El Institut d'Estudis Catalans, fundado y ampliado por iniciativa de Enric Prat de la Riba en 1907, es una corporación académica, científica y cultural que tiene por objeto la alta investigación científica y principalmente la de todos los elementos de la cultura catalana. La corporación tiene su sede en la ciudad de Barcelona y tiene establecidas delegaciones dentro de su ámbito geográfico de actuación, que son las tierras de lengua y cultura catalanas. El papel del Institut d'Estudis Catalans en la (...) comunidad científica y la sociedad en general se ha consolidado en los últimos años y ha tomado un nuevo impulso. (shrink)

The present article examines the historical narrative proposed by modernization theory about the recent Spanish past. Its assumptions and consequences for historical research focused on the 19th century are described in order to understand the lack of intellectual exchange among historians and sociologists in the Spanish academic world. Modernization theory has justified the political consensus that allowed the Spanish transition to democracy and its academic authority has narrowed the scope of historical research about previous democratization processes. Although the paradigm of (...) Spanish backwardness has been refuted by specialists on 19th-century Spain, sociologists, economists and historians of the 20th century still propose a teleological interpretation of the democratization process that assumes the validity of the paradigm of secular Spanish backwardness. The scientific and political authority of modernization theory has made impossible an open academic debate and consequently the work of historians that refute teleological interpretations of development has been neglected, since modernization theory provides a political interpretation of the Spanish Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War as historically determined failures in order to legitimize the present democratic monarchy and constitution. (shrink)