Испания: посткризисная модель развития

Abstract

November 20, 2015 marked 40 years since the demise of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. With his passing Spain entered into an era of tremendous economic and socio-political changes. At the stage of democratic development Spanish nation achieved three key objectives: it built an open and modern economy; in political sphere a relatively effective de facto two-party system was created; social protection was provided to the bulk of the population. All this strengthened Spain’s international positions and provided it an attractive image. The country attracted millions of immigrants. The world crisis of 2008–2009 stopped the growth of the Spanish economy. Spain was in crisis long six years and only recently began to come out of it basing on a new development model (a “rebound” model). By a number of parameters it is different from the pre-crisis paradigm of the growth. The crisis had serious impact on Spain’s foreign relations. In particular, serious reputational losses challenged Madrid’s efforts to counter the crisis, to reduce the negative effects of external shocks on the international scene and to find opportunities to give additional impetus to the development of the country. These challenges defined new foreign policy agenda: protecting financial and economic interests of Spain abroad, strengthening the positions of the Spanish companies in world markets, coordination of anti-crisis actions with partners in the European Union. Madrid stands for a sort of integration core within the EU, consisting of six founding countries of the European Economic Community (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and France), as well as Spain and Poland. This projected grouping is intended to serve as the vanguard of the movement in the direction of making the EU more effective.