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Moderate Party Partido Moderado | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Fernando Fernández de Córdova (last) |
| Founder | Francisco de Paula Martínez |
| Founded | 1834 (1834) |
| Dissolved | 1874 (1874) |
| Merged into | Conservative Party |
| Ideology | Conservative liberalism Economic liberalism Constitutional monarchy Centralism |
TheModerate Party (Spanish:Partido Moderado) orModerate Liberal Party (Spanish:Partido Liberal Moderado) was one of the twoSpanish political parties that contended for power during the reign ofIsabel II (reigned 1833–1868). Like the opposingProgressive Party (Spanish:Partido Progresista), it characterised itself asliberal and dynasticist; both parties supported Isabel against the claims of theCarlists.
The Moderates contained various factions. Some supported working with Progressives, but others sought closer ties with the Old Regime. However, the party's dominant ideology was adherence to the centristjuste milieu of the FrenchDoctrinaires.[1][2]
The "moderates" or "liberal moderates" were a continuation of thedoceañistas, supporters of theSpanish Constitution of 1812 during theTrienio Liberal ("liberal triennium") of 1820–1823, as opposed to the more radicalexaltados orveinteañistas. In the last years of the reign ofFerdinand VII they had effected a mutual drawing together with the leastabsolutist elements of his government. Upon the death of Ferdinand, they supported the royal claim of the king's only child, the three-year-old Isabel, under theregency ofqueen motherMaria Christina of the Two Sicilies. In contrast, the Carlists supported a strongly absolutist monarchy, essentially a continuation of theAntiguo Régimen, under theInfante Carlos, Count of Molina.
The party was organized in 1834 during thegovernmental presidency ofFrancisco Martínez de la Rosa. After several years of progressivist domination, it held power continuously during the so-calledDécada moderada ("Moderate decade", 1843–1854) under the leadership of GeneralRamón María Narváez; after thebienio progresista ("progressivist biennium", 1853–1855) it returned to power allied with theLiberal Union (Spanish:Unión Liberal). After theGlorious Revolution of 1868 and theconstitution of 1869 they failed to obtain representation in the newCortes, and lost all power. When the monarchy was restored in 1874 following theFirst Spanish Republic, they united with the Liberal Union to form theConservative Party under the direction ofAntonio Cánovas del Castillo.
The party's politicalideology of "Moderantism" (Spanish:moderantismo) is comparable to Britishconservatism and, especially, to Frenchdoctrinairism, from whom its ideologues (especiallyJuan Donoso Cortés) took part of their argumentation.
Their principal ideas were:
The Moderate Party was supported by part of the Army (the moderateespadones such as General Narváez), landowners (a landowningoligarchy of traditionalaristocrats andupperbourgeoisie, especially the large landowners owners, thelatifundistas ofAndalusia and theMeseta Central), and a portion of themiddle class (the so-calledgente de orden "people of order"). Economically the party tended to supportfree trade, allowing the export of agricultural surplus, a policy compatible with the interests of its social base. Electorally, they defended limitedsuffrage, in particularsufragio censitario, "census suffrage" that limited the electoral census to the wealthy, only those who owned a certain amount of property or paid a certain amount of taxes.
OnceCarlism had been defeated militarily, the 1839Convention of Vergara that put an end to the war allowed some of the more moderate Carlists to join the party or to support it from without. Similarly, after theConcordat of 1851 the party gained the support of much of the clergy, although the so-calledneocatólicos ("neo-Catholics") remained outside and still nurtured hopes of a Carlist restoration.
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