Resumen de The aristocratic assemblies under the Spanish monarchy (1680–1700)
The political body of the Spanish monarchy in the second half of the seventeenth century was organically and functionally composed of assemblies of aristocrats, both centrally or supranationally (‘king’) and locally or territorially (‘kingdom’). The apex of this monarchic-aristocratic pyramid was formed by a polysynodal system of councils, among which the Councils of State and of War are worthy of mention, in the twofold sense of conferring a greater institutional dignity and for their projection abroad. The base of this same political-institutional pyramid was made up of-in addition to the respective governors or military governors (representing the monarch)—the Town Councils or municipal assemblies. In order to fully understand the structure and dynamics of both assemblies (central state councils and local councils), in which the decisions were always reached by a majority vote, the following pertinent questions need to be investigated in depth: the social complexion of its members (high- or low-rank nobility, depending on the circumstances); the political representation they possessed (‘king’ or ‘kingdom’, respectively); the nature of the power they exercised (political-sovereign power or economic-administrative power); their functions or responsibilities, among which law and justice were the total province of the ‘king’ (state councils) and the administration and economic resources were under the complete tutelary action of the ‘kingdom’ (local councils); and, finally, the procedures or workings of these central and local assemblies. Our basic theory rests on our affirmation that at the end of the seventeenth century, the Spanish monarchy had succeeded in fully achieving a system of government, based on the making of collective decisions, which were prepared complementarily and by discussion in the central area of the state councils and in the local context of the town councils. The undoubted solwness of this complex bureaucratic machinery ought not, however, to overshadow the merit of it having been a model ‘parliamentary’ example of poltical actions.
