For many years the emergence of civil society was seen as an important element in the rise, maintenance and consolidation of democracy around the world (Botchway 2018; Diamond, 1994). Nevertheless, there are differences with regard to what counts as civil society, and how it supports democratization (Edwards, 2009;.Jensen, 2006). There is also research that points out that civic associational life sometimes coexists with authoritarian regimes (Lorch & Bunk, 2017) or that civil society can, under specific conditions, even bring to the faltering of democracy (Sombatpoonsiri, 2020).

Research on the contribution of civil society to democratization highlights that it provides spaces for democratic deliberation and facilitates bringing grassroots issues to public attention due to their inclusion in the public sphere. But civil society is also important to support democracy as it can limit the power of the state. Casanova (2001) highlights the case of church-state interaction maintaining that in situations in which the church is disengaged from the state it contributes to processes of normative contestation in the public sphere. In Spain, due to the death of the dictator, Francisco Franco, in 1975, the Catholic Church was clearly relocated from its privileged role as a close ally of the state to civil society, becoming a central actor. In collaboration with a net of catholic civic associations it mobilized in order to protect its interests, especially in the sphere of education. The 1970 educational reform which was launched under the Franco regime recognised the privileged place of the catholic religion, while the reforms of 1985 and 1990 initiated by the newly elected socialist government installed a lay and public model of state education. This process was accompanied by large scale social mobilizations of teachers, parents and school associations both against and in favour of government educational policy.

In this paper we look at the role of civil society educational organisations in the consolidation of the Spanish democratic educational system. On the one hand we continue with a well-established line of inquiry which shows how educational associations and social movements opposing to the dictatorship and its legacy interacted with state and society in order to impact educational legislation, pedagogical practice and teacher training (Groves, 2014; Groves et al., 2017;Parcerisa et al., 2023). On the other hand, we complement and contrast this analysis with a novel enquiry into the role of catholic educational networks in the configuration of the Spanish education system during this period. The transition to democracy in the 1970s has dissolved their privileged position vis a vi the Franco regime which fused its nationalistic project with Catholicism. Due to the new democratic context they were obliged to reformulate their attitude toward the state which in its turn incorporated, after forty years of social and political exclusion, the world view of progressive social actors. As catholic schools and associations were identified with the barriers for the implementation of a post-dictatorial democratic education, their mobilization and incorporation into civil society has been hardly studied. Thus we know very little about their strategies of influence and interaction with the state.

In this paper we sustain that by comparing the mobilization of the catholic educational network with that of the progressive educational initiatives we can discern how their different position vis a vi the state influenced their educational discourse and legitimacy strategies. This comparison also enriches the understanding of the interaction between the state, civil society and education policy.

As our interest lies in the public sphere we mainly look at the press and other publications which can serve to analyse the open discourse adopted by the lay associations of teachers and families identifies with progressive education on the one hand and of the Catholic Church and civil society associations on the other hand. We also analyse oral interviews with activists from both types of organisations and finally when it is possible we look at internal and external correspondence across educational civil society associations.

Both groups mobilised in the streets and their activities were widely covered by the media. While the educational progressive lay groups enjoyed open access to government officials and maintained close relationship with the ministry of education, the catholic associations had no direct access to state officials. Many of the ideas echoed by the progressive educational associations penetrated legislation, especially their views about the functioning of schools in what they called a democratic way and the role of teachers as autonomous agents. The catholic organisations had contacts with political figures from the conservative right but they were not directly involved in legislation. As a result, they used the vocabulary of pluralism and democracy to defend the religious character and funding of their schools and appealed to international support to maintain a plural education system which would permit them to maintain authoritarian running of schools and teachers who identify with a specific religious doctrine. Their agenda was also incorporated into the educational legislation, although in a subtler way, fusing their version of democracy with that of the progressive educational civil society associations. We thus hope to show that both types of civic associations, while developing opposing discourses and using distinct strategies, contributed to the consolidation of a democratic education system and a vibrant civil society.

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