Broken Authorities

Abstract

Along with the complacent narrative of the so-called Spanish Transition to democracy, another narrative has long sought its place: one about struggles and betrayed dreams. By examining the plots of two different novels, Chirbes’ In the Final Struggle and Millás’ The Disorder of Your Name, this chapter questions whether it is at all appropriate to think of a betrayal of the leaders of the Transition process. Indeed, this would imply giving them a capacity to make decisions that they simply did not have: they were not owners but foremen. This fact does not exempt them from responsibility, but it downgrades their leading role and places the focus both on the owners of the large means of production and on those who accepted the situation.