The New Order in the New World: A Comparison of the Catholic Corporatist Movements in Brazil and Quebec (1931-1945)

This thesis is a comparative study of the Catholic corporatist movement in Brazil and Quebec between 1931 and 1945. It analyses how Catholic intellectuals in these countries adapted the Catholic social doctrine and Catholic corporatism to their distinct realities. The methodology pursued relies on contrasting the ideas expressed in the publications of the two main institutions to profess the Catholic corporatism in their societies, namely the Dom Vital Center (DVC) in Brazil and the École Sociale Populaire (ESP) in Quebec.\ud This thesis begins by demonstrating that even before the publication of the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, the ESP and of the DVC had already established a tradition of thought that relied on the influences of distinct Catholic intellectuals. Such influences are fundamental to understand how French Canadian Catholic corporatists developed a corporatist thought directed towards the development of union movements, while their Brazilian counterparts saw corporatism as a new form of state that would replace the institutions of the Old Republic.\ud Furthermore, this thesis also aims to demonstrate how the distinct social and economic contexts of Brazil and Quebec influenced the Catholic corporatist models proposed by the ESP and the DVC. While the industrial context of Quebec led the ESP to focus on solving the issues related to the “social question”, the rural characteristics of Brazilian society led the DVC to dedicate their attention to countering the advances of political secularism. As a result, while Catholic corporatists in Brazil and Quebec followed the directives of the same papal encyclicals, they developed their corporatist ideas as solutions to distinct problems.\ud Finally, this thesis also analyses how the ESP and the DVC adapted the Catholic criticisms of communism and liberalism to their realities and studies the roles that the Catholic right placed on corporatism in the development of their national identities