Government interventionism in the late Francoist regime: Industrial regulation in Spain, 1963-1980

Abstract

This article analyses Spanish industrial from the early 1960s until the end of Franco’s regime. The central point is that the liberalisation push of the 1959 Stabilization Plan finished in a few years and then a interventionist period returned. Laws of this period and the theoretical objectives of plans related to size increase of factories are analysed. The most praiseworthy hypothesis about this regulatory failure is a «Regulator’s Capture» by the entrepreneurs in order to impose barriers to entrance. The evidences confirm this was the case in oligopolistic industries, while restructuration reasons stood behind regulation in textile sectors and reinforcement of the State in regulated public industries. Thus, the interaction between the regulating State and the regulated firms produced a permanent conflict and results that varied in industry from one sector to another.