La construcción social del Estado en el Perú: el régimen de Castilla y el mundo popular, 1845-1856

Summary

This article examines the “social construction of the state”, defined as the search for subaltern support in the shaping of a postcolonial hegemonic order, through the case of Peru’s liberal caudillo and state-builder Ramón Castilla. For that purpose I consider his “emancipationist decrees” of 1854 (abolition of Indian tribute and black slavery), his government’s performance in social matters during his first constitutional presidency (1845-1851), and the impact upon that era’s political struggles of an increasingly mobilized and demanding “populace”. The hypothesis that underlies this study is that these “plebeian” presences became a factor of power and legitimacy that no political actor, regardless of subjective or “aristocratic” preferences, could afford to ignore, as became obvious during the civil wars of 1854 and 1856-1858.