“Our Real Enemies”: Political Foundations of the Legality and Legitimacy of the Spanish “New State,” 1936-45

Abstract

The legality and political legitimacy of the Francoist New State in Spain during the Civil War and the immediate post-war period entailed the formulation of a doctrine and criminal legislation that enabled the regime to repress its political opponents, as well as to gain control over Spanish society as a whole. This article analyzes how this process of the social construction of the offender was based on the categorization of the other as a dangerous and morally and socially harmful enemy, mainly through the creation of a new offender-based criminal law.