Quiroga, Alejandro
(2005)
Making Spaniards, national Catholicism and the nationalisation of the masses during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930).
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This thesis is a study of Spanish state and society during the 1920s. It analyses the official nationalist doctrine developed during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and its transmission throughout Spanish society. It sets out to explain the ideological evolution of conservative Spanish nationalism in the 1920s and the process of 'nationalisation of the masses' undertaken by the state. The thesis is divided into two main thematic areas. The first part covers the making of the nationalist doctrine by the ideologues of the regime. Following a first chapter on Spanish nationalism prior to the dictatorship, Chapter 2 deals with the official discourse during the Military Directory (1923-1925) and Chapter 3 focuses on the primorriverista nationalist doctrine during the Civil Directory (1926-1930). The second part analyses the state propagation of nationalist ideas throughout society. Chapter 4 looks at the role of the army as an agency of nationalisation. Chapter 5 analyses the educational system as a nationalising agency. Finally, Chapter 6 is concerned with showing the nationalising effects of the official party and the national militia. The conclusion is that during the 1920s the regime developed the principles of a fascisticised nationalism in line with the European radical Right that eventually constituted the ideological principles of Franco's dictatorship. Nevertheless, the primorriverista bid to carry out a process of nationalisation of the masses from above led to a 'negative nationalisation', in which increasing opposition to the state agents propagating the official canon of the nation was accompanied by the rejection of the very idea of nation defended by those agents. Thus the regime policies discredited the authoritarian canon of Spain and contributed to the popular consolidation of a republican and democratic idea of Spain.
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