La nación en ausencia: primeras formas de representación en México

Abstract

The article reviews the current interpretations of the origin of  political representation in Mexico, and identifies how Mexico is original within the Western political tradition. Three arguments are compared. First, in Latin America in general, and particularly in Mexico, the development of the franchise was inverse to that of Europe's: beginning with an initial movement towards universal suffrage, the franchise gradually limited. Second, it presents how the Spanish American tradition is original in the context of the evolution of representative government within western countries. It is generally unknown that the last record of the use of lottery drawing of political representatives comes from Latin America. Finally, it questions the assumption that political representatives were "notables" in Latin America as an anomaly of the representative method. The article shows, instead, that the system of political representation itself causes notables to be elected.