Actitudes politicas y resultados electorales en Murcia durante la Segunda República

Abstract

In this article the elections called during the II Republic in Murcia will be looked at in terms of political attitudes and results with the aim of providing useful background material for the examination of recent history. Four elections are analysed in depth although not to the same degree: the municipal elections of 12th April 1931 and the General Elections of 16th February 1936 being examined in greater detail, as they woul seem to illustrate two essential situations in the development of the II Republic in a satisfactory manner. The complete lack of opinion polls, wich could have thrown much light on the changes in electoral behaviour, is made up for by a brief history of two institutions: the Murcia City Council and the County Council These entities are good examples of Republican administration which give insight into the atmosphere of the times through decision-taking where political debate is not inexistent, and which show the solutions applied to the problems extant in the various fields of social reality. The promises of change held forth during the electoral campaigns were not to bear fruit owing to political infighting or the lack of funding, and later to the outbreak of the Civil War, which brought and end the experiment of Republican democracy.