Los orígenes del federalismo en España : del liberalismo al republicanismo, 1808-1868

Abstract

This text aims at analyzing in detail ideas about the territorial organization of the State disseminated by the democratic and republican sectors from 1840 to 1868, although it also pays attention to the antecedents of these ideas in the first liberalism and the more advanced formulations that were elaborated during the Democratic Sexennium (1868-1874). It is argued that these sectors called for and administrative decentralization, in spite of designating their model with the term «federalism»: the competencies that were reserved to provinces and municipalities were basically economic-administrative, while the central State should take care of political affairs. Also, there existed a hierarchy between the different entities among which the central government had pre-eminence. (English)