This paper focuses on a case study of Seville in the period between the death of General Franco in 1975 and the first local elections in 1979. Aside from the role played by municipalities, civil governors (gobernadores civiles) at the provincial level provided a key tool for democratization which we will analyse here. As the highest governmental authorities in each province, governors were able to control the democratization process either in cooperation with local authorities or, in case of conflict, enforcing the orders of the central government.