CONSTITUTIONS AND CITIZENS: EXCLUSION AND INCORPORATION IN 19TH-CENTURY LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

This article is the result of a research process supported by bibliographic references drawn from history in general and from the history of law in particular, grounded in constitutional transformations and the concept of the citizen, and analytically sustained by constitutional law, legal theory, sociology, and legal anthropology. The legal theory referenced in the study is critical theory, which aims to reveal what is formal in order to expose situations excluded from analyses of constitutional history—such as the processes of exclusion reproduced in the constitutional texts themselves against people and collectives belonging to the emerging republics that would shape the Latin American region.

The article is divided into five parts. The first, titled “The First Constitutions in Hispanic America,” discusses the promulgation of the first constitutions of the newly formed republics, which sought to enshrine the rule of law and rights inspired by the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, in order for nation-states to appear modern within a context of gradual departure from Iberian colonization. The second part, “Exclusion in the 1811 Constitution of Cundinamarca,” shows how the first constitution enacted in the region excluded many from citizenship; only a few who met the requirements established in the constitutional text could participate in elections or be elected to government positions.

The third part, “The 1811 Constitution of Tunja: Between Rights and Exclusion,” presents its pro-independence stance and recognizes certain rights of the citizens of the nascent republic; however, it also restricts who may run state institutions to a narrow group, thus reproducing political and social exclusion. The fourth part, “Other Exclusionary Constitutions in the Region,” explains how constitutions proclaimed in emerging states such as Mexico and Brazil continued the same exclusionary pattern regarding citizenship and leadership selection that had appeared in the constitutions of Nueva Granada. The fifth and final chapter, “Constitutionalism and the Conception of the Citizen in Latin America,” shows that the promulgation of constitutions in the region pursued state organization as a historical priority, given the transition away from colonial and monarchical domination toward modern nation-states. Despite that transformation promoted by the independence movements, the constitutions established criteria for determining citizenship that, based on the conditions required to elect or be elected as rulers, restricted political participation to a few, thereby institutionalizing political and social exclusion.