Traditional monarchy

Juan Vázquez de Mella, Spanish political thinker portrayed at La Ilustració catalana (1906)

Traditional monarchy (Spanish: Monarquía tradicional, Portuguese: Monarquia tradicional) is a proposed political regime based on the principles of Corporatism, Regionalism and Integralism advocated by various Iberian traditionalist movements such as Carlism, Portuguese Integralism and Spanish Integrism.[1][2]

A traditional monarchy would develop in an active contrast to absolute and constitutional monarchies by rejecting most political changes since the Enlightenment and embracing a medieval conception of politics based on ultramontanism.[3] Defined by its proponent António Sardinha as "catholic, hereditary, organicist, descentralized, representative, based on the historical power of the crown, the political force of municipalities and provinces, and in the expression of the middle bodies of society", the regime would be "based on God and religion, on tradition, on authority, on principles and convictions, and on order".[2]

15th-century picture of the Corts Catalanes of the Principality of Catalonia

Traditionalist monarchists rejected the various changes the Spanish and Portuguese governments had undergone during the 19th century and asked for a restoration of an alleged "traditional order" which would have peaked during the Middle Ages and the Portuguese Restoration, before the various liberal state reforms that created modern constitutionalism.[1][4] Traditionalists proposed the abolition of the modern limited institutions in favour of a system of foralist organic representation and political gelasianism that would be theoretically better adjusted to Iberian traditions and beliefs.[1][2]

In this context, traditional monarchy would consist of a reivindication of Iberian tradition against intents of "foreignizing" the peninsula. The traditional fueros and religious institutions would be a way of defending Spain against liberal intents of europeizing it and would foster a closer relationship with Portugal and Latin America. Francisco Elías de Tejada considered a modern traditional monarchy as "what the old free order of our peoples would have been" if "the european deviations had not meddled in".[1][5]

  1. ^ a b c d Fernández Riquelme, Sergio (2009). "Del Antiguo Régimen a la Monarquía tradicional. El legado corporativo de Juan Vázquez de Mella". Arbil. Anotaciones de pensamiento y crítica. (117). ISSN 1697-1388.
  2. ^ a b c Dip, Ricardo (2022). "Nótulas sobre o integralismo lusitano". Fuego y Raya. 12 (22): 69–82.
  3. ^ Martínez, Gregorio Peces-Barba (26 August 2004). "La monarquía de nuestro tiempo". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  4. ^ Reis Torgal, Luís (1981). Ideologia política e teoria do Estado na Restauração (in Portuguese). Vol. 1. Coimbra: Biblioteca Geral da Universidade.
  5. ^ Fernández García, Eusebio (2014). "Tradición y libertades (el 'Manifiesto de los Persas' y sus recuperaciones tradicionalistas)". Revista de Historiografía (20). Universidad Carlos III de Madrid: 139–156.