Before going to the polling station: electorate and politicization spaces in Nineteenth-Century Spanish campaigns

Abstract

the most recent historiographic advances have begun to consider nineteenth-century electorate as a relevant political agent with autonomous competence of action, leaving behind the submissive and demobilised position that had been traditionally taken for granted. From a social and cultural perspective of politics, this article concurs with these contributions with the objective of analysing the Spanish electoral campaigns of the nineteenth century to confirm an active role of the voters based on their interaction with the candidates. the interrelation between political actors within electoral politicisation spaces reveals, a main conclusion, behaviours that seek to strengthen political confidence.