The National Stability Plan of 1959 as an attempt to overcome the economic crisis in Spain

Abstract

The aim of the article is to indicate the causes, conditions and effects of undertaking a deep economic reform in Spain at the end of the 1950s, resulting from the National Stabilization Plan, and its economic, social and political assumptions. The entry into force of the Stabilisation Plan, forced by the country's precarious economic situation and prepared under pressure from the United States and international financial institutions, meant the rejection of the policy of economic autarky and protectionism pursued thus far by the Franco regime, while at the same time opening Spain to the outside world, the inflow of foreign capital, the development of the tourism services sector and mass economic emigration of its citizens. The implementation of the Plan was an economic success. As a result, Spain embarked on a path of rapid economic development, real wages increased and unemployment flattened at a minimum level. The economic success of the Plan was also exploited politically by the Franco regime. The so-called ideology of development promoted by the government was intended to divert attention from the enduring undemocratic system of government, allowing the regime to continue in conditions of favourable prosperity and a developing economy.