This essay employs a state-structuralist approach to explain the emergence of social concertation as a policy mechanism to facilitate democratization and economic liberalization in post-Franco Spain. Concertation emphasizes the institutionalization of consultation and cooperation on macroeconomic policy involving peak representation from the state, employers' associations, and the organized labor movement. The author demonstrates how state structures and institutional legacies played the critical role in fashioning a favorable strategic environment for the adoption of concertation during the restoration and consolidation of democracy in Spain. In doing so, this research departs from conventional approaches to the study of the making of concertation that emphasize either the strength of the bargaining agents from capital and labor or the social democratic composition of the government. Moreover, it reveals a significant role for state institutions in charting a successful path to democracy and the market economy.
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