A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain

Spain has had quite the history of corruption and incompetence. This book generally covers the last century until today. World War II is covered, but it is gone over quickly. Franco's Spain was more of a "little brother to a little brother". They wanted to be aligned with Germany to gather the spoils, but really didn't provide strategic value. The right wing government had little understanding of economics and thought they could get a Spanish miracle by printing money. Alas, that didn't work. However there was plenty of corruption around. (There was also the curious case of the regime accusing those that were opposed to their initial coup as being "enemies of the state."
Spain just seemed to have a mess of a leadership. Franco's regime was in principle a conservative response to the rising communist/socialist powers. However, it seemed that ideology was second fiddle to personal aggrandizement. Franco and his cronies accumulated great riches. Spain would boom and bust.
Even post Franco, the leadership had interesting ways of doing things. King Juan Carlos was popular. But his reputation fell in part due to a "friendship" with a lady. The country was able to prosper with huge construction booms. However, these would be very cyclical, leaving periods of massive unemployment. There was also plenty of corruption in rezoning of properties to allow for the big construction booms.
There is also the matter of Catalan and Basque country. There are regular cries for independence and plebiscite votes, and even violence. However, the regions still remain part of Spain. The leftists, especially in the cities, regularly rise up in the name of workers. Some people do end up with nice government jobs, but the workers often do not end up significantly better off.
The book paints a picture of a continual mess of corruption and incompetence that has not really changed in the past century. Luckily, the Germans and Brits love the land and somehow find a way of helping to keep the Spanish governmental mess from collapsing.