https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3941-3502
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ABSTRACT
Political representation is often understood as a static entity; thus, its mutable dimensions have been neglected. In addition, when considering liberal post-revolutionary politics in the nineteenth century, scholars have given most of their attention to the accounts of this period forwarded by liberal elites, thereby taking the voices of those represented for granted. As such, these analysing deputies are disconnected from their electors outside the election processes. This article analyses political representation as a process and considers the voices of representatives and those represented. From a conceptual perspective, it examines notions and terms used by Spanish deputies and electors in the mid-nineteenth century to refer to one another. The enactment of these concepts is placed at the core of their meaning. That is, their meaning changes according to the speaker, the receiver and the context. In conclusion, the author finds that, when electors were mobilized on behalf of their requests, and thus insisted on apt representation, deputies – regardless of their political ideology – acknowledged their right to seek accountability. Therefore, accountability was recognized. When those explicit claims were not raised, accountability was undermined by the deputies, who tended to be disconnected from the voters and prioritized being accountable to their peers.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Henk te Velde, Theo Jung and Karen Lauwers for their helpful comments on the first version of this paper presented at the International Oratory and Representation workshop, organized by CALLIOPE (Vocal Articulations of Parliamentary Identity and Empire, ERC StG 2017) at the University of Helsinki in March 2020. I would also like to thank Josephine Hoegaerts for her remarks on the first version of this paper, Ludovic Marionneau for his insightful reflections, and Henry Miller for his valuable comments and recommendations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Gómez Ochoa, “El liberalismo conservador español”; and Veiga, “El liberalismo conservador.”
2. Romeo Mateo, “La cultura política del progresismo”; Súarez Cortina, La cultura progresista; and Ollero Vallés, “Cultura política del progresismo.”
3. Peyrou, Tribunos; and Peyrou, “Demócratas y republicanos.”
4. Pitkin, Representation; Ankersmit, Political Representation; and Skinner, “Hobbes.”
5. Conti, Parliament the Mirror; and Best and Cotta, Parliamentary Representatives.
6. Rehfeld, “General Theory.”
7. Schwartz stressed the need to address representation as a process that transforms representatives and represented in Schwartz, The Blue Guitar. See also Saward, The Representative Claim.
8. Palonen, Parliamentary Thinking.
9. Carpenter, “Representation,” 55; and Huzzey and Miller, “Petitions.”
10. Ilie, “Parliamentary Discourse.”
11. Przeworski, Stokes, and Manin, Democracy.
12. Garsten, “Representative Government.”
13. Sierra, Peña, and Zurita, Elegidos y elegibles; and Sierra, Zurita, and Peña, “La representación política.”
14. Zurita, “La representación política”; and Inarejos, Ciudadanos, propietarios.
15. Romero and Frías, “Política y campesinado en España”; and Zurita, Peña, and Sierra, “La teoría del gobierno representativo.”
16. Manin, Representative Government, 94.
17. Examples of Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1846–7 legislature, 2–3 and 195–6; and Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1850–1 legislature, 349, 361, 417, 422–525.
18. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1840 legislature, 2.
19. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1841 legislature, 1915.
20. Romeo, “De patricios.”
21. Varela Ortega, Los amigos politicos; Tuñón de Lara, “Bloque de poder”; and Tusell, Oligarquía y caciquismo.
22. Guizot, Origins of Representative Government.
23. Jennings, Revolution, 166–76; and Te Velde, “Democracy.”
24. Constant, Principes de politique.
25. Donoso Cortés, Lecciones.
26. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1837–8 legislature, 28 and Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1858–60 legislature, 2.
27. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1844–5 legislature, 2.
28. Sierra, “Deputy.”
29. Beyen and Te Velde, “Modern Parliaments.”
30. See, Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1854–6 legislature, 1–2; and Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1869–71 legislature, 1.
31. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1869–71 legislature, 2.
32. Peyrou, “Democratic Discourse”; and Peyrou, Tribunos, 122–3.
33. Luján, “Con voto y voz.”
34. Finlayson, “Democratic Audience.”
35. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1837–8 legislature, 1023.
36. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1846–7 legislature, 39.
37. Araque, Las elecciones. Similar practices which favour governmental candidates in Voilliot, La Candidature officielle.
38. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1841–2 legislature, 3503.
39. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1840 legislature, 2531.
40. Lawrence, Electing Our Masters, 14–42.
41. Luján, “Absentismo y representación política.”
42. Saward, Representative Claim, 35.
43. Figueres’ (Barcelona) Electoral Act of 1850, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
44. Document 0041006010002, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
45. Document 0041034010002, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
46. Document 0041104010022, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
47. Rosanvallon, Counter-Democracy.
48. Agnès, L’appel au pouvoir; and Palacios Cerezales, “Ejercer derechos.”
49. Document 0041026010022, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
50. Documents 0041624010000 and 0041132010002, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
51. Document 0041628020000, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
52. Documents 0041602020003 and 0041628020000, Electoral Section, Congress of Deputies Archive, Madrid.
53. Rosanvallon, Counter-Democracy.
54. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1846–7 legislature, 821.
55. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1837–8 legislature, 878.
56. Lauwers, “French Social Citizenship.”
57. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1845–6 legislature, 167–8.
58. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1845–6 legislature, 354.
59. Finlayson, “Democratic Audience.”
60. Reid, Imprison’d Wranglers.
61. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1841–2 legislature, 2013.
62. Peloso and Tenenbaum, Liberals, Politics & Power, 10; and See also Lauwers, “Image et action d’Henri-Constant Groussau.”
63. Luján, Politización electoral, 41–2.
64. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1848–9 legislature, 2562.
65. De Riquer, Escolta, Espanya; and Veiga, “Estado y caciquismos.”
66. Núñez García, Huelva en las Cortes.
67. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1864–5 legislature, 168.
68. Palacios Cerezales, “Petitioning.”
69. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1850–1 legislature, 604.
70. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1861–2 legislature, 1547.
71. Spanish session’s record of the lower house: 1854–6 legislature, 10286.
72. Ihalainen, Ilie, and Palonen, Parliament and Parliamentarism.
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Oriol Luján
Oriol Luján is currently a lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has previously been a postdoctoral fellow at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2019–20), a visiting researcher at the European University Institute (2014), and an invited researcher at Sorbonne Université (2019). His areas of interest include political representation, political corruption and parliamentary studies during the nineteenth century. He has authored several articles in international peer-reviewed journals. His forthcoming publication is a book titled ‘Popular Agency and Politicisation in Nineteenth-century Europe: Beyond the Vote’, edited by Diego Palacios Cerezales and Oriol Luján (Palgrave Studies in Political History).