National museums, political systems, and cultural policies in Spain: The Museum of the Spanish People during the Second Republic, the dictatorship, and the parliamentary monarchy

Abstract

Since the 1930s Spain has lived through a succession of different political systems: the Republic which lasted until 1939, the dictatorship which emerged after the Civil War and, since 1975, a parliamentary monarchy which has persisted through alternating socialist and conservative governments. The Museum of the Spanish People (Museo del Pueblo Español), a national museum first created by the left-leaning government during the Second Republic and originally devoted to folkloric studies, survived different political systems and generated numerous policies mirroring the political culture of each period. This article looks critically at the institutional history of the Museum of the Spanish People under changing social and political conditions. In this paper, our objective is to examine specific cultural policies adopted by the museum that evolved as a response to the larger national environment during its lifetime.