With vote and voice A new assessment of liberal political cultures from the electorate’s perspective

Abstract

During the reign of Elizabeth II, with the exception of the Progressive Biennium stage, the civic festivals disappeared. Later, the renewal of the Carnival turned the festival into a space for popular mobilization in which a group of dissidents from the Elizabethan regime restored a ritual inspired by the civic festivals of the Liberal Revolution. The popularity of the Carnival festival in the first five years of the 1860s must be interpreted in terms of the proliferation of progressive festivals dedicated to San Baldomero and the national holidays of the liberal states. Therefore, the Carnival became a popular civic festival to the extent that its renewal was promoted by a group of republican professionals dedicated to the press, leisure and culture. The success of the renewal of the festival was based on the ability to involve the leisure industry, which saw in the festival the possibility of attracting popular urban sectors to its establishments, and weaving a network of solidarity between recreational and educational societies and cultural. The philanthropic dimension of the festival, heir to the civic festivals, contributed to reinforcing the bonds of solidarity between the popular classes, the professional republican groups and the progressive elites, without awakening the fears of the conservative elites.