The unfinished update: the Spanish model of cooperation and its necessary completion

Abstract

Spain has traditionally been a Catholic country, where religion has shaped its national identity for centuries. However, this Catholic hegemony has gradually given way to the presence of a variety of minority religions, which are growing rapidly, fuelled today by the emerging phenomenon of migration. The 1978 Constitution inaugurated a model unprecedented in Spanish history based on religious freedom and the secular nature of the state, and which introduced an important new feature: a system of cooperation between the different churches and the public authorities. Its construction, fraught with milestones, has been slow and laborious, and after almost half a century, it is still incomplete. In this article, we analyse its foundations, structure and development, as well as its innovations over the decades, with particular emphasis on the growing religious diversity that is becoming increasingly important at the present time.