Democracy, State and Patriotism in Unamuno

Abstract

Unamuno the philosopher was, above all, an intellectual committed to the political, social and economic reality of the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In the present study, we revisit some of his political ideas concerning the concepts of democracy, the State and patriotism. We look at how the distinguished Rector of the University of Salamanca conceived of democracy, which he defined beyond the monarchy and the republic as legitimate forms of government, and how he regarded the reality of the State, which he always viewed as secular based on the division between temporal power —the throne— and spiritual power —the altar—. In our analysis we pay equal attention to his conception of patriotism, which was set up and configured at a time when political-linguistic separatisms tended to dilute national unity in Spain.