page_title: Melchor Ferrer Dalmau
section_title: Theorist
hierarchical_section_title: Melchor Ferrer Dalmau / Theorist
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Charles Maurras, vers 1908.
context_page_description: Melchor Ferrer Dalmau was a Spanish historian and a Carlist militant. He is known mostly as principal author of a massive, 30-volume series titled Historia del tradicionalismo español, considered fundamental work of reference for any student of Carlism. Ferrer is recognized also as "periodista", chief editor of a national and a few local traditionalist dailies and contributor to a number of others. Politically he maintained a low profile, though periodically he was member of the party executive, and during internal party strife of the early 1960s his support might have tipped the balance in favor of the progressist faction.
context_section_description: Compared to Ferrer's massive historiographic production his theoretical works seem minor and scarce; they amount to two booklets, Síntesis del programa de la Comunión Tradicionalista Española (1931) and Bases de la Representación (1942), apart from a handful of analytical articles scattered across Carlist periodicals of the 1930s and tens of contributions to daily press, especially those formatted as editorials to El Correo Español. They demonstrate that Ferrer nurtured a penchant for political theory, yet in history of Traditionalist thought he merits attention as perhaps the most eminent case of a Carlist thinker influenced by integral nationalism; the impact of L'Action Française is especially evident in Ferrer's earlier writings.
  From his youth Ferrer remained impressed by writings of Charles Maurras; his decision to join the French army in 1914 is at times attributed to Ferrer's admiration for the Frenchman and his concepts. In general terms they prompted Ferrer to advocate renewal of Carlism; unlike many, he totally disregarded Vázquez de Mella and considered Traditionalism of the 1920s stuck in Romanticism, old esthetics and 19-th century schemes. His intention was to blend Traditionalism and modernity. Specifically, Ferrer tried to re-define the role of nation and state in the Carlist theoretical framework. Both concepts were usually neglected if not mistrusted by Carlist thinkers; Ferrer considered them crucial for modern outlook and strove to ensure their central position within the Traditionalist ideological toolset. Indeed, some scholars consider him the disciple of Domingo Cirici Ventalló and follower of his "españolismo Catalan". In terms of economy Ferrer acknowledged collapse of the Liberal order, challenged by social utopias on the one hand and technocratic estatismo on another; his own recipé was "reorganización corporativa".
  In the 1930s Ferrer followed Maurras diagnosing that France was trapped in permanent parliamentarian crisis, longing for a strong executive. He shared anti-parliamentarian stand of the Nazis yet deplored their ethnicity-based nationalism and drive for social engineering; Ferrer sympathized rather with Hugenberg. He preferred Italian Fascism, born out of fundamental opposition to the spirit of 1789, liberalism and individual rights and offering a syndical approach of concerting all social interests. However, he noted that armed with Traditionalism, Spain needed no foreign models; some see it as Ferrer's refusal to accept "física social" of Comtean positivism, forming the basics of Maurras’ integral nationalism. Admirer of L'Action Française, Ferrer despised its Spanish copy, Acción Española, and charged Carlists involved in the project, especially Pradera, with "tradicionalismo de corto alcance". Disdainful towards emerging Francoism, Ferrer thought it an anti-Traditionalist regime. In opposition to the new Cortes, considered born out of "origen revolucionario", he specified his own vision of representation. It was to be based on regional diets, each composed of 4 separate chambers and constructed in line with local tradition. They in turn were supposed to delegate members of the national diet;. its authority was to be limited to supra-regional issues like foreign affairs, army or money.
caption: Charles Maurras
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