Abstract

This dissertation examines the impact of the political thought of the French philosopher Jacques Maritain on Latin America mainly between 1936 and 1968. The analysis illuminates how Maritain political concepts such as personalist democracy, communitarianism, human rights, integral humanism, and many others have influenced political as well as intellectual leaders in Latin America. ;The essential problem in Latin America has been to find a modernizing ideology which is nonetheless authentically Latin American, and not simply imported from outside. That is the reason why intellectuals have been looking for an authentic philosophy, according to the Argentinean Juan Bautista Alberdi, had to be able to break the chain of political and economic underdevelopment. In searching for this philosophy, Europe has always been looked as a model. Social-Christian thought has been one of these European doctrines that became very influential in Latin America. I would argue based on much historical evidences that the political thought of Maritain adapted to the Latin American historical circumstances might be considered as one of the most important Latin American philosophy that Latin American thinkers have been searching for more than a century. ;This study investigates how Latin America political and intellectual leaders have integrated and adopted Maritain's political philosophy as a "via media" for solving Latin American ideological contradictions between conservatism and liberalism. It reviews the essential elements of Maritain's thought and the development of his influence on Latin American "Maritainistas." It also demonstrates how and why Maritain's influence was successful in some cases, for instance in the Chilean case, while failing in others, the case of Argentinean Christian Democratic Party. ;The time framework is crucial in this research. It starts in 1936, the year of the publication of Integral Humanism, the most influential work of Maritain in Latin America, and it lasts until 1968, the year of the Latin American Conference of Bishops, in Medellin, Colombia, that shifted the direction of the Latin American Christian thought, toward the Liberation theology. ;The importance and adoption of Maritain's perspective has been overlooked by intellectual historians, particularly Americans. Researchers have almost exclusively focused on positivistic liberalism and clerical conservatism but not much on a "third" political ideology which can join the Catholic faith and liberal democracy. This fact is due to the common, and prejudicial assumption that there is no conciliation between Catholicism and democracy. So, Social Christianity is seen just as another form of political conservatism. Yet, within this context the Liberation theology is considered the only revolutionary Latin American Christian thought. ;Today, however, after the fall of Communism and with the liberation theology loosing ground, the Social Christian perspective inspired by a neo "Maritainismo" might have a momentum again