The Society of Equality : popular republicanism and democracy in Santiago de Chile, 1818-1851 / James A. Wood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wood, James A., 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sociedad de la Igualdad (Santiago, Chile)--History.

Sociedad de la Igualdad (Santiago, Chile).

Democracy--Chile--History--19th century.

Democracy.

Republicanism--Chile--History--19th century.

Republicanism.

Political participation--Chile--History--19th century.

Political participation.

Artisans--Political activity--Chile--History--19th century.

Artisans.

Chile--Politics and government--1824-1920.

Chile.

Santiago (Chile)--Politics and government--19th century.

Santiago (Chile).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (345 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

On April 1, 1850, a planning meeting took place in Santiago, Chile, to organize a new political association that sought to democratize the thirty-year-old republic. The attendees were all male, and included master and journeymen tailors and shoemakers, two young men recently returned from a European sojourn, the conductor of the city's orchestra, a law professor, and a few liberals from the opposition party in Congress. The attendees believed the Society of Reform, the city's outmoded club for reformists, was inadequate, and they wanted to replace it with a group that reflected the more revolutionary spirit of the times. Wood argues that the society created at that meeting, the Society of Equality, set a new standard for democratic thought and action in Chilean history and was arguably the most democratic political association of its era in all of Latin America. It represented the first stirrings of modern democratic thought and practice-however fleeting-in Chile's hierarchical class structure. Ironically, it would be the persistent class relationships that prevented the Society from withstanding the onslaught of Church and state repression.

Contents:

Introduction : the popular republican movement in postcolonial Santiago

Politics and state formation in the aftermath of independence, 1818-28

Artisans and guardsmen in the political crisis of 1829

The regimentation of popular republicanism, 1830-39

The artisans confront the new order, 1840-49

A new generation confronts the new order, 1840-49

The Society of Equality, 1850-51

The limits of equality.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-63709-X

0-8263-4942-0

OCLC:

817819538