Resumen de Parliamentary committees in Spain during the First World War: a useful tool for the cortes in times of crisis?
This article focuses on the study of the parliamentary committees in Spain between 1914 and 1919, in the context of the consequences of the First World War experienced in Spain. This study is based on documentation preserved at the Historical Archive of the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, It aims to understand the modus operandi and the part that committees played in the complex balance of the relationship established with the plenum of the Spanish Congress and with the executive powers. This article examines in particular how parliamentary committees carried out their responsibilities, whether they had an influence on normative activity and whether they favoured the procedural process and the operational oversight of the various aspects of parliamentary life. Furthermore, we have attempted to measure whether parliamentary committees represented an efficient forum for mediation where there were ideological or technical conflicts, by facilitating resolutions with respect to what was achieved in the broader context of the plenum.
