The democratic foundations of Francisco Pi y Margall's republicanism: natural law, fiduciary government, federalism, and social property

Abstract

As in other European contexts, the state-building process in Spain during the first half of the nineteenth century culminated in a centralized, monarchical, and Catholic state that institutionalized the dominance of the upper and middle classes. In response, a republican countermovement emerged, aiming to redirect the liberal revolution toward full democracy. This article analyzes the foundations of this democratic alternative by examining the political thought of one of its most radical leaders, Francisco Pi y Margall. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship on fiduciary relationships, it argues that Pi y Margall's project for a republican transformation of the Spanish state was comprehensively structured by a fiduciary logic of political power and property. The article develops this argument by exploring four core dimensions of his program: the recovery of revolutionary natural law to universalize citizenship; the design of institutions to prevent public agents from exercising power arbitrarily; the federal reorganization of the state and empire through a pact-based model; and the subordination of private property to its social function. In doing so, the article offers a new interpretive framework for Spanish radical republicanism and positions Pi within broader contemporary debates on democracy and the limits of state power.