Vertebrating Spain: lessons from Ortega for the 21st century

Abstract

The article reviews the categories used by Ortega to explain the lack of cohesion as a phenomenon intrinsic to the national construction of Spain, specifically “particularism” and the absence of a “select minority” capable of exercising leadership in a society characterized by the emergence of the “mass man.” It then analyzes the relevance of Ortega's theory a hundred years later, when Spain is facing serious problems of territorial disintegration. Finally, it refers to Ortega's conviction that the demoralization characteristic of a Invertebrate Spain can only be corrected by recovering a genuinely liberal ethos in which individuals are committed to society.