Conflicts within Political Modernity. The Uneasy Co-existence between Catholicism, Liberalism, and the Nation-State

Abstract

The purpose of this panel is to offer an overview of the conflicting relationship between some doctrines in the history of contemporary political thought. In particular, it aims to describe some moments in which political Catholicism and Liberalism have contributed, often in a competing way, to the formation of the idea of the nation-state. Catholicism has often had a hard time accepting some elements of political modernity, such as the nation-state. Similarly, even Liberalism has had a contentious relationship with this concept. Each paper analyzes a different chronological, geographical and political context, in order to show how the relationship between these concepts changes depending on the circumstances. We will analyze the conflict between Catholicism and the idea of the nation-state in the thought of some intellectuals of Southern Italy in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. They exploited the Catholic traditions of Southern Italy to oppose the Italian unification. Through this opposition, political Catholicism was used to counter other elements of political modernity, such as liberalism and democracy. Even in the United States the interplay between patriotism and the Catholic faith, despite protests to the contrary, demanded critical efforts to conciliate two diverging political traditions. This appears all the more evident with a careful analysis of the discourse of the American Catholic Church in supporting war mobilization between 1941 and 1945. How could the Church promote a vision of the war as a tool to the “re-Christianization” of the country, when the USA was founded upon the bedrock principle of the separation of Church and State? The relationship between Catholicism and the idea of nation is analyzed keeping in mind even the anti-colonial movements in Africa, showing how Catholicism provided a significant help, from a spiritual and intellectual point of view, in the struggles for independence and national self-determination in Algeria. It will also be shown how the de-colonization process contributed to the redefinition of the concept of nation in France. To conclude, the panel will consider some members of conservative Liberalism of the Twentieth Century who have criticized the idea of Nation State. Many exponents of conservative Liberalism see the nation-State as potentially dangerous for individual liberty. They repeatedly affirmed to support the need to oppose the state, not the individual, abstracted from their network of relationships and social, professional, and religious bonds; but intermediate social structures, within which the citizen could seek fulfilment on the material and spiritual level. In addition, according to various theorisers close to the Christian social thought, especially Catholic ones, from Don Luigi Sturzo to German ordoliberals or intermediate groups and small communities would constitute an important barrier to the power of the state, conceived as a legal structure supposed to maintain social order, but also potentially harmful to freedom and personal prerogatives.