A general election was held in Spain on 8 March 1914 (for the Congress of Deputies), and on 22 March 1914 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 15th under the Spanish Constitution of 1876, during the Restoration period. All 408 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.
The informal system—which had allowed the country's two main parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, to alternate in power by determining election outcomes in advance through caciquism and electoral fraud—broke down following Antonio Maura's downfall in 1909, as the latter had come to see the Liberal rise to power as the liquidation of the Pact of El Pardo. The government of Prime Minister José Canalejas attempted to enforce a liberal democratic regenerationism to curb the country's problems, seeing the abolition of consumption taxes, the introduction of compulsory military service, laws addressing the social question, the legal groundwork for the establishment of the Commonwealth of Catalonia in order to placate rising Catalan regionalism and the establishment of a Spanish protectorate in Morocco. But his assassination before he could fully realize his agenda (such as fulfilling the separation of church and state or the rebuilding of the with the Conservatives) plunged his plans—and his party—into chaos.
King Alfonso XIII entrusted the Count of Romanones with the formation of a new cabinet, but an internal crisis over the leadership of the Liberal Party prompted supporters of the Marquis of Alhucemas to split into the Liberal Democratic Party. As a result, Romanones's government fell in October 1913 after being defeated in a vote of confidence. Maura rejected the King's mandate to continue the , leading to the appointment of Eduardo Dato as prime minister instead. This fragmented the Conservative Party into the Maurists (followers of Maura's doctrine), the "suitable ones" (defenders of the system) and the Ciervists (who advocated for Conservative unity of action without affiliating themselves with either faction).
The election saw the Conservative bloc winning a majority of seats in both chambers, but internal infighting between the Maurist and Datist factions would leave the government in an unstable minority position. The Liberals ran divided between the supporters of Romanones and the liberal-democratic faction of the Marquis of Alhucemas. The Republican–Socialist Conjunction had been weakened by the departures of both the Reformist Party of Melquíades Álvarez (representing a moderate republicanism) and Alejandro Lerroux's Radical Republican Party.
Background
The Restoration system had entered a phase of decline following the national trauma from the Spanish–American War (the "1898 disaster") and the absence of politically authoritative figureheads since the deaths of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1897) and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta (1903), weakening the internal unity of both dynastic parties and strengthening the position of faction leaders and local as power brokers. Concurrently, the anti-monarchist opposition became increasingly competitive in urban and some rural districts, partly due to the introduction of universal suffrage since 1890, partly due to the progressive weakening of the pro-government electoral apparatus.
The 1909–1910 government crisis had seen both the fall of the Conservative government of Antonio Maura by political pressure from the Liberals under Segismundo Moret, and the latter losing the support of the various factions within his party and being replaced by José Canalejas. As prime minister, Canalejas attempted to enforce his own vision of regenerationism (a "democratic regeneration") to "nationalize" the monarchy and address the country's problems, which at the time included: growing tensions within the armed forces, Church–State relations, the Moroccan and social questions—with an increase in strike action and the emergence of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), seeing episodes such as the Cullera events—and rising Catalan regionalism. This period saw the implementation of various reforms, such as the abolition of consumption taxes, the introduction compulsory military servicet, or a more appropriate regulation of women's working conditions (the "Law of the Chair" or ).
Canalejas's aim to curb the Catholic Church's influence over public education resulted in a temporary rupture of relations with the Holy See, as well as a media campaign accusing Canalejas of fostering anti-clericalism. Discreet negotiations saw the approval of the Padlock Law () in December 1910, which restricted the establishment of new religious orders during the next two years. His government also laid the legal foundations for the creation of commonwealths of provinces with limited powers in an attempt to placate the ambitions of the Regionalist League, paving the way for the Commonwealth of Catalonia in 1914. Canalejas refrained from intervening in the 5 October 1910 revolution that overthrew the Portuguese monarchy, but had to tackle its repercussions during the pro-republican mutiny aboard the ironclad Numancia in August 1911. The successful Kert campaign helped bring about the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, with the signing of the Franco–Spanish Treaty of 1912.
Canalejas also attempted to rebuild the system through a conciliatory stance towards the Conservatives. Their leader, Maura, had come to see the Pact of El Pardo as liquidated following his fall from power in 1909, declaring an "implacable hostility" to the Liberals in power—equivalent to the official severance of solidarity ties between the two dynastic parties and a renounce to the power alternation—as long as they did not publicly retract their actions of the previous biennium. In the ensuing years, the Conservatives would divide among those adhering to Maura's political doctrine against the (the Maurist faction or ), and those advocating for continuity out of loyalty to the monarchy and a desire not to be excluded from power (who would become known as the or "suitable ones").
The assassination of Canalejas in November 1912 put an end to his agenda and plunged his party into chaos. King Alfonso XIII's initial decision to appoint the president of the Congress of Deputies, the Count of Romanones, as prime minister, was met with outrage by Maura—deepening his disaffection with the "failed" —as well as by supporters of minister of state under Canalejas, the Marquis of Alhucemas, who also aspired to the Liberal leadership. The Alhucemas–Romanones feud and the leadership crisis within the Liberal Party, coupled with the debate on the Law of Commonwealths, brought about the former's split into the Liberal Democratic Party in the summer of 1913 and the latter's downfall in a Senate vote of confidence on 25 October. Maura's refusal to accept the King's mandate and maintain the caused a schism within the Conservative Party between "maurists" and "suitable ones", leading Alfonso XIII to hand over power to the "suitable" Eduardo Dato. A third Conservative faction led by Juan de la Cierva—governance minister under Maura—supported restoring unity of action between and , without affiliating itself to either.
Within the republican opposition, the Reformist Party was formed in 1912 by Melquíades Álvarez, Gumersindo de Azcárate and Benito Pérez Galdós, representing a moderate, accidentalist and democratic republicanism. Concurrently, disagreements with Alejandro Lerroux's Radical Republican Party led to its departure from the Republican–Socialist Conjunction.
Overview Under the 1876 Constitution, the Spanish were conceived as "co-legislative bodies", forming a nearly perfect bicameral system.. Both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate exercised legislative, oversight and budgetary functions, sharing almost equal powers, except in budget laws (taxation and public credit)—whose first reading corresponded to Congress—and in impeachment processes against government ministers, where Congress handled indictment and the Senate the trial..
Date The term of each chamber of the —the Congress and one-half of the elective part of the Senate—expired five years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier.. The previous elections were held on 8 May 1910 for the Congress and on 22 May 1910 for the Senate, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 8 and 22 May 1915, respectively.
The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.; . There was no constitutional requirement for concurrent elections to the Congress and the Senate, nor for the elective part of the Senate to be renewed in its entirety except in the case that a full dissolution was agreed by the monarch. Still, there was only one case of a separate election (for the Senate in 1877) and no half-Senate elections taking place under the 1876 Constitution.
The were officially dissolved on 2 January and 13 February 1914, with the corresponding decree setting election day for 8 March (Congress) and 22 March 1914 (Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 2 April.; .
Electoral system Voting for the Congress of Deputies was based on universal manhood suffrage, comprising all Spanish national males over 25 years of age with full civil rights, provided they had two years of residence in a Spanish municipality and were not enlisted ranks in active duty. It was compulsory, excepting those over 70, the clergy and—within their territories—trial judges and public notaries.. Additional restrictions excluded those deprived of political rights or barred from public office by a final sentence, criminally imprisoned or convicted, legally incapacitated, bankrupt, public debtors, and homeless..
The Congress of Deputies had one seat per 50,000 inhabitants. Of these, those corresponding to larger urban areas were elected in multi-member constituencies using partial block voting: voters in constituencies electing ten seats or more could choose up to four candidates less than the number of seats at stake; in those with between eight and ten seats, up to three less; in those with between four and eight seats, up to two less; and in those with between one and four seats, up to one less. The remaining seats were elected in single-member districts by plurality voting and distributed among the provinces of Spain according to population.; . Candidates in uncontested seats were automatically elected..
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, 310 single-member districts were established, and each Congress multi-member constituency (a total of 28, electing 98 seats) was entitled the following seats: ( by , , and ; by , , , , , , , , and ).
Seats Constituencies 8 Madrid 7 Barcelona 5 Palma, Seville 4 Cartagena 3 Alicante, Almería, Badajoz, Burgos, Cádiz, Córdoba, Gran Canaria, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Jerez de la Frontera, La Coruña, Lugo, Málaga, Murcia, Oviedo, Pamplona, Santander, Tarragona, Tenerife, Valencia, Valladolid, Zaragoza
Voting for the elective part of the Senate was based on censitary suffrage, comprising Spanish male householders of voting age, residing in a Spanish municipality, with full political and civil rights, who met either of the following:. Being qualified electors (such as archbishops, bishops and cathedral chapter members, in the archdioceses; full academics, in the royal academies; university authorities and professors, in the universities; or provincial deputies); Being elected as delegates (either by members with three years of seniority (in the economic societies of Friends of the Country; or by major taxpayers for direct taxes and local authorities, in the local councils).