Ideology or Prosperity: Lesson Learned? Democratic Transition Experience of Spain and the Turkish Membership in the European Union

In 1986, the two Iberian countries joined the European Communities after a protracted, over a decade long negotiations and in the Spanish case, a tense exchange of correspondence and opinions. While the existing literature accentuates primarily the value of democracy for Spanish membership, studying archived historical documents opens up the window for an alternative explanation of the prolonged process. The prevalence of archival materials assessing the country's economic situation and devising measures for its improvement suggests that the Spanish lack of democracy could play a lesser role compared to disconsolate economic situation. Vice versa, Spanish membership endeavour had been in a similar manner motivated less by the vision of a shortcut to democracy and more by the promise of economic profit and more importantly, by the wish to break from isolation and return back to the Western world. The European Community represented the first step; the gate to the world where Spain wanted to belong.