El debate sobre las formas de gobierno y las diversas alternativas de asociación política en el Río de la Plata

Abstract

This paper reconsiders substantial aspects contained in the debate over different forms of government in the Rio de la Plata region after the crises of the Spanish Monarchy (1808) and the May Revolution (1810), in an effort to clarify the relationship between the emergence of sovereign forms associated to urban centers and the territorial dimension of the debate's central lines .In fact the tension between different towns and the nation as a unique subject was more vigorously expressed in the second attempt of constitutional organization (1824-1827) than in the first (1816-1819). When the cities started the process by which they became autonomous states the effects of the long lasting Hispanic crises over the central role performed by the Hispano-American towns became evident. After 1820 the appearance of some type of autonomous sovereignty should not only be interpreted as a response to the crisis but as starting point of a new type of order within the state. The tension among towns (urban sovereignty) States (provincial sovereignties) and Nation (Rio de la Plata sovereignty) is reflected in the debate hold during the Constitutional Congress of 1824-1827.