Liberalization and Democratization in 19th and Early 20th Century Spain: Illusion or Reality?

Following the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833, liberals of various stripes dominated Spanish politics for the next 90 years. They introduced parliamentary government, stable two-party competition and ultimately universal manhood suffrage.  Behind this progressive facade, however, lay a reality of oligarchic rule and electoral manipulation that goes a far way towards explaining not only the advent to power of Primo de Rivera in 1923 but also the collapse of the Second Republic into civil war 13 years later.