The fundamental idea behind this work has been the need to deepen in the figure of Marcel·lí Domingo and his political thought. In this sense the objective that we have set ourselves has been to be able to contribute some novelty in relation to Domingo’s political totems. This fact implies that although the work has a more or less established chronological framework between 1917 and 1919, we have not tried to impose a rigid chronological order and a factual description, since we have preferred to prioritize the study of the structure above the conjuncture.
In this way we have integrated Domingo’s reflections in two different contexts: first, in the tradition of federal republicanism and more concretely in the amalgamation of what we might call popular Catalanism. And secondly, we have tried to situate the politician from Tortosa in the restorationist stage in which he developed an important part of his life and political career; focusing especially on the period between 1917 and 1919, coinciding with the creation of the PRC (as the consummation of a project started two years before with the BRA) and also with the years of editing “La Lucha” as a daily spokesperson for these collectives.
So, the three main axes on which the work spins around are:
1.- Marcel·lí Domingo, the concept of nation and its formulation of Catalanism. In this sense, our objective has been to extract a clear notion of what was the position of Domingo about the Catalan nationalism, beyond the classic dichotomy between supporters to make it fit completely into the sphere of republican Catalanism and those that little lack to label it as connivance with lerrouxismo.
2.- The evolution from historical republicanism to socialist doctrines: To demonstrate that in the context of the call to overcome the differences between republican tendencies, the PRC is a pioneer in explicitly assuming the belief that the battle for Freedom was not only resolved in civil and political rights, but also the socio-economic sphere had to be added to any project that really intended to walk towards a real freedom as well as a nominal one. In essence, the dysfunctions generated by capitalism would never be a simple problem of adjustment between capital and labor factors.
3.- Finally, the regenerationist dimension of Domingo and derived from this the controversial populist side that has always tended to attribute. We have asked ourselves if Domingo was a politician with populist forms or a partially populist background existed in his speech.
