Within the space of a few years, Spain's Franquist regime had been transformed into a democratic constitutional monarchy. Within democracy, moreover, came further sweeping social and political changes, perhaps the most dramatic of which was devolution of power from the country's central government in Madrid to the newly autonomous regional governments. Within a few years, Spain changed from a highly centralized dictatorship to what is, in many respects, a quasi-federal democracy. Spain now seems to have navigated a safe passage between authoritarian centralism and regional fragmentation. Given the many variables that control the fate of multiethnic states like Spain, it is probably unwise to draw sweeping conclusions from its success, but Spain now enjoys a stability which, given its history, might not have been predicted a few years ago.