in a book about the transition, alfonso osorio, a member of the 1977 adolfo suárez government, describes the reasons behind alianza popular's failure to capitalize on sociological francoism:what the alianza popular intended for, in essence, was to use sociological francoism to their advantage. but as it worked out, what they actually capitalized on was the lingering, and less significant, political francoism...in the meantime, this sociological francoism...favoured other democratic options closer to the centre.yet the political system continued to show elements inherited from francoism. the debate between a post-franco "reforma o ruptura" (political reform or rupture) ended in a compromise reform established by constitutional consensus, as left-wing parties were conscious that their own weakness prevented a full rupture with the old regime. from 1976 onwards, king juan carlos i (designated by franco as his successor in 1969) and his team of close advisors (essentially torcuato fernández-miranda and adolfo suárez) implemented the agreed-upon reform, which left both the "inmovilistas" (ultraconservatives) and the best-known "aperturistas" (progressives such as manuel fraga and josé maría de areilza) sidelined from the process. the degree of democracy thus achieved is questioned by some writers, including armando lópez salinas, who considers it essentially controlled reform, in some sense similar to giuseppe tomasi di lampedusa's characterization of the italian unification in his novel "the leopard": the ruling classes need to change something so that everything remains the same".