Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Spain – Politics and government – 21th century'

Defence date: 28 September 2022
Examining Board: Prof. Pieter Judson (European University Institute); Prof. Tamar Herzog (Harvard University); Prof. Christopher Storrs (University of Dundee); Prof. Regina Grafe (European University Institute)
Why and how did modern states emerge in Southwestern Europe? These are the main questions that this thesis answers by examining the debt of six municipalities of the Crown of Aragon during the 18th century through a multiscale, transversal, and comparative approach. The ancient practices which constituted the Aragonese polity appeared in the mid-fourteenth century and survived at least until the mid-eighteenth century partially thanks to the debt of the municipalities. Towns and kingdoms were in many cases ruled by assemblies of creditors by virtue of debt restructuring agreements. Debt accounts for the long survival of the Aragonese polity, but also for its sclerosis. The financial situation of the debtholders, mostly ecclesiastical institutions, prevented rulers from defaulting on municipal debt and adopting drastic measures against the Church, as they feared a financial meltdown. The emergence of the modern state was an intricate process which started by 1750, mainly due to the collapse of the ancient mechanisms. The modern state appeared as a set of practices devised and implemented by a myriad of actors who tried to recompose social and political life. State formation was first and foremost a local process in which municipal debt proved crucial too. The examination of local dynamics reveals that modern states in Southwestern Europe followed similar paths during the early phases of their formation.

Defence date: 11 December 2007
Examining Board: Prof. Peter Wagner, (Università degli Studi di Trento and former EUI) ; Prof. Donatella della Porta, (EUI) ; Prof. Demetrio Castro, (Universidad Pública de Navarra) ; Prof. Adrian Shubert, (York University)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Este trabajo examina el conjunto de creencias, valores e ideas políticas de los libertarios que en España se movilizaron contra la dictadura franquista entre 1939 y 1975. La tesis principal de la investigación es la emergencia de un proceso de cambio en la ideología libertaria durante ese periodo de clandestinidad que cuestionó algunos de los presupuestos esenciales del pensamiento anarquista clásico. Este cambio y la resistencia al mismo serán analizados teniendo en cuenta la experiencia histórica y las expectativas de los actores que compartieron la ideología, el contexto político y social que rodeó su movilización y la tradición política de la que provenían y a la que éstos de una u otra forma se vincularon.

This thesis analyses rural social and political conflict in the province of Badajoz (Extremadura) during the Spanish Second Republic of 1931 to 1936. It takes a broad approach to social and political change in a province typical of southern Spain, but focusses particularly on the under-explored role of powerful agrarian elites opposed to the reforms introduced by the new liberal-democratic regime. The study begins with two complementary chapters covering the period 1870-1930; they consider the evolution of the autocratic rural order presided over by the elite and discuss the growth of the challenge to agrian power from organised rural labour. In the following chapters covering in detail the period 1931 to 1936 the partial transformat ion of the rural order that accompanied the transition to the Republic, the subsequent processes of social and political struggle, and the polarisation that followed are documented. A final epilogue considers the Civil War as a rural counter-revolution that involved the resurgence of agrarian autocracy in Badajoz. The thesis draws on a wide range of primary materials, from archives and printed sources to memoirs, and utilizes the relevant secondary literature. In general the study forms part of a movement to reach a deeper understanding of social and political change during the Republic and in particular offers new perspectives on the contribution of the 'agrarian question' to the breakdown of the regime and the origins of the Civil War.

Defence date: 13 June 2019
Examining Board: Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute (Supervisor); Prof. Elias Dinas, European University Institute; Prof. Eva Anduiza, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Prof. Kenneth M. Roberts, Duke University
The Great Recession constituted a breaking point in several aspects of the cultural, economic and political life of southern European countries (i.e. Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). This dissertation aims to shed light on the political consequences of the economic crisis in this region —with a specific focus on Spain as a paradigmatic case— by analysing different aspects of the political transformations that took place during the period of crisis. The underlying argument is that, albeit some relevant differences, the four countries experienced a common pattern: the incapacity of national politics to offer differentiated recipes to the deteriorating economic situation triggered a widespread crisis of representation that introduced new issues in the political agenda and drove the political transformations in these countries. The combination of a political and economic crisis at the national and European levels opened new political spaces that new parties capitalised by appealing to the need for democratic renewal and opposition to austerity politics. Furthermore, as illustrated by the Spanish case, and in particular the Catalan experience, the political crisis had far-reaching consequences beyond economic grievances, leading to the activation of different types of conflicts. Overall, the findings suggest that the transformations in the structure of political conflict in southern Europe in the aftermath of the Great Recession are not the by-product of a growing cultural divide —as is the case in several other continental and north-European countries—, but instead respond to the loss of credibility in the political system. Methodologically, the dissertation relies on an original dataset of media content as well as on several sources of survey data to test the empirical validity of the claims.
Chapter 2 'From Boom to Bust : A Comparative Analysis of Greece and Spain under Austerity' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as chapter 'From boom to bust : a comparative analysis of Greece and Spain under austerity' (2018) in the book Living under austerity : Greek society in crisis.
Chapter 3 'Old versus new politics: The political spaces in Southern Europe in times of crisis' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Old versus new politics : the political spaces in Southern Europe in times of crises' (2018) in the journal 'Party politics'
Chapter 4 'Out with the Old: Restructuring Spanish Politics' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Challenging business as usual? : the rise of new parties in Spain in times of crisis' (2017) in the journal 'West European politics'

Defence date: 17 January 2017
Examining Board: Professor Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore/ formerly EUI (supervisor); Professor Hanspeter Kriesi, EUI; Professor Eva Anduiza, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Professor Robert M. Fishman, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
This thesis deals with the Spanish cycle of protest in the shadow of the Great Recession. It has a twofold aspiration. On the one hand, from a process-based approach, it seeks to unravel the timing of the cycle of contention that evolved in light of the recession scenario between 2007 and 2015. I argue that the peak of protest persisted for a long time (from mid-2011 until 2013) because institutionalisation was postponed and radicalisation contained. Specifically, I focus on three aspects, key to understanding the trajectory of collective actions: 1) issue specialisation of protest after the first triggering points, 2) alliance building between unions and new actors, and 3) the transition process towards more routinised repertoires of action that came about as protests declined. On the other hand, the thesis aims at shedding light on the role that grievances play for mobilisation dynamics in a context of material deprivation. Covering multiple levels of analysis, the main argument developed here is that the effects of objective-material aspects and socioeconomic grievances are mediated by political attitudes, especially political dissatisfaction. To empirically test my arguments, I use qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, which are combined with information from a self-collated protest event analysis and different statistical analyses based on time series, panel data and other survey materials.
Chapter 3 of the thesis is based on an article published in Partecipazione e conflitto (2016)

Defence date: 20 September 2018
Examining Board: Professor Dr. Jennifer Welsh, EUI; Professor Dr. Ulrich Krotz, EUI; Professor Dr. Wayne Sandholtz, USC; Professor Dr. Jörn Dosch, Universität Rostock
Constructivist scholarship within International Relations (IR) has yielded important insights into the role of identity and norms in shaping state behavior. Yet, nearly all states have multiple identities and various – sometimes conflicting – normative commitments. This thesis is concerned with ‘norm conflict’: those situations in which the prescriptions associated with two norms clash, making it seemingly impossible for a state to conform to both norms at the same time. Despite the fact that situations of norm conflict present significant decision-making problems for states, the discipline of IR has thus far given them scant attention. This thesis analyses how Southeast Asia’s more democratically advanced states have responded to situations of norm conflict between the norms of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, and extraterritorial human rights protection and promotion. These two norms stipulate conflicting obligations in situations of gross human rights violations in foreign jurisdictions. I develop a consequentialist, but socially embedded, theoretical approach to norm following, which argues that by making credible commitments to norms, governments create domestic, international and – in some cases – regional expectations concerning norm compliance. The challenge for states is twofold: to manage such expectations, and to minimize the social costs of non-compliance with one of the two norms – which include potential damage to domestic legitimacy and international reputation. I suggest that states can pursue different strategies in response to norm conflict, which I conceptualize as consistent norm prioritization, general and context-specific norm replacement, norm reconciliation, conflict denial and a mixed response strategy. I argue that one important factor in determining which strategy is adopted represents whether the expectations articulated by a government’s relevant audiences converge, conflict or change over time. The thesis empirically explores these different strategies by studying Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia’s responses to gross cases of human rights violations in Myanmar.

Defence date: 27 February 2009
Examining Board: Prof. Bartolomé Yun Casalilla (European University Institute, Florence) - supervisor; Prof. Carmen Sanz Ayán (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)- external supervisor; Prof. Diogo Ramada Curto (European University Institute, Florence); Prof. Gérard Delille (CNRS-EHESS, Paris)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses

Defence date: 28 September 2015
Examining Board: Professor Bartolomé Yun Casalilla, EUI/Universidad Pablo de Olavide; Professor Lucy Riall, EUI; Professor Isabel Burdiel, Universitat de València; Professor Renato Camurri, Università degli Studi di Verona.
This thesis investigates the links between politics and the press during the crisis of the liberal state in Europe. During the 19th century, one of the biggest challenges facing the liberal state was how to give voice to local concerns. In countries with a centralised state-model and where liberal principles coexisted with other forms of authority that originated in the Old Regime, local elites (or notables) emerged as intermediaries between the state and the territory. However, while the literature has emphasised that these elites secured their position via patron-client relationships, little is known about how they also used the public sphere as a way to reinforce their legitimacy. Focusing on the press as one of the strategies used by elites to secure their advantaged position in society and embrace new spheres of influence, this thesis will focus on the Godó family, a dynasty of politicians, manufacturers and press proprietors who founded what is Spain's oldest (still active) newspaper and Barcelona's top-selling paper today: La Vanguardia. Divided into three parts, the thesis will first examine the role of newspapers in political systems where clientelism was the main means of distributing public office. The case of the Godó family and La Vanguardia is used to throw light on this, and on the importance of transnational media transfers in transforming the newspapers' raison d'être. The second part explores how the Godó family tried to engineer public opinion to advance their private agenda during the colonial wars in Morocco and Cuba. The family underwent a serious reversal of fortune in the early 20th century, when the demise of the Spanish empire and the ensuing climate of national introspection led journalists to be accused of wilfully misguiding the public and denounced as collaborators in the corrupt regime of elections. Yet contrary to the downfall of the notables narrative, which sees the demise of Europe's traditional elites as the outcome of the crisis of liberal politics, this thesis shows that elites had a wide room for manoeuvre to maintain their influence in the new mass society. The final part of the thesis examines the strategies the Godó family designed to adapt to this new scenario, and the function that the press played in them. Drawing on the emerging field of media history, the interdisciplinary perspective adopted here will redress the traditional lack of dialogue between historians and media scholars, providing a novel perspective on the crisis of liberalism in Europe – where press editors are interpreted as political actors, and changes in communicative channels are understood as intricately connected to changes in the nature of power.

This dissertation examines the Carvajal family’s century-long transformation from less prestigious knights (caballeros) into influential church leaders and royal advisors to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel. During the 15th century, the Carvajal family successfully utilized the tools of family confederations, occupational patronage, religious endowments, and wealth generation in their pursuit of enhanced status in Castile. Additionally, this work documents a family confederation formed by the Carvajals and the Santa Marías, an influential clan of Jewish converts to Christianity (conversos). The geographic focus of this study is the city and diocese of Plasencia, Spain, and the timeframe is from 1391 to 1516. The key Plasencia families examined in this project are the allied Carvajals and Santa Marías, as well as their rivals, the Estúñigas. Research for this dissertation explored fourteen city, cathedral, provincial, royal, and national archives and libraries across Spain. This pioneering archival history breaks new ground in its exploration of the familial, economic, occupational, and social processes that facilitated the rise of the Carvajals of Plasencia.
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Defence date: 10 June 2014
Examining Board: Professor Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (EUI/External Supervisor) Professor Lucy Riall (EUI) Professor Carlos Forcadell (Universidad de Zaragoza) External Supervisor Professor Martin Baumeister (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München/Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom).
La presente tesis pretende responder al interrogante de cómo se articuló la cultura histórica nacional en la España franquista, las estrategias aplicadas por el régimen, las narrativas diseminadas, así como la función desempeñada por los historiadores como garantes cualificados del pasado nacional. Para ello, se analizan las políticas del pasado desplegadas por la dictadura y, en concreto, las diversas conmemoraciones históricas organizadas por el régimen. Al condensar de manera espectacular las narrativas sobre la historia, las conmemoraciones se erigieron en elementos de especial relevancia en la configuración del pasado nacional. Un análisis que efectuamos mediante una pluralidad de enfoques vinculados a la historia cultural, la historia de la historiografía y la historia cultural de la política. En cualquier caso, las conmemoraciones históricas se articularon como espacios dinámicos que permitieron la competencia de diferentes agentes -tanto individuales como institucionales- y la confluencia de una multiplicidad de agendas conmemorativas. Esta perspectiva, permite analizar el carácter complejo del régimen, la diversidad de esferas (local, nacional, internacional) involucradas en la celebración del pasado, así como los diferentes proyectos político-ideológicos implicados en la producción del pasado. A su vez, el estudio de las conmemoraciones y la activa participación en las mismas de los historiadores permite analizar la disciplina histórica de manera integral, superando diversas interpretaciones lineales, y atendiendo a los fenómenos de internacionalización, las dinámicas de intercambio y los procesos de articulación de una disciplina que, como territorio políticamente intervenido, se encontró supeditada a los condicionantes del régimen.

Defence date: 26 May 2008
Examining Board: Prof. Jaime Reis (EUI-Instituto de Ciencias Sociais)-supervisor ; Prof. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (EUI) ; Prof. Ismael Saz Campos (Universitat de València) ; Prof. Mary Vincent (University of Sheffield)
First made available online 05 December 2018
Penetrar en el aparato de poder franquista implica conocer las raíces ideológicas de quienes lo integraban, su proyecto político y su praxis política. En el caso de la Organización Sindical ello supone analizar la trayectoria ideológica de la idea verticalista, las aspiraciones del grupo sindical en relación con su inserción dentro del complejo institucional franquista y el papel que, de una manera efectiva, terminaron desempeñando los sindicatos en el seno del régimen. Para cumplir tales objetivos, he estructurado mi trabajo en nueve capítulos, cada uno de los cuales se centra en un aspecto concreto de la trayectoria de la Organización Sindical durante el primer franquismo. El capítulo primero –“Estado de la cuestión e hipótesis de investigación”- constituye un análisis crítico de la bibliografía existente sobre el sindicalismo franquista y, al mismo tiempo, expone las principales hipótesis en torno a las cuales se ha desarrollado la investigación. A continuación, viene un bloque de dos capítulos de contextualización que analizan la relación del sindicalismo vertical con su entorno europeo y con las etapas inminentemente anteriores de la historia española. El capítulo segundo –“El contexto internacional: corporativismo y fascismo en la Europa de Entreguerras”- sitúa el nacimiento del sindicalismo vertical en una perspectiva internacional, investigando hasta qué punto el mismo fue un fenómeno específicamente español o bien una experiencia compartida con otros países. Por su parte, el capítulo tercero – “Corporativismo y fascismo en España. La construcción ideológica del sindicalismo vertical durante la 2ª República”- profundiza en las raíces ideológicas del paradigma verticalista y en los factores políticos que condicionaron su conformación. Acto seguido, se suceden tres capítulos de naturaleza eminentemente narrativa que diseccionan las distintas etapas que atravesó la Organización Sindical desde el inicio de la Guerra Civil hasta 1951. Así, el capítulo cuarto –“La cuestión sindical en la zona nacionalista durante la Guerra Civil”- pone de relieve que el problema de la faceta sindical del régimen ya fue planteado en plena contienda. El capítulo quinto –“El nacionalsindicalismo entre dos guerras: la primera Delegación Nacional de Sindicatos”- se centra en el período de 1939-1941 y constituye una interpretación de los acontecimientos que marcaron la evolución de la Organización Sindical durante el período en que estuvo dirigida por Gerardo Salvador Merino. Por su parte, el capítulo sexto –“Años decisivos: la consolidación institucional de la Organización Sindical”, 1942-1951”- constituye un análisis de la configuración institucional de la Organización Sindical durante la etapa en que Fermín Sanz Orrio se mantuvo al frente de la misma, momento en el que adquiriría los rasgos esenciales que habrían de distinguirla ya durante todo el período franquista. Finalmente, los últimos tres capítulos tienen una naturaleza sincrónica. En ellos estudio aspectos concretos de la actuación de los sindicatos verticales. El capítulo siete –“La burocracia sindical”- está dedicado a los dirigentes que, de una manera profesional, consagraban su actividad a los organismos sindicales. El capítulo ocho –“La función económica. Organización Sindical, autarquía y representación de intereses” – está dedicado a la relación entre los sindicatos verticales y los empresarios, Por su parte, el capítulo nueve –“La función sociolaboral. La Organización Sindical y las relaciones laborales”- abarca la relación entre los sindicatos y los trabajadores.

Defence date: 14 December 2018
Examining Board: Prof. Stefano Bartolini, European University Institute; Prof. Mark Bovens, Utrecht University; Prof. Daniel Gaxie, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Co-supervisor); Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute (Supervisor)
The aim of this dissertation is to shed new light on the electoral support for radical rightwing parties (RRP). Whereas most existing investigations assume a form of causal homogeneity, the starting point of this research project is based on what I call electoral equifinality : the coexistence of multiple causal paths leading towards different forms of support for the same political party. In order to discern and understand different forms of RRP support, the study takes both the supply and the demand side into account. Regarding the supply side, I link cleavage theory and conflict sociology to the Laclauian notion of equivalence , arguing that the electoral appeal of RRP relies on their capacity to coherently unify a multiplicity of heterogeneous demands along the same main antagonism: national versus foreign. Following Weber’s and Parkin’s thoughts on social closure, I theorize that this nativist core conflict is invoked according to a specific tripartite structure, which, to my knowledge, has remained quite unnoticed in the existing literature. In accordance with this theory, a new dataset is developed (n = 1,378), based on the tweets of Le Pen and Wilders, to compare the political supply of their parties in terms of forms of closure, reference groups and issue categories. Pertaining to the demand side, a sequential mixed methods design is followed, focusing quantitatively on the structural heterogeneity within RRP constituencies along three dimensions within a Bourdieusian framework of social space: social characteristics (who); political preferences (why) and political interest (how). Subsequently, the second qualitative research step is based on life history interviews with 125 RRP voters in France and the Netherlands, leading to a typology of radical right support. Taken together, these findings contribute to a more fine-grained understanding of RRP support in Western Europe and open up theoretical and empirical perspectives for future research.

Defence date: 10 June 2016
Examining Board: Professor Jorge Flores, European University Institute (supervisor); Professor Regina Grafe, European University Institute; Professor Wolfgang Kaiser, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne (external advisor); Professor Pedro Cardim, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
This thesis offers an innovative study in the construction of the Hispanic Monarchy during the first half of the sixteenth century. Focusing on a king's man: Juan Rena (Venice, ca. 1480-Toledo 1539); I explore subjects such as the Spanish expansionism in Europe and beyond, the configuration of the empire's frontiers, the shaping of the new imperial administration, and the functioning of Charles V's military machinery in the Mediterranean. In analysing Juan Rena's activity as a crown servant, this work reveals how the Hispanic Monarchy was constructed from below, out of multiple interactions between a wide array of socio-political actors. Furthermore, and this is one of the main contributions of this research, it will allow us to rethink the role of that the myriad of king's men, like Rena, played in the configuration of early modern empires. Hence, this thesis seeks to do more than simply reconstructing the activities of a royal servant, it aims to provide an in-depth study, which will contribute to our historical understanding of the construction of early modern empires.

Defence date: 6 November 2000
Examining board: Prof. Yves Mény (EUI-Supervisor) ; Prof. Michael Keating (EUI) ; Prof. Luis Moreno (Consejo Superiori de Investigaciones Científicas) ; Prof. Juan Subirats (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 12 January 2010
Examining Board: Prof. Jaime Reis (Supervisor) Prof. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (EUI) Prof. Mercedes Cabrera (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) - external Supervisor Prof. Fernando Guirao (UPF, Barcelona)
First made available online 15 April 2019
El estudio que aquí se presenta trata de la historia compartida por el Partido Socialdemócrata de Alemania (SPD) y el Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) durante el periodo 1962 - 1977. Su objetivo es acercar al conocimiento de las diversas facetas de una relación desigual entre el partido de izquierdas más influyente de Europa Occidental en aquel tiempo y una pequeña organización que fue ilegal durante la práctica totalidad del periodo de estudio pero que emergió con extraordinaria fortaleza al final del mismo, jugando desde entonces un papel central en la construcción de la democracia en su país. Los contactos de estas dos organizaciones de muy distinto carácter, dimensiones y capacidad de influencia se expondrán aquí en el contexto que les da sentido, el de las relaciones hispano-alemanas. El hilo argumental de las páginas que siguen es el lugar que el SPD, partido con responsabilidades de gobierno en la RFA a partir de 1966, reservó al PSOE en el conjunto de su política hacia un régimen en decadencia que finalmente decidió transformarse en una democracia al desaparecer el dictador. Al adentrarse en el estudio de las motivaciones, los objetivos, los medios y los resultados del contacto entre el SPD y el PSOE, la investigación dará respuesta a una serie de cuestiones que resultan de interés para conocer la intrahistoria de dos de las organizaciones de la izquierda europea con más tradición y peso en la vida de sus países. Pero, por encima de ello, lo que esta tesis pretende es realizar una contribución a nuestra comprensión de la influencia que el país más poderoso en la Europa de los años setenta ejerció sobre el proceso que llevó a España de una dictadura a una democracia.

Defence date: 31 May 2017
Examining Board: Professor Heba Raouf Ezzat, Cairo University; Professor Anna Triandafyllidou, European University Institute; Professor Jean-Pascal Daloz, CNRS/MISHA Strasbourg; Professor Olivier Roy, European University Institute
As a contribution to the diverse field of cosmopolitan scholarship, engaging with ‘cultural cosmopolitanism’ often understood in a vernacular sense as the capacity to meditate between different cultures, religions and ways of life, the thesis locates and analyses cosmopolitan discourses and cosmopolitan material practices within the cultural and socio-political conditions in which they were uttered in the Muslim majority context of Egypt. While issues concerning religion have been at the crux of contemporary Middle East scholarship, less often addressed are discursive and material spaces in which other types of imaginaries can prosper. As an interdisciplinary study, informed by ethnographic inquiry, the thesis engages in analyzing a cosmopolitan social imaginary as well as expressions of differing aspirations - that were framed in cosmopolitan terms - during the period between the Egyptian revolution in January 2011 and the military coup d’état in summer 2013. Witnessing profound political changes with new actors such as the Muslim Brotherhood entering the political arena, the period constitutes a historically significant moment for the analysis of discourses and practices with a cosmopolitan reference. The research grounds cosmopolitan theories in space and time and reflects on the appropriation of the cosmopolitan concept. Consequently, it casts a critical look at how there was a materialization of cosmopolitan notions of self-reflexivity and detachment – the ability to see the world from the viewpoint of one’s cultural ‘others’. On the one hand, the study discusses how nostalgia for the past, framed in cosmopolitan terms, relates to the present, and on the other, how contemporary cosmopolitan discourses and practices, enabled through global market forces, materialized in the Egyptian context in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution of 2011. Within the political setting of post-2011 revolution Egypt, this research observes how social distinction can be enacted through cosmopolitan references. Viewed in relation to the socio-political realities of the location under study, it points to social hierarchies, which the differentiation ‘global’ and ‘local’ helps to create, and to appropriations of the contextual distinctiveness and specificity of the cosmopolitan imaginary. While discussing social distinction through an analysis of cosmopolitan imaginaries, the thesis contributes to the fields of both elite scholarship and cosmopolitan scholarship.
Chapter 6 ‘The gendered self and the other' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'The gender dimension of the authoritarian backlash' (2015) in the journal ‘Turkish policy quarterly’

Defence date: 20 December 2016
Examining Board: Professor Luca Molà, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Fernando Marías, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Real Academia de la Historia (External Supervisor); Professor Peter Cherry, Trinity College Dublin; Professor Simon Ditchfield, University of York
Awarded the James Kaye Memorial Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in History and Visuality 2018
This dissertation explores the modes of representation used by the ecclesiastical elites of early modern Catholicism to negotiate their roles as religious leaders, political ministers, cultural patrons and members of the aristocracy in the European courts. It examines the religious and artistic patronage of Cardinal Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas (Aranda de Duero, 1546 – Toledo, 1618) during the reign of Philip III of Spain. Archbishop of Toledo, Inquisitor General and uncle of the king’s favourite minister, the Duke of Lerma, Sandoval was the leading ecclesiastic of the Spanish Monarchy and one of the richest and most powerful patrons of his time. Located at the crossroads between historical and art historical studies, this dissertation bridges this historiographical disjuncture by proposing an integrated approach that combines methodologies from the fields of art history, court studies and cultural history. The patronage of material and visual culture is here analysed as the result of the constant negotiation between Sandoval’s individual self and the wider contexts to which he belonged. Six chapters scrutinize a rich array of visual and material sources, together with manuscript and printed documents collected from over thirty archives, reconstructing the socio-political and religious contexts in which Cardinal Sandoval operated. In examining the family conflicts and political tensions encountered by post-Tridentine prelates, I demonstrate how the patronage of sacred art, holy relics, monastic institutions and religious texts operated beyond their fundamentally devotional objectives. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of early modern political culture by showing how religious and artistic patronage was a fundamental practice for shaping the rhetoric of piety with which ecclesiastical patrons negotiated their reputation.
Figures 8, 51-57, 147-149, 170-171, and 215-216 (corresponding with pages 402, 427-433, 489-491, 507, and 535-536), have been intentionally removed for copyright reasons. To view these images please refer to the printed version of this dissertation. Titles of the figures are below: • Figure 8. Alonso de la Fuente Montalbán, “Genealogía y Ascendencia del Illustrissimo señor don Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas, Cardenal y Arçobispo de Toledo”, anteequem 1608, fol. 11. Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 9-398. At page 402 • Figure 51. Portico of the Sagrario Chapel. ©Matilde Grimaldi. At page 427 • Figure 52. West wall of the Sagrario Chapel.©Matilde Grimaldi. At page 428 • Figure 53. North wall of the Sagrario Chapel.©Matilde Grimaldi. At page 429 • Figure 54. East wall of the Sagrario Chapel.©Matilde Grimaldi. At page 430 • Figure 55. South wall of the Sagrario Chapel. ©Matilde Grimaldi. At page 431 • Figure 56. Dome of the Sagrario Chapel. ©Matilde Grimaldi. At page 432 • Figure 57. General scheme of the pictorial decoration of the Sagrario Chapel. At page 433 • Figure 147. Giovanni Battista Mucanzio, “Smi. D. N. Papae Acomnium S. R. E. Cardinalium nunc viventium. Elogia”,*1615, Rome, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, FB IV, 201. At page 489 • Figure 148. Giovanni Battista Mucanzio, “Smi. D. N. Papae Acomnium S. R. E. Cardinalium nunc viventium. Elogia”,*1615, fol. 37r. Rome,Archivio Segreto Vaticano, FB IV, 201. At page 490 • Figure 149. Giovanni Battista Mucanzio, “Smi. D. N. Papae Acomnium S. R. E. Cardinalium nunc viventium. Elogia”,*1615, fol. 36v. Rome, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, FB IV, 201. At page 491 • Figure 170. Cardinal Sandoval y Rojas, lead medal, 1616 Madrid, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, 1993_80_431e3eID001. Photo: Ángel Martínez Levas (N.I.(1993/80/431e3). At page 507 • Figure 171. Our Lady of El Sagrario, Lead medal, 1616. Madrid, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, 1993_80_431e3eID002. Photo: Ángel Martínez Levas((N.I.(1993/80/431e3). At page 507 • Figure 215. Angelo Nardi, The Crowning with Thorns, c. 1619-1620. Alcalá de Henares, San Bernardo. At page 535 • Figure 216. Angelo Nardi, The Miracle of the Five Loaves and Two Fishes, c. 1619-1620. Alcalá de Henares, San Bernardo. At page 536

Defence date: 7 October 2006
Examining Board: Prof. Irving A. A. Thompson ; Prof. Anthony Molho ; Prof. Diogo R. Curto ; Prof. Rafael Valladares
First made available online: 16 June 2021
A fines de 1638 o comienzos del año siguiente se concluyeron las obras de un pasadizo secreto que don Gaspar Alonso Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, IX duque de M edina Sidonia, había manado construir para unir su palacio con el castillo de Santiago, distantes ambos algunos cientos de metros y situados en lo alto del terraplén de Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Tan novelesca construcción incita a especular sobre su función, aunque la falta de datos concretos sobre su uso aconseja prudencia. En el tiempo del que nos vamos a ocupar, los descendientes de don Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, el héroe de Tarifa, comandaron expediciones de conquista, organizaron armadas, defendieron la costa andaluza y pacificaron reinos. Pero también pleitearon con la Corona, se opusieron a sus designios e interpretaron el bien común desde la perspectiva de su palacio sanluqueño, perspectiva que no siempre resultó coincidente con la voluntad regia. El objeto de este trabajo es desentrañar las lógicas que presidieron la elaboración de las estrategias políticas que los Medina Sidonia fueron desarrollando en este tiempo en un esfuerzo por armonizar sus propios intereses con los de la Corona, modificando unos u otros en la medida que sus posibilidades y cálculos les permitían hacerlo.