No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Liberalism and Constitutionalism in Latin America in the 19th Century
Abstract
For generations, 19th century Latin American history has been portrayed as a period of anarchic turmoil, wasted energy, and pointless division. It was the age of caudillos and of political breakup. But recent evidence paints a very different picture. More and more historians see the period from 1821 (when the wars of independence ended) to 1860s as an era of experimentation and innovation, of building new institutions to replace the old. This essay reprises some of the primary lines of investigation. It explores the ways in which Latin Americans built a hybrid model of constitutionalism, adapted from elements circulating around the Atlantic world. It explores how people charted new meanings of citizenship by applying new legal tools and practices of public organization in the civic sphere. It examines the experiments in political organizing and vertical alliances. Finally, it suggests that older intellectual and ideological coordinates of secular vs religious, liberal vs conservative, fail to capture the very strong emphasis on pragmatic republican strains in 19th century statebuilders.
... Debido a la superioridad normativa de las constituciones y a su legitimidad implícita, estas se han utilizado, según muestra la historia comparada, como vehículos para cambios estructurales transformadores; las cartas magnas latinoamericanas del siglo XX son un claro ejemplo de ello. (Adelman, 2014;Gargarella, 2014); aunque debe recordarse que las constituciones, como ideal democrático liberal "hegemónico", no siempre han reconocido el pluralismo legal y cultural, por lo que "grandes poblaciones subalternas (a menudo compuestas por distintas minorías raciales o étnicas) fueron mantenidas lejos del alcance de la plena participación económica o política" (Ginsburg, Huq y Versteeg, 2018, p. 240). En particular, con frecuencia se asume la legitimidad constitucional de los Estados colonos sin ninguna justificación jurídica o moral, especialmente en ausencia de tratados justos, acuerdos y reparto del poder con los pueblos indígenas (Jones, 2016, p. 28). ...
... Además, las constituciones no son necesariamente un bastión estable para la legitimidad, incluso cuando son escritas. Algunos países, por ejemplo, en América Latina, han tenido múltiples y sucesivas constituciones en un periodo de tiempo relativamente corto -algunas de las cuales se han utilizado para justificar actos estatales tiránicos- (Adelman, 2014;Gargarella, 2014). Esta realidad empírica arroja dudas sobre la pretensión de superioridad moral del constitucionalismo y plantea implicaciones reales para el Estado de derecho. ...
Laws that recognise rivers and their ecosystems as legal persons or subjects with their own rights, duties and obligations have been associated with theories of environmental constitutionalism. However, the extent to, and manner in which, constitutional law (with its elevated status) has been instrumental in the conferral of these ‘riverine rights’ is still not well-understood. In this article, we consider the constitutional relevance of the recognition of rivers as legal persons or subjects in Aotearoa New Zealand, Colombia and India. We argue that in these three countries riverine rights are constitutional experiments: as small-scale, ad hoc and ultimately incomplete attempts to transcend seemingly ineffective regulatory frameworks for rivers. However, they are also incremental, and influential, steps in a broader project of more fundamental social and environmental reform.
... A busca da legitimidade para o novo regime representativo e a nova relação entre governantes e governados era um projeto em construção e, por isso, permeado por tensões entre a teoria e a prática. Nesse sentido, optou-se por analisar o período por uma via alternativa, nem eufórica nem fatalista, mas que acentua uma dimensão experimental de aprendizagem na reconstituição das maneiras pelas quais os construtores imaginaram-se pertencentes a uma nova era constitucional (ADELMAN, 2014). ...
O artigo analisa a questão da discriminação racial, abordando o tema no contexto da divulgação e implementação dos direitos constitucionais, no período de 1829 a 1833. Investiga-se, em especial, de que forma o direito de cidadania contribuiu para o surgimento da discriminação racial como agenda pública e ensejou novas maneiras de fazer política. Usaram-se como fontes jornais que adotavam enfoques políticos e raciais, os quais foram tomados não somente como fornecedores de informações, mas também como agentes, por sua capacidade de influir nos acontecimentos. Concomitantemente, foram aplicados à análise insights provenientes de estudos da área de direito e história que enfatizam a importância de mudanças da ordem jurídica para a compreensão da história política. Concluiu-se, principalmente, que a extensão do direito de cidadania aos homens livres de cor contribuiu para ampliar a influência política desse grupo, em um contexto de crescente partidarização da política.
Laws that recognise rivers and their ecosystems as legal persons or subjects with their own rights, duties and obligations have been associated with theories of environmental constitutionalism. However, the extent to, and manner in which, constitutional law (with its elevated status) has been instrumental in the conferral of these ‘riverine rights’ is still not well-understood. In this article, we consider the constitutional relevance of the recognition of rivers as legal persons or subjects in Aotearoa New Zealand, Colombia and India. We argue that in these three countries riverine rights are constitutional experiments: as small-scale, ad hoc and ultimately incomplete attempts to transcend seemingly ineffective regulatory frameworks for rivers. However, they are also incremental, and influential, steps in a broader project of more fundamental social and environmental reform.
The article reconstitutes the journey of Emperor Pedro I to the province of Minas Gerais in 1831, focusing on the interactions between local political elites and the central government, represented at that time by the Emperor himself. It is part of a wider research field that has expanded the notion of politics by drawing on the concept of ‘public space,’ using it not only as a conceptual entity, but emphasizing its physical dimension as well. The main conclusion is that the expansion of liberals in the public space of Minas Gerais made the Emperor’s goal
of politically isolating the exalted liberals a much more complicated task than expected. Suggested in the paper is that the increasing unpopularity of D. Pedro I after the journey and the subsequent abdication of the throne were due more to circumstances arising from the further implementation of the constitutional monarchy than to his supposed absolutism or anti-national attitude.
The article reconstitutes the journey of Emperor Pedro I to the province of Minas Gerais in 1831, focusing on the interactions between local political elites and the central government, represented at that time by the Emperor himself. It is part of a wider research field that has expanded the notion of politics by drawing on the concept of ‘public space,’ using it not only as a conceptual entity, but emphasizing its physical dimension as well. The main conclusion is that the expansion of liberals in the public space of Minas Gerais made the Emperor’s goal of politically isolating the exalted liberals a much more complicated task than expected. Suggested in the paper is that the
increasing unpopularity of D. Pedro I after the journey and the subsequent abdication of the throne were due more to circumstances arising from the further implementation of the constitutional monarchy than to his supposed absolutism or anti-national attitude.
In 1850 Charles DeForest Fredricks took a portrait of the Governor of Corrientes (Argentina) and, by way of payment, received a tiger. The episode, retold in numerous histories of early photography in the Americas, seems at first glance little more than a colourful anecdote set amid a rather dull litany of firsts: the first daguerreotype taken in this or that city, the first portrait studio, the first ‘native’ photographer, etc. Yet a close reading of the few primary sources about this unlikely encounter suggests that the oft-repeated vignette articulates in condensed form the unique power that photography possessed in mid-nineteenth-century Latin America. In giving a live beast in exchange for an image of himself, the local strongman not only makes a display of his authority, but also realizes a radical, if momentary, indistinction between animal life and social life – a literal enactment of what philosopher Giorgio Agamben identifies as the original activity of sovereign power. In this respect, the story of the tiger and the daguerreotype is representative of how, in the violent transition from colonies to republics in nineteenth-century Latin America, cultural practices were instrumental in making the idea of the modern state discernible.
This book looks at various aspects of electoral history in Europe and Latin America, from the late 17th century to 1930, including electoral culture and traditions, electoral participation, electoral fraud, the role of elections in the process of nation-building, and the role of important institutions, such as the Church, in shaping political values and therefore electoral behaviour. There are chapters devoted to the individual experiences of England, Mexico, Ecuador, Ireland, Germany, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Spain.
Focusing on the period from 1840 to 1889, one of the leading historians on Brazil explores the specific ways in which granting protection, official positions, and other favors in exchange for political and personal loyalty worked to benefit the interests of wealthy Brazilians.
por Juan Bautista Alberdi. "Erratas notables": p. [259].
Between Tyranny and Anarchy provides a unique comprehensive history and interpretation of efforts to establish democracies over two centuries in the major Latin American countries. Drake takes an unusual interdisciplinary approach, combining history and political science with an emphasis on political institutions. He argues that, without a thorough examination of the historical roots and causes of Latin American democracy, most general theories can not adequately explain its failures, successes, and forms. Latin America offers an extraordinary laboratory for the study of democratic experiments. Alongside a well-deserved reputation for authoritarianism, it boasts one of the world's deepest, richest histories of democratic movements, ideas, and institutions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the region's leading democracies did not lag very far behind the United States and Western Europe in making numerous advances. In comparison with those countries, though, Latin America's democratic history has been distinctive because of its fundamental dilemma: how to reconcile political systems theoretically committed to legal equality with societies divided by extreme socio-economic inequalities.
- Earle