Antiguo regimen y liberalismo: Tucuman, 1770-1830 (review)

In Antiguo régimen y liberalismo, Gabriela Tío Vallejo details the political history of Tucumán as it made the transition from colony to liberal provincial capital. Vallejo focuses on Tucumán's cabildo and elections; she makes extensive use of census materials and a variety of other primary and secondary sources.

In the first section, Vallejo sets the stage for the end of the colonial period by describing the type of society present in Tucumán, as well as the political institutions that supposedly carried out the crown's wishes in that region. The most important political and social group was the vecinos—merchants and hacendados—which is not unusual in an area far from the Spanish centers of power. The vecinos occupied the important positions within the cabildo, and through their work represented all tucumanos.

Politically, the two most important institutions within colonial society in Tucumán were the cabildo and the intendant system, instituted after 1796 as part of the Bourbon reforms. Tucumán did not have a governor or a corregidor. The cabildo's members were elected by the urban vecinos, who thus wielded extraordinary authority and power over the political life of the city. Furthermore, in the case of Tucumán the powers of the creoles relative to the peninsulares increased with the intendant system and the Bourbon reforms. The most important creole families in Tucumán became even more powerful after the changes instituted after 1796. Vallejo argues that the Bourbon reforms did not bring about absolutism in Tucumán as they did elsewhere in Latin America. In fact, they did the exact opposite; they further decentralized political power and increased Tucumán's autonomy vis-à-vis the crown.

In the second half of the book, Vallejo discusses the impact of revolution and war on politics and the political process in Tucumán. She argues that war, which lasted from 1808 until 1819, caused only limited change in the city and that there was no political change. She observes that the cabildo changed with the times, forming ties that eventually enabled it to transform itself into a more autonomous institution. Additionally, indirect community participation increased in the postindependence period, though it had antecedents in the colonial regime.

By the 1820s, Tucumán had its hands full dealing with provinces along its borders. Neighboring provinces often acted as foreign countries, and bandits roamed the frontier areas between provinces, usually supported by provincial governments on one side or the other. Military uprisings and liberalized electoral laws transformed politics in the city. Vallejo argues that during this period political leaders in Tucumán implemented liberal practices and principles that had evolved from traditional forms.

Nonetheless, Vallejo contends that the organization of the provincial state suffered from two problems in the 1820s: terrible economic crises and the new reluctance of the vecinos to participate in politics. These problems had a direct bearing on the survival of the cabildo. Very few vecinoswere willing to accept a political office that provided few benefits and in some cases could be dangerous. They thus became apathetic about the political process, evidenced by their poor participation in elections during this period. Furthermore, the institution that replaced the cabildo in the 1820s, the Sala de Representantes, did so only after the cabildo ceased to function as a political power precisely because its members, the vecinos, refused to hold political posts that could endanger their political and economic interests within the community.

Vallejo's point about the decentralizing effects of the Bourbon reforms is an innovative one that broadens our understanding of these reforms and suggests that we ought to revisit their local implications on a case-by-case basis. However, she offers fewer original insights about the postindependence period. Additionally, the book's overly...