emerge ‘out of the blue’: it was the cul- 13/2005 1st July
2005, in which the
mination of a series of demands based on a long struggle for partnership Civil Code is amended
rights from social movements on the left (including political parties and regarding the right
[of lesbians and gay
policymakers) who spotted a window of political opportunity (Platero men] to the
2007b: 331–2). Left-wing parties have been constructing a vision of citi- institution of
zenship that requires a greater commitment to social movements (Calvo marriage (Ley
13/2005, de 1 de julio,
2005: 33). And during the period of the ‘social legislature’ of 2004–2008 por la que se modifica el
with the Socialist Party in government, the left wing party – Izquierda Código Civil en materia
de derecho a contraer
Unida, I.U. – has been crucial in introducing the most progressive propos- matrimonio, BOE de
als, which has contributed to the emergence of L.G.B.T. policy issues on 2 de Julio de 2005,
n° 157).
the political stage. But the main role has been played by the Socialist Party
(Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) as it was able to draft and achieve 4 IU-IC-V stands
for ‘Izquierda
parliamentary approval for Law 13/2005 reforming the Civil Code and Unida-Iniciativa per
allowing same-sex marriage. Catalunya Verds’, a
Leftist coalition that
Law3 13/2005 captured international attention because it allowed same- brings together the
sex couples to marry under the same conditions as different sex couples. United Left Party and
the leftist Catalonian
Previous to the approval of same sex marriage, most social debates focused Green Party.
on the concept of ‘marriage’ and its wording, pointing out how language
is used to construct social reality. For most conservative commentators,
the term ‘marriage’ symbolised (and still symbolises) natural ‘reality’.
Opposed to this essentialist standpoint, left wing commentators have argued
that both the term and the institution are open to change on the basis of
shifts in social norms.
Within the political debate, the Socialist Government argued that mar-
riage is neither natural nor divine. The President, Jose Luis Zapatero, stated
that ‘marriage will be what each government wants’ and ‘it (Law 13/2005) has
to do with giving back respect through the acknowledgement of rights, restoring
dignity, affirming the identity and freedom of a minority’ (Zapatero 2005). For
the leftist coalition IU-IC-V,4 marriage is a symbol of formal equality, and
they claim that ‘yet another step forward is being taken for the freedom of every
man and woman to be citizens, to reach the Europe of rights and liberties, and for
all of us to become first-class citizens’ (Navarro Casillas 2005).
In spite of this, the absence of a gender perspective within the debate
around same sex marriage, and within Law 13/2005, maintains the discrim-
ination against lesbians by not articulating any special actions to compensate
for structural discrimination or anticipating the needs of lesbians as mothers.
For example, lesbian marriages with children who were conceived with the
aid of in-vitro fertilisation techniques found that both women were not auto-
matically recognised as parents, thus requiring the non-biological mother to
start an adoption process. The current legislation recognises the right of
fathers in married heterosexual couples to benefit from artificial insemination
with anonymous or known donors, without having to start any adoption
procedure. The only requirement is for fathers to sign a consent form previ-
ous to the insemination. This way, laws that are apparently beneficial to
sexual minorities can actually have discriminatory effects (Platero 2007b).
Outstanding challenges in a post-equality era: The same-sex marriage and . . . 43

The Government has since modified Law 13/2005 through a provision

inserted into the Gender Identity Law (Art. 7) which states that ‘when the
woman is married to another woman, and not legally or de facto sepa-
rated, the latter can state in the Registry that she consents to the relation-
ship with the baby when her partner gives birth’ (BOE 65, March 16,
2007. P.11253). This provision states that the wife of a woman who gives
birth to a child during their marriage implicitly consents to being recog-
nised as the legal parent of that child. Therefore, this concrete type of dis-
crimination is resolved, but others remain, as we will see.
In fact, this law did not alter other potentially discriminatory provisions
such as the Law of Assisted Reproduction Techniques (45/2003, November
21st). This law not only renders anonymous the donation of gametes, but it
also contains a provision that allows men in heterosexual couples the
choice of having their sperm used to inseminate their female partner. This
choice is not extended to lesbian couples, who cannot donate eggs to each
other but instead must obtain eggs from external sources (anonymous
donors) – a de facto discrimination based on a biological difference.
Moreover, the first moments of the application of Law 13/2005 were
not easy, as some civil servants objected to carrying it out and questions
were raised about whether it extended to non-Spanish nationals. Both
same sex and heterosexual marriages between non-Spanish nationals are
often suspected and even presumed to be fraudulent marriages of conve-
nience. That is, the fact that there are a lot of same sex couples in which
one member has neither Spanish nationality nor a resident permit and is
in a special migratory situation, is not taken into account in Law
13/2005, which did not benefit from an ex ante evaluation of this potential
situation. Questions were also raised about the legal status of marriage to
people of different countries, in cases in which same-sex marriage was not
recognised in the other countries. Two cases had a key impact: the mar-
riage application of a Spanish and an Indian man in Barcelona, which was
denied because India does not allow this kind of marriage, and the mar-
riage between a Spanish and an Argentinean woman in Catalonia, on
22nd July 2005, which was authorised because the judge gave preference
to the right to marry over the fact
that Argentina does not allow this
kind of marriage. The debate was
over a few days later when the
Assembly of Prosecutors released a
notification on 27th July, 2005,
allowing marriage to people whose
countries did not recognise same-
sex marriage.
The small amount of data available about same-sex marriage illustrates
the extent to which gender and nationality issues are relevant. For
instance, looking at marriages that took place between July and December
2005, we find that there were 1,275 same-sex marriages, just 1 per cent
44 Raquel Platero
of the total number of marriages; and less than a third of these were 5 Law 3/2007 of March
between women (28%); so not only were there few same-sex marriages 15th, regulating the
rectification of the
compared to heterosexual marriages (1% vs. 99%), but lesbians were also register with regard to
less likely to marry than gay men. According to the National Statistics a person’s sex (Ley
3/2007, de 15 de
Institute data, in 2006, 4,313 same-sex marriages took place, making them marzo, reguladora de la
around 2 per cent of all marriages, which is still very low compared to het- rectificación registral de
la mención relativa al
erosexual marriages. 2006 displayed a similar gay/lesbian gender distribu- sexo de las personas).
tion ratio as the previous year, more or less 1: 2, 30 per cent lesbian BOE 65, March 16th
2007 p. 11251.
marriages and 70 per cent gay marriages.
In regard to nationality, the data available for 2005 shows that mar-
riages in which at least one spouse is foreign came to a total of 349. This
means that there were twice as many same-sex as different-sex marriages
with a foreign spouse. In 2006 among same-sex marriages with a foreign
spouse, gay weddings were more likely to have a foreign spouse (29% mar-
riages had one foreign spouse and in 6% of cases both were foreign spouses)
than lesbian marriages were (only 15% had one foreign spouse and 4%
were between two foreign spouses). Interestingly, heterosexual marriages
were less likely to marry a foreign spouse than lesbian and gay marriages:
only 12 per cent of marriages had one foreign spouse and 4 per cent were
between two foreign spouses in 2006 (Pichardo 2008: 153). These data
means that it is also important to pay attention not only to same-sex mar-
riage, but to its impact on other inequalities such as gender and migration,
among others, on which we do not have a lot of information.
The way same-sex marriage has been presented as a solution for gays
and lesbians – formal equality and the end of discrimination – implies that
other requests such as allowing partnership legislation at the national level,
currently only claimed by some minority LGTB groups and leftist parties
such as Izquierda Unida, have been sidelined. This situation maintains the
exclusion of non-married families and unions, and particularly affects same-
sex families. Indeed, lesbian families and unions are likely to experience a dif-
ferential impact, as they are the ones who view maternity as a political act,
and are therefore less likely to marry (Fernández-Rasines 1999, 2007).
Registration of a rectification of sex

I would like to refer briefly to Law 3/20075 about registering a rectifica-
tion of sex on certificates held at the Civil Register Offices. First of all, it has
to be stated that it is in fact a progressive law, which many commentators
consider to be uniquely advanced. For a person to be able to change the
details on their identity card is highly symbolic. The National Identity
Card (Documento Nacional de Identidad – DNI) is a compulsory document
that has to be carried by Spaniards at all times. It was created by the
Franco dictatorship in March 1944 with the spirit of controlling citizens
in the post civil war period, as in other totalitarian countries. It was firstly
imposed on inmates of prisons, later on businessmen and thirdly on male
residents in cities larger than 100,000 habitants. Citizens were classified
by sex, social and economic status up to 1981, but the sex identification

6 Rebeca Rullán remained after that (Caballero and Izedding 2004). Now, the new law
remarked that
the choice of an
allows a person to change their name without having to undergo surgery
ambiguous (hence the term ‘rectification’ is different from ‘reclassification’ of sex). The
expression such as most immediate consequence is granting access to a new card with the
“medical treatment”
(tratamiento médico) chosen sex inscribed on it. This right to have an identity card that repre-
was intentional. sents who one actually is was a long-standing demand of the transgender
Personal interview,
July 20th, 2007. organisations, since the DNI is currently required for common procedures
such as paying with a credit card or opening a bank account, signing con-
tracts, registering with any institution, and is also equivalent to a passport
on European flights. Having a different appearance, name or signature to
what is shown in your DNI is a source of painful daily problems.
Therefore the law introduces relevant changes, as it does not require
sterility or being married, as happens in other countries. It also recognises
people who, due to their weak health or their age, are not able to go
through the two years of medical treatment6 before being able to rectify
their Identity card. In spite of this positive achievement, however, Law
3/2007 does not offer a comprehensive treatment of transgender people,
as it only addresses one out of twelve demands put forward by transgender
organisations. The XVI National LGTB Conference held in Salamanca (1–2
May 2004) included a national transgender organisations meeting. They
created a list of 12 common demands, including: the right to sexual and
gender identity regulated by an Integral Law on Gender Identity; the regula-
tion of all transgender people’s access to the rectification of their name
and sex in the Civil Register through an administrative procedure; the lack
of compulsory requirement of sex reassignment surgery; inclusion in the
public health system of the clinical treatment of sex reassignment (psy-
chotherapy, hormonal treatment, plastic surgery, etc); and positive actions
by the Public Administrations and social agents to fight discrimination in
the labour market. The platform also demanded the regulation of sex
workers, separate from the measures for integration in the labour market;
measures for creating social awareness, such as education about transgen-
derism. On the legal side, the organisations agreed on the need for: political
asylum rights for transgender individuals persecuted in their country of
origin; the criminalisation of ‘transphobia’ in the Penal Code; rehabilitation
and compensation for victims of the repression and imprisonment under
the old Francoist Laws on Vagrants and Idle Persons and on Persons
Representing a Social Danger and their Social Rehabilitation; and finally
they asked for support for transgender organisations (Rullán 2004).
In this context, it was a blow to the movement that the new law ignores
transgender people’s needs for hormonal treatment and the services of psy-
chologists, doctors, and so on. Such services need to be offered all over the
country, or at least in cities, given the distribution of the transgender popu-
lation. The extent of the needs has not been established. There are differ-
ences of coverage across the Autonomous Communities: some do and some
do not provide any services of this kind as part of Social Security. The first
service was offered at the La Haya Hospital in Malaga (Andalusia),
approved by the Andalusian Parliament in 1998. More recently, Asturias,
46 Raquel Platero
Aragón, Catalonia, Extremadura have created Gender Reassignment Units; 7 “Quedan prohibidos los
nombres que
nonetheless, those do not cover surgery and the patients are sent to the objetivamente
Hospital in Andalusia. In addition to the Andalusian service, the Madrid perjudiquen a la
Assembly (regional Parliament) approved the creation of psychotherapy persona, los que hagan
confusa la identificación
and hormonal treatment services (Ramón y Cajal Hospital) and surgery y los que induzcan a
(La Paz Hospital) on 1 June 2006. Other regions like the Basque Country error en cuanto al sexo”
(BOE, 65: 11253).
are discussing the creation of similar services in the Basque Parliament.
Thus, the right services are currently only fully accessible in Andalusia
and in Madrid, while the Autonomous Communities of Asturias, Aragón,
Catalonia, Extremadura and Baleares send their patients to Andalusia. This
uneven spread of services drives the transgender person to pay privately for
receiving a comprehensive treatment, which costs a very large sum of
money for somebody who is potentially in a situation of social and labour
market exclusion. It is difficult to assess the total cost of the transgender
process. According to Rullán (2007) genital surgery alone currently costs
between 10,000 and 30,000 euros in Spain. Performing a faloplasty costs
around 30,000 euros, a vaginoplasty between 10,000 and 14,000 euros
and a metaidoioplasty may cost around 18,000 euros. In addition there is a
demand for other permanent changes such as breast removal/augmentation,
facial feminisation surgery, voice feminisation surgery, tracheal shaves,
buttock augmentation, liposuction, which would involve extra cost.
Furthermore the law does not recognise either residents without Spanish
nationality, nor minors, among others. The law requires people to have not
only a gender dysphoria diagnosis by a professional and two years of hor-
monal treatment, but also to have reached the age of majority and to have
Spanish nationality. In practice, it also requires clients, in case of desiring
a comprehensive treatment, to live in certain autonomous regions and to
be able to afford the cost of care. In addition, the requirement of two years
of ‘medical treatment’ most often translates into hormonal treatments and
minor surgeries mentioned above, which lead to permanent changes in
people’s bodies, something that contradicts the open spirit of a law that
does not require surgery in order to allow the registration of a rectification
of sex or name. The law is based on a notion of permanence and stability
of the dissonance between morphological or physiological sex and felt gender
identity (see article 4). Also, there is a requirement that clients should be
free of other personality disorders that may influence their gender/sex dis-
sonance. In fact, there where it refers to modification of the Civil Register,
the old article 54 is to be replaced with a wording that is not wholly satis-
factory as it introduces ‘The prohibition of those names that objectively
may harm the person, confuse their identification and induce errors in
regard to their sex’.7 So, by prohibiting sexual ambiguity and obliging
citizens to clarify whether they are male or female, this law does not chal-
lenge the sexual binary construction of sexuality. Instead, it merely implies
improvements in the living conditions of transgender individuals that may
affect their personal and citizen rights.
As we have briefly seen, sexuality is an aspect that has received a lot of
legislative attention in Spain. Yet many are the voices currently claiming a
new definition of transgender rights in order to overcome what is called the

‘pathological perspective’, together with the provision of services in each
region that cover their psychological, social and transitional needs on an
individual basis. Close to the national elections of March 2008, marches and
manifestos appeared across main cities, promoted by small groups like the
Bloque Alternativo, Guerrilla Travolaka, Towanda, Errequeterre, and so on.
Some ideas as conclusions

The passing of the 13/2005 and 3/2007 laws aimed to satisfy the requests
of a social movement that has finally achieved national attention and agenda
status for its specific goals. These laws have the explicit aim of overcoming
inequality, and giving previously unknown rights to citizens. These laws
attempt to be not only neutral but also egalitarian, as well as compensat-
ing for a historical situation of exclusion of gays, lesbians and transgender
citizens. And they are designed to include disenfranchised individuals within
mainstream citizenship. Yet they are not designed to transform society in
depth. Therefore, to some extent they end up contributing to the reproduc-
tion of inequality because they lack a sufficient gender perspective, and do
not observe the issues of nationality, age, place of residency, social class and
access to economic resources of the people to whom they are directed – in
other words they do not guarantee substantive equality.
Not only do these laws lack a multiple discrimination perspective but
they are also designed within a frame that could be labelled ‘assimilationist’,
intended to include those citizens previously discriminated on the basis of
belonging to a sexual minority, rather than attempting to transform the
social construction of sexuality itself. This is not to deny that laws allowing
same-sex marriage and transgender rights are symbolically transformative,
yet the specific design of these two laws (13/2005 and 3/2007) constrains
the scope of their impact. Such a perspective reminds us that public policies
are not neutral; they are situated in a context of existing norms and under-
standings – those of heterosexuality. Therefore the issue for researchers is to
deploy an intersectional perspective precisely to understand the intersec-
tions between the various structural inequalities that citizens suffer.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Silvia López Rodríguez for the discussion and comments
about sexual rights and their impact as symbolic politics, also Emily Grabham for
her thoughtful and inspiring insights about the impact of new sexual rights and
Gloria Fortún Menor for her generous work with the translation.
Works cited
Caballero, Javier and Izeddin Daniel (2004), DNI: Franco tiene el 1; el Rey, el 10. El
Mundo. Crónica. March 7, 438.
Calvo, Kerman (2005), Matrimoino homosexual y ciudadanía, Claves de la razón
práctica, 154: pp. 32–40.
Crenshaw, Kimberley (1989), Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex:
A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and
Antiracist Politics, Chicago: University of Chicago Legal forum, pp. 139–167.
48 Raquel Platero
Fernández-Rasines, Paloma (2007), ‘Homoerotismo entre mujeres y la búsqueda del

reconocimiento’, in dentro de Simonis, A. (ed.), Cultura, homosexualidad y homofo-
bia, Vol. II, Amazonia: retos de visibilidad lesbiana, Barcelona: Laertes, pp. 41–54.
——— (1999), Diáspora Africana en América Latina. Discontinuidad racial y maternidad
política en Ecuador, Bilbao, Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco.
Gusfield, Joseph R. (1980) [1963], Symbolic crusade: status politics and the American
Temperance Movement, Wesport (Connecticut): Greenwood Press.
Laraña, Enrique y Gusfield J.R. (1994), Los nuevos movimientos sociales: De la ide-
ología a la identidad, Madrid: CIS.
Navarro Casillas, Isaura (2005), Diario de sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados, 30
de Junio 2005, 103: pp. 5221–5222.
Pichardo Galán, José Ignacio (2008), Opciones sexuales y nuevos modelos familiars,
Doctoral Thesis, Social Anthropology and Spanish Philosophical Thought
Department, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Platero Méndez, Raquel (2007a), ‘Overcoming brides and grooms. The representation
of Lesbian and gay rights in Spain’, in Verloo, M. (ed.), Multiple Meanings of Gender
Equality. A Critical Frame Analysis of Gender Policies in Europe, CEU, Central European
University Press: Budapest, pp. 207–232.
——— (2007b), Love and the State: Gay marriage in Spain, Feminist Legal Studies
15: 3.
——— (2007c), Intersecting gender and sexual orientation. An analysis of sexual-
ity and citizenship in gender equality policies in Spain. ‘Contesting Citizenship:
Comparative Analyses’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy,
CRISPP 10: 4, pp. 575–597.
Rodríguez Zapatero, José Luis (2005), Diario de sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados,
30 Junio 2005, 103: p. 5228.
Rullán, Rebeca (2004), Derechos civiles y sociales en material de identidad de
género. Asociación Española de Transexuales, AET Transexualia, XVI Congreso
Estatal de la Federación Española de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales y Bisexuales,
Salamanca, May 1–2, 2004.
Verloo, Mieke (2005), Displacement and empowerment: reflections on the concept
and practice of the Council of Europe Approach to Gender Mainstreaming and
Gender Equality, Social Politics. International Studies in Gender, State and Society
12: 3, pp. 334–365.
Contributor details
Raquel Platero Méndez is a political activist, teacher and researcher at the
Universidad de Complutense in Madrid, Spain. She has been a member of the
research team of two EU-funded research projects: Policy frames and implementation
problems: The case of gender mainstreaming-MAGEEQ (see http://www.mageeq.net/)
and Quality in Gender Equality Policies – QUING (see http://www.quing.eu/). Her work
relates to policy frames and intimate citizenship, with a special focus on the placing
of LGBT issues on the Spanish political agenda, along with the public representa-
tions of these problems. Her current research focuses on the inclusion/exclusion
of sexual orientation and transgender issues in gender equality and sexuality-
related public policies; the creation of public services for LGBT people, and the
impact of lesbian-feminist discourses on gender equality policies. Contact: Raquel
Platero, QUING European Research Project, Departamento de Ciencia Política y
Administración II, Facultad de CC. Políticas y Sociología, Universidad Complutense
de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid 28223, Spain.
E-mail: platero@cps.ucm.es

IJIS_21_1_04-Ceamanos 5/31/08 10:29 AM Page 51

Open Forum. Spanish language. doi: 10.1386/ijis.21.1.51/3
Comparando los inicios de la

historiografía social española y francesa
Roberto Ceamanos Llorens University of Zaragoza1
Abstract Keywords
Comparing the beginnings of Spanish and French Social Historiography. This Spanish social
commentary examines the origins of Spanish and French social historiography historiography
showing how they had common features despite evolving at different rates and La question sociale
intensities, and embodying two different approaches to the labour world. The first labour history
approach was that of liberal professionals who examined the working class moti-
vated by their concern for what was called ‘the social question’. The second, fun-
damental approach until well into the twentieth century was that of the militant
authors –in other words, authors who were linked to the labour movement itself.
For a long time this militant legacy could be seen in a type of history that was
marked by an epic view of events, whose interpretation contained strong political
implications. The advent of the Spanish Civil War checked this evolution and had
markedly different effects on the development of the two lines of labour history
research in each country.
Entre mediados del siglo XIX y el primer tercio del XX surgieron y se desar- 1 Este texto resume las
conclusiones del
rollaron las dos grandes líneas sobre las que se asienta la actual historiografía trabajo desarrollado
social española y francesa que, aunque con diferente ritmo e intensidad, en una estancia
recorrieron un camino común hasta el estallido de la Guerra Civil y la postdoctoral en Paris
IV-Sorbonne que,
Segunda Guerra Mundial, respectivamente. Fue una historia básicamente en el caso francés,
obrera que se denominó social, bien por el convencimiento de que la clase continuaba las
investigaciones que
obrera era el motor de la sociedad o bien por la necesidad de utilizar un dieron lugar al libro:
eufemismo que evitara la censura. La primera de estas líneas de investi- Ceamanos, R. (2005),
Militancia y Universi-
gación nació del trabajo de los intelectuales y profesionales liberales que, dad. La construcción de
impresionados por los efectos negativos de la industrialización, se intere- la historia obrera en
saron por la resolución de la llamada “cuestión social” e incorporaron la Francia, Valencia:
Fundación Instituto
temática obrera a sus investigaciones. Estudiaron las condiciones de trabajo de Historia
y de vida de los obreros y de sus familias, al tiempo que presentaron prop- Social-UNED.
uestas basadas en criterios de solidaridad y justa distribución de los bienes
para resolver los principales problemas que tenían planteados los traba-
jadores. De aquí surgió el socialismo utópico y se desarrolló el reformismo,
la economía social, el catolicismo y el protestantismo social, idearios que
surgieron en Francia y Gran Bretaña y que calaron hondo entre pensadores
españoles como Joaquín Abreu, Ramón de la Sagra, Fernando Garrido y
Sixto de la Cámara.

Para el progreso de estas investigaciones fue muy importante la fundación

de instituciones. El Musée Social de Paris (1895) fue su principal centro de
reflexión que se organizó en varias secciones de estudios con el objetivo de
reunir toda la documentación posible sobre la sociedad. Entre éstas, se encon-
traba la Section des associations ouvrières et coopératives dirigida por Léon de
Seilhac, que enviaba observadores a las huelgas y a los congresos coopera-
tivistas, mutualistas y socialistas franceses e internacionales. Fruto de sus
observaciones se publicaron numerosas obras sobre la condición obrera
entre las que hay que subrayar las del citado Seilhac y las de Etienne Martin
de Saint-Léon, interesado especialmente por las asociaciones de oficios. La
Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas fue otra de las principales institu-
ciones que, tanto en Francia como en España, se interesó por la situación
de la clase obrera. Al tener encomendada la realización de los dictámenes
sobre los problemas sociales y las soluciones a los mismos, promovió diver-
sos estudios sobre la organización del trabajo y las condiciones de vida
de los asalariados. De ella surgieron, en el caso español, los escritos de
Gumersindo de Azcárate, José Lorenzo Figueroa, Adolfo Álvarez Buylla y
Práxedes Zancada sobre el reformismo social, la cuestión obrera y las doc-
trinas anarquista y socialista, obras a las que se sumaron las aportaciones
realizadas desde el catolicismo social por Severino Aznar sobre la situación
de los obreros. El Estado comenzó a asumir principios interventores que
impulsaron la creación de las primeras instituciones públicas con el fin de
fundamentar las reformas legislativas en materia social. Las principales
fueron la Comisión de Reformas Sociales (1883) y el Instituto de Reformas
Sociales (1903), en España; y la Office du Travail (1890), en Francia.
Sobre esta incipiente historia social ejerció una gran influencia Frédéric
Le Play, pionero de la sociología francesa y uno de los principales pensadores
del reformismo social europeo, que estudió por toda Europa las condiciones
de vida de las familias de las clases populares por entender que eran el centro
de la sociedad y las que conservaban su pureza original. La importancia de
su método de trabajo radica en que, mientras que otros autores se habían
limitado a ofrecer meros datos cuantitativos, Le Play fue más allá de las
simples observaciones. No sólo observó y comparó los hechos, sino que
también se preocupó de interrogarlos y reflexionar sobre ellos. Concluyó que
la solución a los problemas sociales no era ni el liberalismo ni el socialismo.
Ambos desestabilizaban el núcleo familiar, el primero por exaltar al indi-
viduo y el segundo por confiar exclusivamente en la colectividad. Para evitar
el desarraigo y la pobreza era fundamental mantener la estructura familiar,
baluarte principal de la sociedad. Sin embargo, estos estudios no entraban en
el pasado obrero, de ahí la importancia de la obra de Émile Levasseur quien
está considerado como un notable precursor de la historia social por su
monumental trilogía en la que reconstruyó la historia de las clases obreras.
Al sur de los Pirineos, la influencia del pensamiento europeo y sobre
todo de la renovación krausista, impulsó también destacadas investiga-
ciones que, abordadas desde las ciencias sociales-especialmente desde el
derecho, la sociología, la antropología y la psicología- y promovidas por la
52 Roberto Ceamanos Llorens

prevención que vino en denominarse eufemísticamente interés terapéutico,

se preocuparon por los obreros y sus familias. Es en este marco en donde
se encuadran las obras de Adolfo Posada, Constancio Bernaldo de Quirós y,
especialmente, la del notario cordobés Juan Díaz del Moral sobre las agita-
ciones campesinas andaluzas, trabajo de psicología social que ofreció una
de las primeras interpretaciones sobre los orígenes del anarquismo español.
Punto de conexión entre el ámbito español y el francés fueron los trabajos
de Angel Marvaud, quien visitó España enviado por Le Musée Social para
obtener información sobre las condiciones de vida de las capas más pobres
de la sociedad. Conocedor de primera mano de la realidad española, en su
obra La question sociale en Espagne Marvaud dio cabida al movimiento obrero,
la situación del proletariado industrial y agrícola, el asociacionismo, las
iniciativas patronales y la actuación estatal en materia obrera. Marvaud
aplicó la metodología de la incipiente sociología francesa al estudio de la
realidad social española. En concreto, su modelo se basó en el método de
observación directa de Le Play. A su juicio, la problemática social tenía
unos mismos orígenes en todos los países-el desarrollo del maquinismo y
la concentración industrial-pero, más allá de estas causas generales, debía
explicarse atendiendo a la historia de cada país, su situación política y
económica, las condiciones en que vivía el proletariado y los rasgos más
sobresalientes de su carácter.
La segunda línea de investigación surgió entre los sectores demócratas
y republicanos de la burguesía y se caracterizó por su manifiesta simpatía
hacia su objeto de estudio centrado principalmente en el movimiento obrero.
Autores como Jacques-Georges Weill, Maxime Leroy o los hermanos Daniel
y Élie Halévy debatieron sobre las reformas sociales y se interesaron por el
incipiente movimiento obrero. En España encontramos interesantes traba-
jos de similar procedencia. Durante el Sexenio Revolucionario se publi-
caron los estudios del demócrata Rafael Pérez del Álamo y del republicano
Eugenio García Ruiz, pero de todas, la obra más relevante fue la del int-
electual republicano y socialista Fernando Garrido, representante de una
historia radical popular que concedía un especial protagonismo al mundo
obrero, no con pretensiones sociológicas o terapéuticas como habían hecho
los investigadores de la “cuestión social”, sino como un sector popular que
luchaba y avanzaba hacia la emancipación.
Pronto se consolidaron partidos y sindicatos que defendían exclusiva-
mente los intereses de la clase obrera. La historia pasó a ser escrita por los
propios militantes de estas organizaciones que, interesados en dejar testi-
monio de su experiencia y en favorecer sus planteamientos ideológicos,
relataron la historia de los episodios que habían vivido. A ambos lados de
los Pirineos el movimiento obrero experimentó importantes tensiones entre
sus diferentes corrientes, conflictos que tuvieron el efecto de multiplicar
las obras sobre su historia para ser utilizadas en el combate político. Se
escribieron memorias, biografías e historias de las diferentes tendencias
que intentaban legitimarse y afianzarse como las auténticas representantes
del proletariado. Entre sus principales autores encontramos los nombres
Comparando los inicios de la historiografía social española y francesa 53

de líderes como Jean Allemane, Benoît Malon, Prosper Olivier Lissagaray y,

sobre todo, Jean Jaurès, autor de la Histoire Socialiste de la Révolution
Française, punto de partida de la interpretación social de la historia de la
Revolución Francesa. Los trabajos publicados en España respondieron
también a la lucha ideológica entre las grandes corrientes del movimiento
obrero. En el seno del socialismo destacaron las obras de Francisco Mora
y Juan José Morato, considerado este último como el historiador oficial
del primer socialismo y autor de La cuna de un gigante, un clásico de la
historiografía del movimiento obrero español. Respecto al anarquismo,
Anselmo Lorenzo escribió El proletario militante, obra en la que, junto a la
pasión en la narración de los acontecimientos, intentó que su información
fuera lo más fidedigna posible, circunstancia que hizo de este trabajo una
fuente básica de estudio. La importancia que cobró el anarquismo español
le convirtió en un tema privilegiado que interesó más allá de las fronteras
nacionales con trabajos como los del austriaco Max Nettlau.
Pese a realizar itinerarios similares, la historiografía francesa tuvo una
producción más notable que la española gracias a la aparición de colec-
ciones (Histoire Socialiste, 1789–1900 (1901–1908), Bibliothèque Socialiste
(1900–1906) y Bibliothèque du Mouvement socialiste (1908)) que reunieron
a las obras más relevantes, y a la publicación de enciclopedias (Encyclopédie
Socialiste y Encyclopédie Anarchiste) que buscaron recuperar la memoria del
movimiento obrero. Estos proyectos colectivos apenas los encontramos en
España donde surgieron sin embargo la Biblioteca de El Socialista y la Bib-
lioteca de Ciencias Sociales. Una tercera característica de la historiografía
francesa que la destacó respecto a la española reside en la dedicación a la
investigación de numerosos profesores franceses de enseñanza primaria y
secundaria, mucho antes de que esta historiografía penetrara en el ámbito
universitario. El sindicalismo de la enseñanza contaba con una sólida pres-
encia entre los docentes franceses y de ellos surgieron importantes histori-
adores como Maurice Dommanget. Su trabajo supuso un primer paso hacia
la profesionalización, al proporcionar una mayor preocupación por las
fuentes, la erudición y la redacción. En cambio, en España, la implantación
de los sindicatos de profesores fue débil y, tras la Guerra Civil, los profe-
sionales de la enseñanza fueron duramente represaliados, perdiéndose un
caudal humano de una inestimable riqueza intelectual.
En los primeros años treinta se consolidaron los institutos de formación
de cuadros políticos y sindicales que fueron otra importante vía para el
desarrollo de la historia obrera. Georges Lefranc impartó varios cursos en
el Centre confédéral d’études ouvrières de la CGT de los que proceden algunos
de sus libros más importantes. Fue entonces cuando se produjo el triunfo
del Frente Popular en Francia que impulsó el estudio del movimiento
obrero, momento en el que se publicó la célebre Histoire du mouvement
ouvrier français de Édouard Dolléans, síntesis que se convirtió en un refer-
ente para toda una generación de historiadores y cuyo valor ideológico
radica en haber defendido la autonomía del socialismo francés frente a la
injerencia del bolchevismo soviético. En España, la Segunda República fue

igualmente un período de auge para la historiografía social en su vertiente

más militante. Sin embargo, ésta permanecía fuera de la academia. Ni la
clase obrera ni su movimiento organizado recibían un tratamiento especí-
fico por parte de los historiadores oficiales. No eran objeto de estudio en
sus monografías y apenas se vislumbraba en las historias generales en las
que la clase obrera era abordada como un problema de orden público o,
como mucho, se incluía en los análisis sociales y culturales a la hora de
hablar de las clases populares. Sólo se advierten ciertas excepciones que
nos hablan de un incipiente despegue de la profesionalización pero que se
verá cortado de raíz por el estallido y las consecuencias de la Guerra Civil.
En Els moviments socials à Barcelona Manuel Reventós relató las vicisitudes
de la clase obrera, atendiendo a los aspectos ideológicos de su movimiento
organizado e intentando insertar éste en la historia política, y proporcionó
un enfoque profesional en cuanto que introdujo unas pautas de trabajo
que ya no encontraremos hasta bien avanzada la posguerra cuando el
enfoque de su obra fue recuperado por Vicens Vives y sus discípulos se
interesaron por estudiar de nuevo el mundo obrero decimonónico. Notable
fue también el caso de Manuel Núñez de Arenas que defendió su tesis doc-
toral sobre el reformista Ramón de la Sagra y se esforzó también por profe-
sionalizar la historia obrera. Tradujo la obra de Georges Renard Sindicatos,
Trade Unions y Corporaciones, a la que sumó el apéndice ‘Notas sobre el
movimiento obrero español’, texto que durante décadas fue un punto de
referencia. Tras la Guerra Civil se afincó en Francia donde desarrolló el resto
de su trayectoria investigadora. Su obra está considerada como ‘un eslabón
entre la historiografía de partido – Juan José Morato, Francisco Mora o
Anselmo Lorenzo – y la de autores como F.G. Bruguera, Antonio Ramos
Oliveira y Manuel Tuñón de Lara quienes sentaron las bases para el posterior
desarrollo de la historiografía social española. Esta, durante la transición a la
democracia, realizó los pasos precisos para consolidarse en el ámbito univer-
sitario español, tal y como había hecho la francesa unas décadas antes.
Works cited
-Obras del reformismo social español:
Álvarez Buylla, A. (1910), La problemática del obrero, Madrid: [s.n.]; y (1917), La
reforma social en España, Madrid: [s.n.].
Aznar, S. (1906), El catolicismo social en España, Zaragoza: [s.n.].
De Azcárate, G.: www.Ateneodemadrid.com/biblioteca_digital/folletos/Folletos-0182.
pdf.
De la Cámara, S. (1849), La cuestión social, Madrid: [s.n.].
De la Sagra, R. (1840), Lecciones de economía social, Madrid: Imprenta Ferrer.
De Quirós, B. (1919), El espartaquismo agrario andaluz, Madrid: Reus.
Díaz del Moral, J. (1929), Historia de las agitaciones campesinas andaluzas, Madrid:
Gráfica Universal.
García, E. (1872), Historia de la Internacional y del federalismo en España, Madrid: [s.n.].
Garrido, F. (1870), Historia de las clases trabajadoras, de sus progresos y transforma-
ciones económicas, sociales y políticas, Madrid: Imp. T. Núñez.

Lorenzo, J. (1869), Discurso de ingreso leído en la Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y

Políticas en la recepción pública del Ilmo. Sr. D. José Lorenzo Figueroa: La sociedad y el
socialismo, 30 de mayo de 1869, Madrid: Imp. Colegio Nacional Sordo-Mudos y
Ciegos.
Marvaud, A. (1910), La question sociale en Espagne, Paris: F. Alcan. Traducción: (1975),
La cuestión social en España, Madrid: Ediciones de la Revista de Trabajo, prólogo
de J.J. Castillo y J.M. Borrás; y (1913), L’Espagne au XX siècle, Paris: A. Colin.
Pérez del Álamo, R. (1872), Apuntes Históricos sobre dos revoluciones, Sevilla: [s.n.].
Posada, A. (1904), Socialismo y Reforma Social, Madrid: F. Fe.
Zancada, P. (1902), El obrero en España, Barcelona: Maucci; y (1902), Antecedentes
históricos y estado actual y estado actual del problema obrero en España, Madrid: I.
Moreno.
-Historiografía militante del movimiento obrero español:

Lorenzo, A. (1974), El proletariado militante, edición J. Álvarez Junco, Madrid: Alianza.
Mora, F. (1902), Historia del Socialismo Obrero Español, Madrid: Imp. I. Calleja.
Morato, J.J. (1897), Notas para la historia de los modos de producción en España, Madrid.
Parra, L. y M. Torres (1918), El Partido Socialista Obrero: génesis, doctrina, hombres,
desarrollo, acción, estado actual, Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva; y (1925), La cuna de un
gigante: Historia de la Asociación General del Arte de Imprimir, Madrid: J. Molina.
Nettlau, M. (1925), Miguel Bakunin: La internacional y la Alianza en España:
1868–1873, Buenos Aires: La Protesta.
Núñez de Arenas, M. (1924), Don Ramón de la Sagra, reformador social, New Cork: [s.n.].
Renard, G. (1916), Sindicatos, Trade-Unions y Corporaciones, Madrid: D. Jorro.
Reventós, M. (1925), Assaig sobre alguns episodis historics dels moviments socials à
Barcelona durant el segle XIX, Barcelona: La Revista.
Diccionarios:
Pasamar, G. y Peiró, I. (2002), Diccionario Akal de Historiadores españoles contem-
poráneos (1840–1980), Madrid: Akal, p. 446.
FRANCIA
-Obras del reformismo social francés:

Halévy, D. (1901), Essais sur le mouvement ouvrier en France, Paris: Société Nouvelle
de Librairie.
Halévy, E. (1948), Histoire du socialisme européen, Paris: Gallimard.
Le Play, F. (1855), Les Ouvriers Européens, Paris: Impr. impériale; (1870) Organisation
du travail, Tours: A. Mame et fils; (1872), La Réforme sociale en France déduite de
l’observation comparée des peuples européens, Tours: Mame; y (1989), La methode
sociale, Paris: Méridiens-Klincksieck.
Leroy, M. (1913), La coutume ouvrière, Paris: Giard et Brière; y (1946–1954), His-
toire des idées Sociales en France, Paris: Gallimard.
Levasseur, E., Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l’industrie en France: (1859), Histoire
des classes ouvrières et de l’industrie en France depuis la conquête de Jules César
jusqu’à la révolution, Paris: Guillaumin; (1867), Histoire des classes ouvrières et de
l’industrie en France depuis la révolution jusqu’à nos jours, Paris: Hachette; y
(1907), Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous la Troisième République,
Paris: Rousseau.
Weill, G. (1905), Histoire du mouvement social en France, 1852–1902, Paris: F. Alcan.
www.bnf.fr: Léon de Seilhac y Etienne Martin de Saint-Léon.

-Sobre el Musée Social:

Chambelland C. (dir.) (1998), Le Musée social en son temps, Paris : ENS; y Horne, J.
(2004), Le Musée social aux origines de l’État providence, Paris: Belin.
-Historiografía militante del movimiento obrero francés:

Dolléans, E. (1936), Histoire du Mouvement ouvrier français, Paris: A. Colin.
Jaurès, J. (1968), Histoire Socialiste de la Révolution Française, Paris: Éditions Sociales.
Lissagaray, P.O. (1876), Histoire de la Commune, Bruxelles: [s.n.]. www.bnf.fr:
Maurice Dommanget y Georges Lefranc.
Enciclopedias sobre historia del movimiento obrero francés:

Compère-Morel, A.C.A. (dir.) (1912–1921), Enciclopédie socialiste, syndicale et
coopérative de l’Internationale ouvrière, Paris: A. Quillet.
Faure, S. (dir.) [1934], Enciclopédie Anarchiste, Paris: Librairie Internationale.
Contributor details
Roberto Ceamanos received a Doctorate in Contemporary History from Zaragoza
and Bourgogne Universities, and won the Spanish National Prize for Graduates in
1998–1999 and the Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado (outstanding doctorate
prize) for 2003–2004. He received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish
Ministry of Science and Education, which he spent doing research at the Université
Paris IV-Sorbonne. He is currently working in the modern and contemporary
history department of Zaragoza university. He is the author of De la historia del
movimiento obrero a la historia social, and of Militancia y Universidad. La construcción
de la historia obrera en Francia. His articles have appeared in academic journals such as:
Hispania, Historia Social, The International Review, Storia della Storiografia. Contact:
Departamento de Historia Moderna y Contemporánea, Universidad de Zaragoza,
C/Pedro Cerbuna, 12, 50009-Zaragoza (Spain).
E-mail: robercea@unizar.es

IJIS_21_1_05-Reviews 5/31/08 10:30 AM Page 59
Reviews
Reviews. English language. doi: 10.1386/ijis.21.1.59/5
Book Reviews
Spanish Cinema: A Student’s Guide, Barry Jordan and
Mark Allinson (2005)
London: Hodder Arnold, 229 pp., ISBN 0-340-80745-8
(pbk), £17.99
As Jordan and Allinson readily acknowledge, there is no shortage of publi-

cations dealing with the study of Spanish cinema. However, the particular
strength of Spanish Cinema: A Student’s Guide is that it combines two areas
frequently presented in separate volumes, bringing together the fields of
Spanish culture and film studies, in particular for the benefit of those stu-
dents who may have focused on only one of these areas. To that end this
innovative and thought-provoking volume sets out to explore a variety of
themes often identified with Spanish cinema and national identity.
The initial chapter reviewing the history of the industry gives an exten-
sive overview of Spanish film production from its earliest beginnings,
clearly noting the industry’s enduring dependency on imported films, as
well as the detrimental effects of the Civil War and the influence of
Franco’s regime on Spanish cinema. Further sections examine the various
regulatory reforms and technological developments the industry has
undergone from Spain’s return to democracy to the present day, tracing
the intellectual and cultural trends that have resulted in, as the authors
suggest, a new era of politicised film making.
Chapter 2 addresses the basic methodology of film studies – technique,
narrative and style – to enable those embarking on a study of Spanish
cinema to gain a deeper understanding of how to analyse a film and to
compare Spanish films with those produced in other countries. This chapter
avoids the risks inherent in presenting dry theory, with various cinematic
and analytical techniques described in context, using key Spanish films to
illustrate the points made. Given the invaluable historical and practical
content found in the final chapter which is devoted to ‘Film Studies and
Film Theory’, it might perhaps have been better positioned here, since it
provides further vital background material on Spanish cinema and the
industry.
The concepts of auterism in general and the auteurist tradition in
Spain are explored in the book’s third chapter, including an examination
of three of the most influential Spanish directors – Pedro Almodóvar, Luis
Buñuel, and Victor Erice. A provocative discussion on whether or not the

success of one film can justify the auteur status ascribed to Erice completes
this section. The ‘Genre’ chapter adopts a similar format first by looking at
conventions in general, before focusing on three specific genres – musical,
thriller, and gross-out – which although not unique to Spain, have devel-
oped into a form that reflects their national provenance.
No study of a national cinema would be complete without an appraisal of
home-grown actors who have achieved star status. Thus, after considering
what constitutes a ‘star system’ and whether Spanish cinema can boast
such a convention, Jordan and Allinson go on to analyse the work of two
Spanish actors who have achieved such status within the national industry.
By opting to focus on such distinct figures as Alfredo Landa and Carmen
Maura, however, the authors have avoided falling into the trap of serving up
the ‘usual suspects’, the former being included as an example of an actor
who has made a significant contribution to the industry within a particular
genre, the latter featured by reason of her celebrity status as both film and
television star. Further there is a welcome cautionary note at the conclusion
of this section, suggesting that existing norms should perhaps be revisited
with a view to accommodating other, alternative manifestations of stardom.
The chapter on ‘Representation’ considers a broad range of pivotal films,
spanning the very early days of the Spanish film industry, to the present.
However, some aspects of the section on ‘Gender’ raise an element of
concern, with the use of a few somewhat patronising sub-headings (‘Films
for/about/by women’), and the mention of only two films by female direc-
tors, against the background of a burgeoning body of work by female direc-
tors, particularly during the 1990s. Notwithstanding this minor criticism,
Spanish Cinema: A Student’s Guide is justified in claiming to be an indispens-
able source for both students and teachers of Spanish cinema. In keeping
with the applied focus of the publication, it is encouraging to see at the con-
clusion of the book a series of short, practical chapters offering a glossary of
film terms and bibliographies in English and Spanish, as well as an exten-
sive selection of relevant websites. Overall, this essential text will undoubt-
edly provide students with a solid base from which to study Spanish
cinema, and better equip them to pursue further research in the field.
Reviewed by Jacky Collins, Northumbria University
Spain, Portugal and the Great Powers, 1931–1941,

Glyn A. Stone (2005)
Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
xv + 316 pp., ISBN 0-333-49560-8 (pbk), £19.99
Few events of twentieth-century history engaged the interest of the Great

Powers more vigorously than the Spanish Civil War, and the international
dimension of the war has been amply studied by historians. This impor-
tant book widens the area of investigation to include the policies of the
Great Powers towards the Spanish Republic, and extends the chronological
60 IJIS 21 (1) Reviews © Intellect Ltd 2008

span beyond the end of the Civil War until the entry of the United States
into the Second World War in 1941. More significantly, however, it pro-
vides a thorough and detailed account of the relations between the Great
Powers and Portugal, thereby offering, for the first time, a pan-Iberian per-
spective on both the relations between the two neighbouring states and
the relations of each with other European countries and the United States.
Four out of the ten chapters are devoted to the Civil War, which is
throughout considered from the perspective of geopolitics and military and
economic strategy. Thus, for example, the independent decisions of Germany
and Italy to intervene in the Civil War produced a rapprochement between
these countries, with consequent detriment of Italy’s relations with Britain
and France (39). Conversely, the search for collective security in Europe was
one of the main motivations for Britain’s refusal to intervene in support
of the Republic, for the Civil War occurred precisely at the time when
Chamberlain was seeking to appease both Hitler and Mussolini. Furthermore,
with the increasing danger of a major European conflict, it was imperative
to British interests that Spain remain neutral, whatever the outcome of the
Civil War, a consideration which strengthened the case for non-intervention
(55). This led the United Kingdom into the equivocal position of, on the
one hand, expressing sympathy to the German government over an attack
on the battleship Deutschland, which was part of the non-intervention
patrol in the Mediterranean, and, on the other, ignoring the retaliatory
bombardment of Almería by the Admiral Scheer, and the destruction of
Guernica by the Luftwaffe (81).
The principal originality of the book lies in the chapters on Portugal.
Although Portuguese military involvement on the insurgent side in the
Civil War was substantial (114), and although Salazar’s instinctive sympa-
thies were anti-communist and pro-Axis, he was more robust than Franco
in preserving his country’s neutrality during the Second World War, despite
the economic pressures exerted by Germany. Whereas Spain offered logis-
tic and military support to Germany (128–129; 144), Portugal managed
to steer clear of being drawn into the Axis orbit (121). Professor Stone
highlights the hitherto under explored connection between the Anschluss
and the determination of Salazar to resist the imposition by a victorious
Franco of the long-standing nationalist ideal of a united Iberia (122).
Professor Stone’s account is amply documented from a huge corpus of
primary sources, both published and unpublished, as well as a large bibliog-
raphy of secondary studies. It might seem churlish to enter a quibble about
this excellent work, but the word ‘disinterested’ is used frequently when
‘uninterested’ is meant. This, though a common habit among contemporary
English speakers, is confusing in a context in which disinterested motivation
was rare if not non-existent. Where the interests of belligerents in a major
conflict are involved, small countries are vulnerable to being treated with
contempt: witness, for example, Chamberlain’s willingness to sacrifice
Portugal’s African empire during the phase of appeasement (125).
Reviewed by Eamonn Rodgers, University of Strathclyde
IJIS 21 (1) Reviews © Intellect Ltd 2008 61

Spanish Political Parties, David Hanley and John Loughlin

(eds.) (2006)
Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 179 pp., ISBN
0708319319 (pbk), £18.99; 0708318312 (hbk), £55.00
David Hanley and John Loughlin write the introduction and organise the
edited volume with two initial chapters focusing on the principal national
Spanish parties, the Popular Party (PP) and the Socialist Party (PSOE).
They argue that Spain has a two-party system; however, AC (Autonomous
Community) party systems differ. The PP’s centralised political stance has
continuity in all the ACs and is reflected throughout the book. Consecutive
chapters focus on the three historical nationalities: Catalonia, the Basque
Country, and Galicia. Each chapter begins by describing historical circum-
stances behind the parties’ establishment and divisions. The authors
reveal each party’s internal structure, their electorate, and perspectives
towards Europe.
All the chapters illustrate regime changes in Spain’s history, mainly
focusing on the twentieth century, which assists in identifying the primary
issues that still have resonance. Spain’s territorial divisions and the ‘left-
right divide’ have been sources of party coalition and division. Gilmour’s
chapter on the PP explains its right-wing origins, stemming from Manuel
Fraga’s leadership. Fraga was the founder of Popular Alliance (AP), and
Franco’s former minister of for information and tourism. Fraga, with Oreja
of the Democratic Centre Union (UCD), re-established the AP as the PP,
and in effect, brought a Francoist party to the centre-right. The PP has
remained a centralised and stable party, due to Fraga, and later José María
Aznar (1990-–2003), in its upper echelons. Kennedy’s chapter, analysing
the PSOE, recounts how it was forced into exile, like various others, during
the Francoist dictatorship. Thereafter, with Felipe González, it brought Spain
out of economic turmoil, and allowed its entry in the European Community,
which were primary modernising elements in Spain’s political system. The
PSOE gained a stable hold on office in Madrid from 1982-–1996, which
ended due to corruption charges and scandals, nevertheless, the Socialists
managed to regain office in 2004.
Etherinton and Fernández, in the subsequent chapter, focus on
Catalonia’s principal political parties: Convergència i Unió (CiU), Esquerra
Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds – Esquerra Unida
i Alternativa (IC-V), the PP, and the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC-PSOE).
They assert that socio-economic development and the national question are
important for Catalonian party success, and highlight Jordi Pujol’s preemi-
nencepre-eminence in Catalonian politics as well as the political stability
Catalonia enjoys. They reveal the PSC’s unique independency from the
central line of the PSOE, and ERC’s leftist nationalist independentist line that
now has a less radical and more socio-democratic stance.
Letamendia focuses on the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) justifying
his decision to do so in the light of its power in the Basque government

from 1980 until today. The Basque foral laws, Spain’s territorial structure,
and ETA’s terrorism have all been contentious aspects of the political scene.
Various agreements, such as the Lizarra Declaration, the Ajuria-Enea Pact,
and the Ibarretxe Plan, have also caused conflict between political forces.
He also explores Basque Solidarity (EA), whoich split from the PNV,
the Socialist Party of Euskadi (PSE-EE), IU-Ezker Batasuna, and the PP.
Regarding the left-wing nationalist parties, he focuses his attention on the
now illegal, Herri Batasuna-Eukal Herritarok (HB-EH).
Keating examines Galician political parties. There, nationalist parties
have been traditionally fragmented,; however, Bloque Nacionalista Galego
(BNG) is a federation of nationalist parties, and has recently acquired an
intelligible front. Thus, the chapter’s structure is not the same as those on
the Basque Country and Catalonia due to Fraga’s political dominance and
the presence of ‘extensive clientelistic networks’, causing a ‘PP baron’ to
run politics in the Galician provinces. Nonetheless, future is favourable for
nationalist parties and there is a growing identification with autonomous
institutions, rather than a reliance on Madrid to represent Galician interests.
Hanley concludes briefly discussing Spanish political parties in the
transnational political arena. He focuses on Aznar’s importance in the
Christian Democrat International (CDI), as well as on the European People’s
Party (EPP), the Socialist International (SI), and the European Free Alliance
(EFA). An essential point is that Spanish political parties accept the EU due
to the agreed fact that Europe signifies modernity since the transition to
democracy.
Well-known scholars have contributed to this edited volume illustrating
their fields of expertise. They provide a clear and concise historical back-
ground to the Spanish parties’ ideological origins. Its analysis is straightfor-
ward, and it is an excellent introduction to contemporary Spanish politics.
Reviewed by Eric Bienefeld, University of Bath
Television in Spain. From Franco to Almodóvar,

Paul Julian Smith (2006)
Woodbridge: Tamesis, 176 pp., ISBN 1-85566-136-5
(hbk), £45
Communication studies in Spain developed from an essentially sociological

tradition, a factor which explains why textual analysis of television prod-
ucts has remained in a very secondary position, or is indeed almost non-
existent, while institutional, political and economic analysis has prevailed.
This book by Paul Julian Smith is an important contribution in redressing
this imbalance. It offers an approach to Spanish television based on close
reading of key audiovisual texts and their relationship with broader socio-
political questions.
Among the programmes analysed are Cuéntame cómo pasó (2001),
which for Smith is an ideologically deeply ambiguous pedagogical text

caught between the anti-Franco didacticism of its creator and a search

for nostalgia through its period settings and the showing of old television
programmes. The author also looks at classic serials such as Fortunata y
Jacinta (1980) or La Regenta (1995), which are viewed as quality ‘middle
brow’ products. Smith argues that both creators and critics became too
obsessed with the faithfulness of these programmes to the works of Galdós
and Clarín, and thereby neglected their specifically televisual aspects.
Smith likewise analyses Crónicas de un pueblo (1971), a fictional series of
the Franco era, which he compares with a series of films also produced
and released during the dictatorship and shown again in Cine de barrio
(1995). Rather than seeing such productions as simply the product of
Franco’s propaganda apparatus, the author prefers to theorise them as
those ‘cracks’ or ‘grooves’ through which a society yearning for freedom
could breathe. The fourth chapter focuses on the urban sit-com, specifically
Aquí no hay quien viva (2003), which for Smith offers a social map of Spain.
The sit-com has been a shot in the arm for Spanish television, replacing
the antiquated operetta style of ‘traditional Spanish comedy’ with an urban
product based on witty dialogues and a certain theatricality, but less
patronising and more up-to-date in its issues.
This book also tackles the issue of telebasura and discusses Crónicas
marcianas (1997), a programme which revolutionised the late night slot in
Spain. Smith disagrees with the extremely common criticisms of telebasura
in academic, journalistic, and professional circles, and cites this programme
as an example of television where quality and good audience ratings are not
mutually exclusive. The author closes the book with a consideration of the
work of Pedro Almodóvar and its relationship with the world of television.
One of the central ideas of this book is that television programmes,
whether made in-house or by independent producers, are relatively
autonomous vis-à-vis the institutional dynamics within which they are
produced. To support this idea Smith points out how, at different times,
ideological representations on television have differed considerably from
the ideological direction of the party in power in Spain.
In general, Smith offers a refreshing and well-argued alternative to the
arguments long used by leftist intellectual progress to denounce the political
manipulation and low quality of television programmes in Spain. As part
of this argument, Smith suggests that the impact of Francoism on Spanish
television was less than is often thought, and interrogates the concept of
‘quality public-service television’. Although many of these ideas are
insightful and welcome, there are some with which I am unable to agree.
In particular I cannot share his view of El Mundo as an ‘independent’,
‘centrist’ and less partisan publication with a more open view of television
in contrast to an El País, which is seen as leftist and more partisan – close
to the socialist party – and somehow against television. Although it is also
clear to me that the positions taken up by the press in relation to television
are often driven by commercial or political imperatives, we should
nonetheless recognise the professionalism which often characterises the

work of television and cinema critics. Moreover, it would not be too

far-fetched to view El Mundo itself as a newspaper which is close to the
right-wing Partido Popular.
None the less, this is an innovative book whose treatment of television
content and insistence on questioning the anti-television arguments often
ingrained among critics and in the academy is very much to be welcomed.
Far from seeing the television of the nineties as ‘abominable’, Smith suggests
that those years were a second golden era for Spanish television (the first
being in the sixties) basing his argument on both the quantity and quality
of drama production, as well as on the success of entertainment programmes
in general.
Reviewed by Enric Castelló, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona
The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, Revolution and Revenge,

Paul Preston (2006)
London: Harper Perennial, 381 pp., ISBN 978-0-00-723207-9
(pbk), £8.99
Paul Preston could not write a bad book even if he tried. The Spanish Civil
War. Reaction, Revolution and Revenge is the third, revised edition of A Concise
History of the Spanish Civil War, published in 1986 and first revised and
updated in 1996 as The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. The new volume is
half as long again as its predecessor, taking into account the wealth of new
research on the Civil War both by international scholars and Paul Preston
himself. Although the book is nearly four hundred pages long, it is a grip-
ping read, helped by the fact that it is unhampered by footnotes. The latter
should not be taken as an indication of any lack of scholarly rigour. On the
contrary, the book exudes authority on every page. For the specialist, there
is new insight, information and interpretation. For the non-specialist, there
is a glossary of key concepts, a list of the abbreviations of political move-
ments, a roll-call of the principal characters, a map of Spain at the outbreak
of the War, and a superb choice of illustrations which bring a vivid text
even more alive. Of most interest to British readers, perhaps, will be the
Bibliographical Essay, present in the earlier edition, but greatly expanded.
Here Preston reviews, in a critical but even-handed way, the major works
in English on the Civil War over the past sixty years or more. Interestingly,
one development which emerges, though Preston, with commendable
modesty, never calls particular attention to it, is the major contribution
made by the graduates and collaborators of the Cañada Blanch Centre at
the London School of Economics.
This book is not essentially about the course of the War, though the coup
and its immediate aftermath are recounted early on and its final stages are
traced in the penultimate chapter. Chapters devoted to the analysis of
wider issues combine this with accounts of key phases in the campaign.
The key to the book’s focus, however, is in the subtitle, ‘Reaction, Revolution

and Revenge’. Although this study is not particularly polemical, neither is

it neutral. Preston’s sympathies are clear (and will, no doubt be shared by
the majority of his readers), as he contrasts the modernising reforms and
democratic purpose, despite the failures, of the short-lived Republic with
the stultifying reaction and sheer brutality of nearly forty long years of
Francoism. Preston shows how, after the official ending of the War, the
‘war of words’ has continued unabated. The bibliography on the Civil War
has grown to a point where it is virtually unmanageable. Although the
‘pacto del olvido’ was not adhered to by Spanish historians, especially in
the regions, Preston’s new edition has to acknowledge, more than its pre-
decessors, the change of mood in Spain in the new century, manifest in the
more widespread interest in the ‘recuperación de la memoria histórica’,
whether this be from a position of commitment or of anxiety.
For many outside Spain, the Civil War was the great conflict of the
twentieth century, between Right and Left, Fascism and Communism,
reform and reaction. It was also the testing ground for new military tactics,
especially the use of air power. Preston’s book naturally highlights the War’s
international dimension and is particularly good on foreign intervention
and non-intervention and on the international volunteers. Nevertheless,
he fascinatingly demonstrates the origins of the War in Spain’s past (there
were Civil Wars throughout the nineteenth century) and shows how the
fact that Spain’s political and economic development were almost invari-
ably out of line underpins the growth of the forces whose antagonism led
to the cataclysmic conflict. His account, in fact, briefly goes back to the
Restoration (a period to which historians seem to have devoted less atten-
tion than would appear warranted) and then into the early twentieth
century, as he shows how in essence society was divided into ‘haves’ and
‘have-nots’. By the time of the generals’ revolt, the battle lines were clearly
drawn. Threats to privilege and vested interests meant that the Right coa-
lesced around the oligarchy, the military and the Church. Fear of commu-
nism, and the Republic’s treatment of the Church, led many not naturally
anti-democratic to support the coup for fear of something worse. On the
other side were the democratic Left, united in the opposition to the old
regime, but divided on much else on the political agenda. Preston’s account
of the Republic demonstrates not only the idealism of many of its leading
lights, but also political ineptitude, provocation and misjudgement. His
analyses of the politics and personalities of the period, particularly on the
Republican side, are outstanding. Preston also offers judgements where
the evidence is less clear – on well-known controversies like Santiago
Carrillo’s role in the massacres at Paracuellos, or the siege of the Alcázar,
or the sending of Spanish gold to Moscow – and overall he takes a more
balanced, even sympathetic, view of the Communist position and contribu-
tion than has often been the case.
Following the chronological account of the road to war, Preston writes
more thematic chapters. His account of the role of the Great Powers is
well-documented and his two chapters on the politics on the Nationalist

and Republican sides are fascinating and detailed. Although our broad
picture of the Civil War may not be altered by this book – many of us have
had our picture painted by Preston anyway, perhaps – there is much that
is new. Much time is devoted to assessing the numbers killed on both sides,
based on recent research. He works systematically through the roles of the
major powers demonstrating the complexity of Stalin’s position and
weighing up Hitler’s motives. We learn more about Mussolini’s role, his
inflated view of himself as the leader of world fascism and, interestingly,
the way in which British, at best, acquiescence in the coup encouraged
him to go further than he might otherwise have.
Paul Preston’s book inevitably invites comparison with Hugh Thomas’s
The Spanish Civil War and Anthony Beevor’s The Battle for Spain: The Spanish
Civil War 1936–1939. Both, justifiably, place much emphasis on the military
dimension. Thomas’s has long been the standard work, though Beevor’s
more recent contribution has enjoyed great success and admiration. All
three works are outstanding, yet Preston’s has a kind of immediacy and
engagement that powerfully draws the reader in. His use of the telling
quotation, from leading participants, journalists, diplomats, together with
deeply moving eye-witness accounts, suffuse real life into scholarly analy-
sis. Above all, The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, Revolution and Revenge does
not back away from taking a position. Although full of fact and detail, it is
replete with interpretation and, for this non-specialist at least, is by far the
most readable and stimulating account of the twentieth century’s most
iconic war.
Reviewed by John Macklin, University of Strathclyde
Gunpowder and Incense: The Catholic Church and the

Spanish Civil War, Hilari Raguer (2007), Translated
from the Spanish by Gerald Howson
London and New York: Routledge, 418 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-415-31889-1 (hbk), £70.00
This important study, first published in Spanish in 2001 (La pólvora y

el incienso. La Iglesia y la Guerra Civil Española [1936–1939], Barcelona:
Ediciones Península), and now made available to English-speaking readers,
is the culmination of more than thirty years’ meticulous research by its
author, a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Montserrat. Dom Hilari has
benefited from the gradual opening-up of archives which were previously
inaccessible, as well as from the plethora of secondary studies published in
the last three decades, all of which he has sifted and assimilated with
impressive scholarly dedication. The result is a more comprehensive and
nuanced picture of relations between the Church and the contending
parties than has been available hitherto. For example, he traces, with
exemplary care, the complex process which led to the issuing of the Collective
Letter of the Spanish bishops in July 1937, showing that the project passed

through three phases, beginning when Pius XI declined to accede to Franco’s

request to condemn the Basques for supporting the Republic, but instead
suggested that the Spanish bishops issue a statement advising Basque
Catholics not to collaborate with Communists. Cardinal Gomá proposed as
an alternative that the bishops address a letter to all Spaniards, but this
was never written. The appearance of the definitive letter addressed to world
Catholic opinion was the result of a direct complaint to Gomá by Franco
on May 10 about the hostility of the foreign press (109–110). Although the
Spanish Church, therefore, saw Franco as the best protector of its interests,
Franco’s alliance with the Church owed less to religious fervour than to
military and political considerations, and these in turn influenced to a
considerable extent the nature of the Spanish hierarchy’s stance. Moreover,
while embracing enthusiastically the description of the insurgency by most
of the bishops as a ‘Crusade’, the new regime was not above castigating
the Church to which it professed vociferous loyalty. This is borne out by
Dom Hilari’s detailed account of the frequent complaints by the Nationalist
ambassador to the Vatican, José Yanguas Messía, about what was perceived
as the lukewarm tenor of the Papacy’s pronouncements on the conflict (124).
In certain circumstances, Franco could show that he was prepared to snub
the Church when it urged moderation, even silencing conservative clerics
who had offered him uncritical support: witness, for example, the banning of
Gomá’s pastoral letter of August 1939 (323), and the rejection of tentative
overtures concerning mediation emanating from the Vatican (245).
One of the principal voices urging restraint was that of the Archbishop
of Tarragona, Cardinal Vidal i Barraquer, who refused to sign the Collective
Letter, seeing it as a propaganda exercise driven mainly by the political and
military authorities in the Nationalist zone, a view arguably shared by
the Vatican, which ignored the existence of the letter for nine months
(123). Vidal i Barraquer’s main concern was pastoral, and stemmed from
anxiety that the letter would place clerics living in Republican territory
at even greater risk (112). For this and also for his alleged ‘separatist’
attitude (consisting mainly in allowing the use of Catalan in preaching
and worship) the Archbishop was denied permission to return to Spain
after the war, and died in exile in 1943. Dom Hilari does not conceal his
pro-Catalan sympathies, albeit without this impairing the objectivity of his
account (though one wonders why he found it necessary to reproduce
verbatim some thirty per cent of Joan Maragall’s 1909 essay ‘La iglésia
cremada’, since this has been available in Spanish and Catalan since 1986
[Elogio de la palabra, Barcelona: Ediciones del Mall]). On the contrary, his
careful analysis of the Catalan dimension enables him to show clearly
how different strands in this complex situation were interwoven: the
Vatican diplomatic attempts to wrest control from the state over the
appointment of bishops, the readiness of the Republican government,
from July 1937, to reach an accommodation with the Church (see
especially chapter 11), and the refusal of the Franco regime to accept
that priests who remained in the Republican zone might have been

motivated by commitment to their pastoral ministry, rather than by ‘Red’

partisanship.
This is such a significant study that it is regrettable to have to record that
the author has been badly served both by his translator and his copy-editor.
Frequent recourse to literalism not only impairs readability but also occa-
sionally produces renderings that are culturally and contextually inappropri-
ate. When Dr. Albert Bonet escaped from Barcelona and made his way to the
nationalist zone, ‘there rained upon him such menaces’ (119) (llovieron sobre
él tales amenazas). To his credit, Howson has also done some research of his
own, and at the end of chapter 4, has added some material based on the first
volume of the Gomá archive, which had not been published when Dom
Hilari’s book was being printed. Nevertheless, he rather spoils the effect by
writing ‘the collection for the Irish Catholics’ (76), when it is clear from the
context that this was the collection by Irish Catholics for the support of the
insurgency. Some renderings are not only over-literal, but in some cases mis-
leading, or downright wrong. Particularly confusing is the reference to ‘the
secular Spain’ (242), in a context in which traditional, eternal Spain (la
España secular) is being contrasted with secular, anti-clerical Spain.
Some of the mistranslations betray an insufficient knowledge of cultural
context and appropriate terminology. Carmelitas descalzas are, by definition,
‘barefoot Carmelites’ (31), but the Order is normally referred to as the
Discalced Carmelites. Exposición solemne del Santísimo Sacramento is not a
‘solemn exhibition’ (67), as in a museum, but the exposition of the Sacrament
for adoration by the faithful. Un acto de desagravio is more than ‘an apology’
(69): it is a solemn act of atonement. A sumario is not a ‘summary’ but a
judicial investigation (128). Twice, the Holy See is referred to as ‘he’, as if
it were an individual rather than an institution (194, 231). Templo is a
common synonym in Spanish for iglesia, but ‘temple’ (210, 255) evokes
inappropriate cultural connotations.
In addition to the shortcomings of the translation, copy-editing should
have been more thorough.. The author’s name appears correctly on the
front and back cover, but as ‘Hilary’ on the title-page. L’Osservatore Romano
appears as ‘L’Osservatoria Romano’ (94) and ‘L’Osservatorio Romano’ (101).
The periodical Temps présent is truncated to ‘Tempsrésent’ (221). In Professor
Paul Preston’s preface, several lines from p. xvi have been repeated in the
second-last paragraph, breaking up the flow of the argument. One sen-
tence in the original has been split into two, leaving the first without a
main verb: ‘After the victory of the Popular Front . . .’ (31). At something
like eleven places, carelessness about indenting has produced confusion
between block quotations and the main narrative, most glaringly at p.
148, where in the middle of a quotation, we read, ‘Anyone who compares
this with the original text will see that . . .’.
To do justice to the importance and quality of Dom Hilari’s work,
Routledge would be well advised to provide a thoroughly revised second
edition without delay.
Reviewed by Eamonn Rodgers, University of Strathclyde


International Journal of Iberian Studies 21.1

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IJIS_21_1_00-FM 5/31/08 10:22 AM Page 1

International Journal of Iberian Studies

Editorial Advisory Board Journal Editor

IJIS Notes for Contributors 2008

1) Prerequisites - Keywords (max. 6) referenced using the Harvard system

International Journal of Iberian Studies Volume 21 Number 1 © 2008 Intellect Ltd

Academic cheating in Spain and

Cheating is a concept that is hard to define. Dick et al. (2003) mention

2. On the determinants of cheating behaviour: a review

4 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation 5

6 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation 7

3. Methodology for quantifying the phenomenon of

8 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

4. Statistical description of the data

Total percentage of students in Probability of cheating

Table 1: Frequency of cheating in Portugal and Spain.

Total percentage of students in

Table 2: Frequency of ‘observing others copying’ in Portugal and Spain.

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation 9

against slightly over 60 per cent, respectively). The proportion of those

10 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

were no sanctions or supervision in exams is quite significant: in Spain,

Figure 1: Students’ opinion regarding cheating by country.

Figure 2: Expected sanction for cheating by country.

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation 11

Figure 3: Expected gain (in terms of a better mark/grade) as a result of cheating

Figure 4: Cheating propensity by existence of honour code and by country.

Figure 5: Cheating propensity by age and by country.

reveal a strong relationship between the propensity to copy and students in

Figure 6: Cheating propensity by schooling year and by country.

actively involved in student organisations (‘activist’ students – ASs) and

14 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

Figure 7: Cheating propensity by grade point average and by country.

5. Assessing the determinants of academic cheating: model

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation 15

is corroborated, but only just. Furthermore, the value of the difference

16 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

Finally and most importantly, the existence of a university ‘code of

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation 17

Ehrlich, I. (1973), ‘Participation in illegitimate activities: a theoretical and empiri-

Countries Number of Magnitude

Studies/authors Level of education Courses (n⬚) (n⬚ univ/country) students of ‘cheating’

related courses (6) 55.4% (Jap)

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation

Groups of determinants Determinants Studies

20 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

permissibility which the act of

Academic cheating in Spain and Portugal: An empirical explanation

Table A3: Descriptive statistics.

22 Aurora A.C. Teixeira and Maria de Fátima Rocha

ACIS Conference Keynote Paper

En busca de la utopía: los Estudios

Permitan que les presente a Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

IJIS 21 (1) 23–40 © Intellect Ltd 2008 23

Algunas tesis que intentan probar lo dicho

‘Un cantar seco y ferozmente latoso. (. . .) Literariamente es aquello una lata,

Así se desahogaba Unamuno en dos cartas de 1894, tras haber presentado

4 Esta percepción La propia filología hispánica mantiene (o ha mantenido durante largos

Hacia nuestros días se concentraron, pues, de nuevo las esencias hispánicas,

Este es ‘el destino de la personalidad artística de Federico García Lorca: ser

En busca de la utopía: los Estudios Ibéricos, ¿puente o frontera? 27

9 En lo que sigue se ha TESIS II