Caciquism

The caciquism is the name which one allotted to the whole of the political relations which animated the years of the Restauration of the Bourbons in Spain (1874 - 1931).

This term comes from the word taïno “cacic”, appointing the chief of a tribe of the Caribbean or Central America - and by extension an absolute monarch in the empires of the Civilization précolombienne.

By extension still, in its contemporary meaning, so borrowed from Spanish, it returns to the despotic political management style of notable powerful and local potentates. In the university context, the word cacic indicates to some extent “Mandarin”.

Caciquism during the Bourbonienne Restoration

Although a victory crushing because fraudulent with the elections is one of the main features of the system caciquist, it is in fact only one of its multiple aspects. The caciquat had like principal support the agricultural world, although it was also constant to a lesser extent in the cities. In Spain mainly rural, the grounds of the center and south of Spain thus proved to be the place of development of the caciquism.

The caciquism was consolidated in Spain during the Restauration Bourbonienne. The caciques ones gave directives of Vote to the voters of their commune (customers), which constituted the base of the political Alternance between preserving and liberal wished by the Bourbons. In addition to their economic power, the caciques ones had armed factions which intimidated the reticent voters with their will.

Until the Second Republic, and except some short exceptions, the Spanish liberal mode was thus rate/rhythm by the electoral Fraude and the generalized Abstentionnisme. In addition to being an uneven system of structuring of the company of the time, the caciquism was a bond between the cities, where the political decisions were caught, and campaigns, where the caciques ones chose their leaders by the means of the customers caciquists.

Contrary to appearances, the network of cacic static nor was not completed at the beginning of its installation; it should be conceived as a dynamic conglomerate which is consolidated gradually until becoming quasi inébranlable by the policies which were hostile for him. It will be necessary nevertheless to await the civil war to see the irruption of new forms of political authority in Spain.

Operation

One often regarded the caciquism as an only political concept and of which the only ambition would be to control the electorate. The cacique one will have in fact be component of the centralized administration: it was the chief on the local level of the one of the parties in place of the time, and an essential link of the political chain, since its mission was electoral handling with an aim of obtaining more or less factitious results, often by means illegal, and favorable to the leader of sound Political party.

The anecdote of cacic of Motril, in the Province of Grenade, illustrates this phenomenon perfectly. When the result of the elections fell, he consulted it with his friends of the party, and declared:

Us, the liberals, were convinced that we would gain the elections. However, God wanted some differently. So that it appears, it is us, the conservatives, who gained the elections.

Decline

Although elements characteristic of the caciquism perduré until in the Forties in the national political life, it is during the reign of Alphonse XIII of Spain that the system started to be called in question. Vis-a-vis popular apathy, the network caciquist maintained his influence on the country without no force of opposition succeeding in dismantling it. 1931 had to be waited until to see being held an authentic democratization of the political regime.

It however periods ago during which the political opinion seemed to seek to break oligarchy caciquist: at the time of the introduction of the Vote for all in 1890 or colonial crisis of 1898. This will of change contributes to explain the acceptance of the Coup d'etat of the general Miguel Primo de Rivera. Indeed, this dictatorship gave itself for objective the " régénération" of the national policy, by replacing the decentralized system of clientelism by a policy " authentique". Some considered the general thus as a Messie which was going to release Spain of its prostration. However, the measurements installation against the mode caciquist were only of short duration; one replaced the mayors and the general advisers by military delegations sent by the government. These delegations then played often the game of cacic, or were blocked by judges who made them also part of the network caciquists.

See too

Sources

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