The Political Theology of Alberto Pasqualini: Christian Solidarism, Economics, and Trabalhismo

This article aims to look into the thought of jurist Alberto Pasqualini as part of the early stages of organization of the ideology of ‘trabalhismo’, which appears in the author’s work as a political theology. This doctrine emerged as the foundation of Getúlio Vargas’s Estado Novo and had to adapt to the democratic regime of the 1946 Republic. We argue that Alberto Pasqualini played a fundamental in this endeavor. He acted both as a theorist of ‘trabalhismo’ and as one of its main political organizers. Drawing from his books, speeches, and interviews, we will demonstrate here that the moral and political foundations of the ‘trabalhismo’ built by Pasqualini was based on premises aligned with Catholicism and the social doctrine of the Church, as well as his position on major issues of his time, including social and economic development, state planning, and the Cold War. To this end, we will address his writings in the context of Catholic thought represented by the papal encyclicals ‘Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno’.