Political Representation and Multiple Modernities. The Catalan Representatives in the Cortes of Cadiz (1810-1814)

Abstract

In this article we seek to analyze the transition from the imperative mandate to the representative mandate through the actions of the Catalan deputies in the Cortes de Cádiz (1810-1814). We explore how the conditions derived from the rigors of the Napoleonic War and the needs of the economic development model of eighteenth-century Catalonia led to a majority non-alignment of Catalan MPs in favor of political liberalism who instead positioned themselves within a late-Enlightenment reformism. In short, the main objective of the article is to demonstrate how there were many different ways of modernization that also caused the territorial elites to opt for variable channels of representation; from an imperative mandate to a representative mandate, depending on the interests they wished to defend.

Fecha de envío / Submission date: 4/12/2017
Fecha de aceptación /Acceptance date: 3/01/2018