34 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Are there examples of oligarchic governments being removed peacefully?
There *were* deaths during this process in Spain, but they weren’t directly related to the government transition (they stemmed from separatist terrorism, largely in the Basque region),
ETA accounted for about half the political deaths during the Spanish transition. There were also murders by the police and far-right groups that had some veiled police support as well, but this is not as commonly talked about.
the Spanish military did not interfere in the political process
At least two "fathers of the Constitution" claimed to have been under direct life threat by the Spanish military during the making of the Constitution and that the military intervened in the negotiation of part of the Constitution, such as article 8.
Comment by abn1304 at 21/01/2025 at 23:27 UTC
8 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Still, I think there’s a distinction between a relatively small number of politically-motivated murders happening and a full-on violent transition of power, especially in cases where the murderers are prosecuted (like Portugal). Violent transfers of power would be something like the Arab Spring revolutions, where governments were typically removed through force and mass violence occurred against the government, pro-reform groups, or both.
I’m not sure any country in history has managed to have totally bloodless governance, even in countries with stable, fully representative democracies, like the US or most of Western Europe. I think the important distinguishing factors are that:
1. A relatively small number of violent events happen (granted, this is subjective and somewhat arbitrary)
2. The state punishes people fairly for committing violent acts, including its own agents (I think this is the really important part)
If we check both boxes, I think it’s fair to call a transition of power peaceful. (I think a third overriding factor would be if any deaths that occur are accidental. If every death that occurs during a transfer of power is accidental in some way, then I don’t think it’s fair to hold that against the state as long as there wasn’t extreme or deliberate negligence.)
If violence occurs and the state does nothing about it, then it’s not a peaceful transfer of power by any metric.