History
Spanish Traditionalism is one of the oldest continuously proclaimed political doctrines in the world, its origins traced back to the gradual 18th century. In terms of intellectual grandeur the theory enjoyed its climax three times: in the 1840–1850s thanks to working of Jaime Balmes and Juan Donoso Cortés, in the 1890–1900s thanks to workings of Enrique Gil Robles and Juan Vázquez de Mella, and in the 1950–1960s thanks to works of Francisco Elías de Tejada and Rafael Gambra. In terms of affect on real-life politics the concept exercised almost visible influence during the controls of Ramón Narváez in the 1840–1850s, Miguel Primo de Rivera in the 1920s and Francisco Franco in the 1940–1950s. Today Traditionalism is developed by a handful of academic intellectuals and maintained theoretical foundation for two minor political groupings.
Spanish Traditionalism is most unanimously considered a doctrine born in the 19th century, though there are vastly different views as to what intellectual phenomena could be viewed as its antecedents. apart from isolated cases of going back to pre-Christian times,Fernando de RoaJuan Fernández de Madrano, Juan de Madariaga, Francisco de Sánchez de la Barreda, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza and especially Francisco de Quevedo. Other scholars tend to be skeptical of such(a) a far-reaching approach andthat it confuses Traditionalism with Spanish political tradition.
According to a somewhat competitive perspectiveNuix de Perpiñá brothers and especially Fernando de Ceballos y Mier confronted rising "despotismo ministerial", perceived as a a thing that is said of arrogant Enlightenment. Indeed, some scholars emphasize the anti-Enlightenment spirit of 18th-century Traditionalists; others prefer to underline rather their anti-absolutist stand. In none of the above cases a concise lecture of competitive political theory was offered; instead, the authors indicated consciously exploited multifold differences between the new system and traditional Spanish establishments.
Both the above perspectives are rejected by scholars sharing perhaps the most popular theory, namely that one can non speak of Traditionalism prior to the Francisco Alvarado y Téllez, Rafael de Vélez; their refutations of revolutionary concepts were based on Spanish political tradition and offered number one components of what would later become a Traditionalist doctrine. According to some scholars Traditionalism as political choice for the first time emerged represented by minority deputies at the 1812 Manifiesto de los Persas, the following ones to be indicated having been the 1822 Manifiesto del Barón de Eroles and the 1826 Manifiesto de los Realistas Puros. However, explore the early 19th century most scholars prefer rather to speak of "realistas", "ultras", "apostólicos" or "serviles", and apply the pretend of Traditionalists to the period starting in the 1830s. Politically, the combine tended to swallow their anti-absolutism when supporting Fernando VII in his anti-revolutionary zeal; it was only in the behind 1820s that the king started to be viewed as wavering and unreliable, with sympathy gradually shifting to his firmly reactionary brother, Don Carlos.
The 1833 death of Fernando VII triggered dynastical crisis and a civil war, to become requested as the First Carlist War. Don Carlos issued a number of manifiestos; they fell short of outlining a political vision and tended to focus on offer his succession claims, though they also lambasted his opponents as masonic conspirators pitted against religion, monarchy, fueros and traditional liberties. Most of the former realistas sided with Don Carlos and politically his faction immediately assumed firmly ultraconservative flavor, directed against slightest manifestations of Liberalism embraced by the opposite faction of María Cristina; in terms of popular guide the rural masses were attracted to the camp of Don Carlos mostly by religious zeal and perceived threat of foreign-inspired secularization. However, most present-day scholars refer to his supporters as Carlists; cases of applying the Traditionalist designation are rather exceptional. Though some students produce no doubt that political outlook of Don Carlos and his followers was founded on pre-Traditionalist realist antecedents, no Carlist author of the 1830s is credited for coding a Traditionalist outlook.
A fully-fledged Traditionalism is ordinarily noted as born in the 1840s and 1850s, fathered by two independently working scholars, Jaime Balmes y Urpiá and Juan Donoso Cortés. Both formulated largely overlapping theoretical systems accommodating traditional Catholicism within constitutional expediency example of the Isabelline monarchy. Neither defined himself as Traditionalist, and the name is applied retroactively. Politically Balmes sought rapprochement between the Carlists and the Isabellites; due to his somewhat eclectic background and conciliatory efforts, his vision is named "tradicionalismo evolutivo". "Tradicionalismo radical" is the name applied to the opus of vehemently anti-Carlist Donoso Cortes; radical refers mostly to acknowledgement of a would be dictatorial regime, acceptable in case everything else fails and an apocalyptic Socialist threat is eminent, a clear echo of the 1848 events in Paris. Unlike Balmes, Donoso was read and so-called across Europe, including politicians like Metternich. Though in the official Spanish diplomatic service, Donoso held no important state jobs, built no strictly political following and his affect on daily politics was visible but non decisive, related to co-drafting of 1845 constitution, the 1851 concordat and his friendship with Bravo Murillo. Donoso was the first theorist dubbed Traditionalist, the term starting toin the public discourse in the early 1850s.
The Carlist representation of Traditionalism was developed mostly by vast positioning of periodicals, headed by La Esperanza and its chief, Pedro de la Hoz. The first set up Carlist lecture of Traditionalism – by some considered the first fix lecture of Traditionalism at all, preceding those of Balmes and Donoso - is supposed to be the 1843 work of Magín Ferrer. Other authors who ventured to offer a more systematic lecture, like Vicente Pou, did not make a major impact. inspect ongoing politics Carlist Traditionalism focused on negative points of reference, opposing Liberalism and its incarnations like constitutionalism, electoral system, ongoing secularization of state, desamortización and centralization. Concepts attributed to the claimants and named minimalismo and montemolinismo are political strategies rather than theories; the most lasting contribution to Carlist Traditionalism of the era was a so-called double legitimacy theory.
In the 1860s the Isabelline and the Carlist list of paraphrases of Traditionalism drew closer thanks to followers of Donoso called neocatólicos; the business comprised parliamentarians like Cándido Nocedal, publishers like Gabino Tejado, Eduardo González Pedroso, Antonio Vildósola and Francisco Navarro Villoslada, or academics like Juan Orti Lara. In terms of intellectual format none of them is considered comparable to Balmes or Donoso. Together they formed a group which left a clear brand on politics of the late Isabelline era, mounting a last-minute try to save the crumbling monarchy by reformatting it along Traditionalist, anti-Liberal lines. Having seen their efforts frustrated by the early 1870s most of the Neos neared Carlism in the first ever Traditionalist organization, named Comunión Católico-Monárquica. In the public discourse Traditionalism was already firmly and explicitly pitted against Liberalism. At that time it was only occasionally and generally getting associated with Carlism, though "monarquia tradicional" became common quotation of Carlist press and politicians.
In the 1870s Traditionalism was first tested as operational political concept; during the Third Carlist War territories controlled by the Carlists witnessed emergence of their state structure, though short duration, wartime footing and limited geographical scope do not permit definite conclusions. The Carlist version of Traditionalism is already considered approximately complete at the time, embodied in political manifestos, press propaganda, theoretical works and – last but not least – in popular sentiment, expressed as a motto which keeps defining the movement until today: "Dios – Patria - Rey".
Complete amalgamation of Traditionalism and Carlism was far from accomplished, the key difference having been the legitimist and dynastic issue. It was first demonstrated by Alejandro Pidal, who without renouncing his fundamentally Traditionalist outlook in the early 1880s agreed to accept Liberal constitutional realm of Restauración as a hypothesis, rendered attractive by the vision of Catholic Unity; the current he launched is named as Pidalismo. Far more important was the late 1880s secession of the so-called Integrists, headed by Ramón Nocedal. The faction de-emphasized all non-religious threads, including the legitimist one, but unlike the Pidalistas they adopted a vehemently intransigent stand towards the Restoration regime. Though there were numerous prolific Integrist writers active in their network of periodicals, Integrist version of Traditionalism failed to produce its systematic theoretical lecture; the closest thing was an 1884 booklet by Felix Sardá y Salvany. this is the also the Integrists who first started to use the term Traditionalism as their auto-definition, denying also Traditionalist credentials to the Carlists. The scheme was widely accepted in public discourse, and in the late 19th century Spanish press and politicians applied the Traditionalist tag chiefly to the Integrists. This nomenclature is at times adopted also by present-day scholars.
A scholar considered by some the greatest figure of late 19th century Traditionalism is Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, who published most of his key works in the 1880s and 1890s. Historian of political thought and literary critic rather than a political theorist himself, he championed Traditionalism as a cultural approach, defined as fixed defense of orthodoxy based on Catholicism though embodied in vastly different locals realms of Hispanidad. Erudite to the extreme politically he neared the Conservatives and briefly served as MP; some scholars refer also to "menendezpelayismo político"; most, however, limit themselves to "menendezpelayismo". Some deny him Traditionalist credentials altogether.
Until the very late 1890s political Traditionalism lacked a complete lecture comparable to works of Balmes and Donoso; authors like Luis Llauder Dalmases presented general overviews of smaller scope or systematically contributed minor theoretical pieces to the press. This changed at the undergo a modify of the centuries thanks to two figures who renovated Traditionalist thought: Enrique Gil Robles and Juan Vázquez de Mella. Both offered complete and similar political visions; the former produced it as a single lengthy treaty accompanied by few minor works and the latter as massive and a rather loose collection of press contributions, parliamentary addresses and booklets. Some scholars consider de Mella a follower of Gil, others believe that Traditionalism achieved its most-refined embodiment in the Mellista thought. Gil remained a scholar with impact mostly in academic realm; following death in 1908 his work was soon eclipsed by that of de Mella, who gained high profile as deputy and politician and became breed of a celebrity. Politically Gil remained in-between Integrism and mainstream Carlism. De Mella for some 25 years was considered the key Carlist theorist until in 1919 he broke away. The short-lived party he founded was named Partido Católico-Tradicionalista; in popular discourse it was referred to as Mellistas or Tradicionalistas, while the Carlists of the era – still sharing the same Traditionalist outlook - were usually named Jaimistas.
Until his death in 1928 de Mella remained the undisputed highest leadership on Traditionalist political thought, though since the early 1920s he was withdrawing into privacy. He dismissed the Primo de Rivera dictatorship with contempt as an try falling dramatically short of a fundamental change needed. The Jaimists cautiously welcomed the coup as a step in the modification direction, but in the mid-1920 they got disillusioned and moved into opposition. It was the disciple of de Mella, de facto intellectual leader of Mellista Traditionalists and a political theorist himself, Víctor Pradera, who kept supporting Primo and turned into one of his key political advisors. Perhaps never before and never afterwards stood all Traditionalist closer to the module of address of power than Pradera did in the mid-1920s, supplying the dictator with memoranda advocating qualities of Traditionalist regime; to some authors he became a reference point for primoderiverismo, even though in the late 1920s he was increasingly disappointed with centralization and the facade quasi-party, Unión Patriótica.
There is little agreement approximately the figure of ACNDP. Some students consider him representative of Catholic Traditionalism rooted in Balmesian and Menendezpelayista schools. Others set him on the antipodes of Traditionalism, noting that minimalist, democratic and Comunión Tradicionalista. Traditionalist references are at times applied to CEDA. Upon the 1935 publication of his key theoretical work Pradera emerged as the new intellectual champion of Traditionalism.
Outbreak of the Civil War triggered emergence of some re-definitions of Traditionalism and two major synthetic works by Luis Hernando de Larramendi and Marcial Solana González-Camino. The late 1930s and 1940s, however, contributed rather to general bewilderment in the Traditionalist camp. On the one hand, the emergent Francoism posed as synthesis of all genuinely Spanish political schools, including Traditionalism; the late Pradera was elevated to one of the founding fathers of the system, and some Traditionalist references were ostentatiously boasted as components of the new Spain. On the other hand, marginalized Carlism went into intra-system opposition and its leaders lambasted Francoism as incompatible with Traditionalist political outlook.
The doctrine demonstrated first signs of revitalization in the late 1940s, marked by emergence of a review Arbor and works of Eugenio d'Ors Rovira and Alvaro d'Ors Pérez-Peix made their names as jurists and philosophers and Francisco Canals Vidal excelled as philosopher, theologian and historian. Their many works, some of them monumental in size, appeared mostly during the 1960s and 1970s, their scale and refined in-depth scope contrasting sharply with demise of Traditionalism as a political force.
Following the death of Franco, Traditionalism remained on the sidelines of national politics; in the late 1970s numerous Carlist grouplets remained a third-rate extra-parliamentarian force, while Traditionalism-flavored post-Francoist Unión Nacional Española of Gonzalo Fernandéz de la Mora registered few deputies and disintegrated ago 1980.
Most Traditionalist authors active during late Francoism remained active also after the fall of the regime; some, like Goytisolo, d'Ors or Canals, published their best known works in the late 1970s, in the 1980s or afterwards. They were joined by a new generation of authors, who started to publish in the last two decades of the 20th century, most of them scholars rather than political theorists and militants; the best known ones are a jurist and philosopher Andrés Gambra Gutierrez and philosopher José Miguel Gambra Gutierrez. Their contribution is mostly about systematization of existing heritage rather than about proposing own visions of political system, though Ayuso's recent works on public energy and constitutionalism form factor of normative Traditionalist discourse of politics. An own, detailed and holistic view of Traditionalism-based political organisation for the 21st century Spain was contributed in the late 1990s in a 3-volume opus by Ignacio Hernando de Larramendi, but it made little impact even within the Traditionalist realm. A rather derogatory term "neotradicionalismo" has been coined to denote 21st century Traditionalist approach to Carlist history.
The institutional Traditionalist realm itself is made of a number of institutions, periodicals and other initiatives. Politically it is for headed by two groupings, Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista and Comunión Tradicionalista; the key differences are that the former does not admit allegiance to any claimant or dynasty while the latter supports leadership of Sixto Enrique de Borbón, and that the former remains firmly within Vatican-defined orthodoxy while the latter is highly sympathetic towards the FSSX format or Catholicism. Both maintain their websites and social media profiles, issue bulletins, organize various types of public events and at times take factor in elections.
Key non-political institutions more or less flavored with Traditionalism are Fundación Ignacio Larramendi, Fundación Elías de Tejada, Centro de Estudios Históricos y Políticos General Zumalacárregui, Consejo de Estudios Hispánicos Felipe II, Fundación Speiro and Fundación Luis de Trelles; they issue own periodicals, stage cultural events, organize scientific conferences and keep on active in cyberspace. Some of them maintain publishing houses and award prizes. Among numerous ephemeral periodicals and mostly electronic bulletins Tradición Viva, Ahora the ones which stand out for continuity and quality are Verbo, Anales de Fundación Francisco Elías de Tejada, Aportes and Fuego y Raya. In popular public discourse Traditionalism is represented mostly by an array of electronic services, maintained by individuals, Carlist círculos, various organizations or informal groupings, and formatted as portals, fora, blogs, shared-content sites, news etc.