Juntas Generales

The Juntas Generales (Batzar Nagusiak in Basque) are representative assemblies in the Southern Basque Country that go back to the 14th century. The three main Juntas Generals in the Basque Country were - and are - the Juntas Generales of Biscay, the Juntas Generales of Gipuzkoa and the Juntas Generales of Álava. The equivalent in Navarre was the Cortes—or The Three States, roughly House of the Commons—to become the present-day Parliament of Navarre.

They were part of an early form of democratic institutions. At the local level, the heads of households (male or female) would meet on Sundays after church at the church door in a meeting called elizate (or anteiglesia in Spanish) to debate and decide on local issues. An elizate in turn would elect someone to represent the local community at the juntas, which existed from the district level right up to the provincial Juntas Generales.

Little is known about the historical background of these local and regional institutions prior to the 14th century. Broadly speaking, two historical periods can be distinguished:

After the First Carlist War, the fueros were much weakened and eventually fully abolished after the Second Carlist War in 1876. Although the Spanish Government of the time established the conciertos económicos involving low taxes, protective tariffs and self-collection of taxes, Madrid demolished Basque institutions including the Juntas Generales.

Following the Spanish transition to democracy in the 1970s the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country re-instated the Juntas Generales in Biscay, Gipuzkoa and Álava in 1979.

Unlike the other Basque provinces, Navarre had evolved into the Kingdom of Navarre and had developed to a large extent feudal traditions and institutions in line with other European kingdoms of the time. As a result, it was largely excluded from the development of such early democratic institutions. However, the royal authority was but one layer of the governmental institutions, and the latter—diputacion or government council, "The Three States" (Cortes)—were based on the Navarrese charters stemming from similar values, traditions and institutions to the other Basque regions.

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Wikipedia