How to Compare Dictatorships? Cultures of Surveillance in Franco’s Spain and Communist Eastern Europe in Context

Abstract

The article explores if Francoism was different to other totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, focusing on the example of surveillance and its central meaning for modern dictatorships. As a case study, the article analyzes this through a comparative examination of the political police in Spain and in Eastern and Central Europe. The paper shows the general lines of the conceptualization of modern secret police, inserting them in a wider European context.