Maravall Casesnoves, José Antonio

b. 1911, Játiva (Valencia); d. 1986, Madrid

   Historian and political theorist Although most of José Antonio Maravall's career was spent under the Franco regime, his importance extends beyond its confines. He entered the University of Murcia in 1927 to read Philosophy and Letters and Law, continuing his studies in Madrid. In the 1930s he collaborated in journals such as Cruz y Raya (Plus and Minus) and Revista de Occidente (The Western Review). During the Civil War, he took the side of the Francoist insurgents, as one of a minority within the Falange which aspired to direct the cultural destinies of Spain, by constructing a fascist state with "liberal" or "Orteguian" elements (see also Ortega y Gasset, José), and which later clustered around the journal Escorial and the Revista de Estudios Políticos (Political Studies Review). Becoming editor of Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos in 1948, he lived in Paris from 1949 to 1954 as director of the Spanish College within the Sorbonne. On returning to Spain in 1955, he was appointed to the Chair of the History of Spanish Political and Social Thought in the Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences in the University of Madrid, where he remained until his retirement. His work was mainly concerned with the theory of the state, but covered many other aspects of Spanish cultural history. Maravall is also significant as a representative of those who initially supported the Franco regime but later advocated liberalization. In 1970, along with other leading intellectuals such as Tierno Galván, Ruiz Giménez, Aranguren, Laín Entralgo, Marías and Tamames, he signed a document advocating reform of the political system, free trade unions, freedom of association, and the revision of the Plan de Desarrollo (Development Plan) and the 1953 Concordat with the Vatican.

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