The Dictatorships of Miguel Primo de Rivera and Francisco Franco had many similarities as well as many differences. The way they intended to lead Spain shows how they would employ similar strategies as well as different ones. I will discuss their intentions of how they thought was the best way to fix a broken Spain, the way they treated the working class, their tactic to improve economy, fascism, the use of military in their regime and the roles of women in their society.
Firstly, it was argued by authors such as Raymond Carr and Francisco J. Romero Salvadó that Primo only intended to rule Spain for a short amount of time in order to find quick solutions to deal with Spain’s illnesses such as social disorder, economic recession and the
The existing industrial areas prospered at the expense of the backward regions. This was seen in 1970 when 70 per cent of Madrid homes possessed television sets compared to 11 per cent in the province of Soria(Carr Raymond, pg 157). It is therefore accurate to report that the strategies used by Primo and by Franco resulted in an increased financial gap between provinces, and therefore providing a similarity.
The concept of Fascism is something that is also different between the two dictatorships. It is argued by Francisco J. Romero Salvadó that Primo’s regime never attempted to create a regime based on fascist ideology. (Romero Salvadó, pg 51). He disputed that although Primo borrowed ideas from a fascist regime; it never progressed or came close to true fascism. In contrast, Franco’s regime was definitely fascist. His dictatorship was very severe. For example, he encouraged nationalism and enforced severe punishments for crimes, whilst also enforcing widespread censorship. Although, Primo also used censorship of the press to keep the working class docile (Carr Raymond, pg 103), it was never to the same extent to Franco who did this much more severely. It is also worth noting that during Franco’s regime a lot more people were killed than in Primo’s regime proving support for the severity of Franco’s regime. Therefore, although Primo borrowed some Fascist ideas, it is clear that his regime cannot be put in the same category as Franco’s