Spain, a failed state? The data fueling the debate

From social media to the Official Gazette: the arguments behind Spain's 'failed state' label

That the Spanish Prime Minister himself has used the phrase "failed state" – even if only to refer to social media – is no minor detail. The term, coined in political science to describe countries that fail to guarantee the monopoly on violence or fundamental rights, has been gaining ground in Spanish public debate, backed by concrete data that go beyond the headlines.

One of the most frequently cited episodes is the alleged mass fraud in the regularization of immigrants. The National Police reported a "significant increase" in reports of lost passports, a mechanism which, according to the JUPOL police union, may be allowing undocumented people to qualify for regularization without effective control. "Thousands of reports are calling into question the decree's control mechanisms," said police spokesperson Ibón Domínguez. The sense that the State is not exercising its sovereign power over its borders fuels the diagnosis of institutional failure.

The democratic anomaly

But the debate is not limited to security. Critics point to an authoritarian drift in decision-making: policy U-turns on Western Sahara without parliamentary consultation, unscheduled legislative reversals, and an opposition that, according to some analysts, "sits on its hands." Some see in this the culmination of the so-called "78 regime" (the political system born of Spain's 1978 Constitution), a kind of disguised dictatorship with legal immunity for officials and corruption running rampant. Against this, others point out that services such as healthcare, education and pensions still work, even if cracks are showing.

A historical echo

This is not the first time the disconnect between rulers and ruled has been denounced. A quote rescued from the early twentieth century – when Joaquín Costa described Spain's two-party rotation as "two herds of men whose only ambition is to graze on the budget" – resonates with uncomfortable relevance today. The question the debate leaves open is whether Spain is closer to a failed state than to a full democracy, or whether the term is merely a rhetorical weapon in times of polarization.