Post Scriptum

Abstract

The purpose of these pages is to continue the dialogue started by Miriam Dolhnikoff's and Bernardo Ricupero's commentaries to my essay on "Popular Sovereignty, Citizenship, and Nation-Building in Nineteenth Century Spanish America: The Republican Experiment". I will not try here to cover the vast field opened by their thoughtful reflections and remarks, but rather to advance in the discussion of four of the themes they raise: the comparison between the political experience of the Hispanic-American republics and that of the Brazilian constitutional monarchy; the contrast between the history of citizenship in Spanish America and that of several European countries, and the relevance of Marshall's model of citizenship to the Latin American case; the development of specific political practices, particularly those pertaining to elections; and the process of formation and transformation of the political elites in the course of the nineteenth century.