Rafael Pividal y Alberto Duhau: contributions and debates regarding the idea of democracy in the political thought of Catholic intellectuals

Abstract

In the late 1930’s, especially after Maritain’s visit to Argentina in 1936, several debates arouse among Argentine catholic intellectuals. One of the issues, among others, was the importance of democracy, specially its justification as a political system and its agreement with the teachings of the Catholic Church. However, even those who advocated democracy were not an homogenous group: both, the intellectual sources they consulted and the anthropological foundations of their arguments, were diverse. This article aims to develop the defense of democracy that made R. Pividal and A. Duhau, two of most representative catholic thinkers of this period. As I shall try to show, even when they coincide in highlighting the value of democracy and its full agreement with Catholicism, the authors that inspire them (Maritain and through him the opposition to Maurras and Rousseau in one case and Adam Smith andScottish Enlightment in the other case) force us to recognise that there is no more concordance than this possitive valoration of the democratic system.