Spanish Political Evolution: 19th Century Constitutions & Ideologies
Constitution of 1812
- National sovereignty
- Separation of powers
- Constitutional monarchy
- Leading rights recognized
- Official recognition of the Catholic religion
Constitution of 1837
- National sovereignty
- *Consagrates* the division of powers: executive, legislative, and judiciary
- Catholicism
- Censitary suffrage
- The National Militia
Constitution of 1869
- Constitutional monarchy
- National sovereignty
- Universal male suffrage
- Broad recognition of rights
- Separation of powers
- Freedom of religion
Constitution of 1845
- The tendency was very liberal to conservative principles contained in the politics of the Moderate Party.
- Joint sovereignty of the king
- A constitutional monarchy
- *Confessionalitat* derivatives of the state
- Bicameral parliamentary system
- Very restricted censitary suffrage
Universal Suffrage
It consists in giving the right to vote to the entire adult population of a State regardless of race, sex, creed, or social status. The achievement of universal suffrage has been taken from an evolution in democracy. After the French Revolution, political power began to be in the hands of the House of Representatives due to the need to regulate the system of choice.
Constitution
A system, often a written document, that sets the rules and principles that govern an organization or a political entity. In the particular case of States, a constitution is the fundamental rule of law that defines the structure, procedures, privileges, rights, and responsibilities of government. Before the development of modern national constitutions, the term “constitution” referred to any important law that determined the functioning of government.
Political Parties and Ideologies
Moderates
They remained faithful to Elizabeth II and had the support of owners of agricultural groups and nobles.
Carlists
They had a traditionalist and *anti*-liberal ideology. Their motto was “God, Fatherland, and *Fueros*”. They defended absolutism and were against the Isabelline (liberal) faction.
Progressives
They were “defenders of freedom.” Their ranks were dominated by the medium and small bourgeoisie, the official media of the army, and urban working classes who had a common spirit of reform. They defended the principle of national sovereignty as a source of legitimacy and dominance of the legislative branch (courts) in the political system, while rejecting the intervention of the crown in political life, to which they attributed only a moderating role.
Democrats
They made further requests for the extension of political rights for all people, and a series of social rights. Their members were in favor of popular sovereignty, universal male suffrage, a single elective chamber, the expansion of civil liberties, and the recognition of all collective rights. The social democrats recognized the predominance of the Catholic Church but demanded freedom of worship. Their strength came mainly from the urban working classes.
Federal Republicans
They emerged from a split in the Democratic Party in mid-1868, led by Francisco Pi i Margall and Estanislao Figueras. They defended the republican form of government, the separation of church and state, opposed the intervention of the army in politics, and encouraged the extension of democratic rights and state intervention in the regulation of working conditions.