Were there republicans in the constitutional three-year period known as the Trienio Liberal? History, morality and federalism in the republican discourse of liberalism

Authors

  • Jordi Roca Vernet

Keywords:

Republicanism, federalism, civic virtue, moralisation of politics, civil history of the nation, radical liberalism, communard liberalism

Abstract

During the three years of Liberal government in Spain (1820-1823) a republican political discourse arose amongst the ranks of the radical intellectuals (known as «exaltados» or «veintenos») inspired in the history of republics from Sparta to the United States of America. It was characterised by calls to reform citizens’ morality based on civic virtues, rejection of the historicism prevailing amongst liberals and reactionaries alike, idealisation of the Roman republic and fascination for the republicanism of the French Girondins and the North Americans. This first flirtation with republicanism was elitist, informed by Enlightenment values of Reason that never attracted the grass roots of the Liberal movement, although it did usher in a republican political tradition closely linked to federalism and moralising tenets that would continue in subsequent decades.

Issue

Section

ARTICLES