Projects By The Electors’ Associations In Spain During The Regency Of María Cristina (1833-1840)

Abstract

This article focuses on the link that exists between the debates
regarding the electoral law, the system of candidacies, the
projects of the electors’ associations, and the emerging political
parties during the first years of the third constitutional
Spanish experience (1833-1840). The intention of this study is
to show how, in an environment mainly opposed to any form
of political parliamentary organization, the projects of the
electors’ associations, temporarily and spatially defined, formed
a building block for the acceptance of a certain degree of
permanent organization within the political parties. The analysis
of this link and of the context in which it arose is supported
by an investigation of the printed sources from this decade,
including several newspapers from the capital, which turned
into platforms for diverse projects of electors’ associations.

Keywords: Electoral law, electors’ association, liberalism, party,
moderados.