Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977

2. Origins of Authoritarian Nationalism in Spain

Two Origins of Authoritarian Nationalism in Spain At the beginning of this century, liberal political culture in Spain was challenged only by the revolutionary extreme left and by the Carlist extreme right, both equally impotent. The generally liberal orientation of the Spanish intelligentsia was accentuated by the philosophical vogue of Krausist pantheism and progressivism, increasingly influential since the last decades of the nineteenth century. By contrast, the radical new fin-desiecle culture, associated with what some scholars have called the "cultural crisis" of the 1890s, invoking secular neo-idealism, vitalism, and nonrationalism, was comparatively weak. Nonetheless, a minor current of authoritarianism underlay Regenerationist thought. Joaquin Costa had once called for a dictatorship that would be "ideologically neutral" in order to carry out a "revolution from the government." Of the major works of the era, El problema nacional (1899) of Ricardo Macias Picavea was perhaps the most antiparliamentary , proposing an "organic" system of both political and economic corporatism . He stressed the need for "a man" to provide leadership; should the latter not appear, Macias Picavea urged the Spanish bourgeoisie to carry out its own "national revolution." Similarly, Problemas del dia (I900), by Cesar Sili6 y Cortes, was overtly nationalist and urged leadership by "caudillaje" (a strong man). These ideas, repeated by others from time to time, were satirized in the 1912 Madrid comedy by the Cuevas brothers entitled iAqui jase farta un hombre! (A Man Is Needed Here), in Andalusian dialect.I In the two countries that most resembled Spain-Italy and Portugalnationalism and nonleftist authoritarianism were finding clear expression . Before the end of the nineteenth century, several Italian conservatives had made proposals for a more authoritarian kind of liberalism. The new culture of the fin-de-siecle was strong in Italy, producing a wave of intense nationalism among some sectors of the intelligentsia. Italian polit16 Origins ofAuthoritarian Nationalism 17 ical theorists and sociologists were among the leaders in Europe in developing new theories of elitism. Formation of the Associazione Nazionalista Italiana in 1910 led within four years to espousal of a clear doctrine of the authoritarian nationalist corporate state. Nationalism even invaded minor sectors of the left, as some revolutionary syndicalists moved toward national syndicalism. The outbreak of World War I then sparked the phenomenon of nationalistic "left interventionism." In Portugal there was proportionately more support for political authoritarianism , as well as distinctly more nationalism, than in Spain. The Portuguese "Generation of 1870"-in some respects a limited precursor of the Spanish noventayochistas-made a number of calls for a dictator or dictatorship that could regenerate the country in a more modern or progressive form. Calls for an "iron surgeon" were much more frequent there than in Spain.2 By 1890, forms of reactionary or authoritarian liberalism were more in vogue in Portugal than in Italy, let alone Spain, and temporary parliamentary "dictatorships"-the closing of parliament for brief periods to permit government by decree-were not uncommon. This was climaxed by the "dictatorship" of Joao Franco during 1907-1908, in which the regular parliamentary prime minister was authorized by the crown to govern by decree3 until the spectacular double assassination of King Carlos and the heir to the throne at the Lisbon dock in 1908 removed all support. In Portugal a more organized nationalism was championed by the Republican movement, which had developed in response to the British "Ultimatum " of 1890 that crushed hopes for an even greater Portuguese empire in southern Africa-a setback sometimes called "Portugal's 1898." Thus in Portugal, where problems of nationalism, independence, and international competition were more keenly felt than in its larger, more self-enclosed Iberian neighbor, regenerationism took the form of a categorical political alternative. However, Portuguese nationalist republicanism paralleled "left interventionism" in Italy in its incorporation of part of the revolutionary collectivist left. Members of the small Portuguese anarchist movement were attracted to republicanism because of its militancy and capacity for subversion of the political establishment. As the movement grew, Portuguese republicanism stressed paramilitary activity, somewhat in the tradition of the nineteenth-century progressivist citizen militias in both Spain and Portugal. The republican "Carbonaria," not sympathetic rebel sectors of the Portuguese military, did most of the fighting in the overthrow of the monarchy in October 1910. Despite its temporary association with the extreme left, the "First Republic " in Portugal (1910-1926) was never democratic. It maintained a restricted suffrage to exclude illiterate but conservative and Catholic peas- 18...