Avant la politisation. Économies morales en tension dans le monde hispanique au xviiie siècle

Abstract

This paper focuses on the seminal politicisation of the Spanish Monarchy towards the end of the Ancien Régime. The analysis of the actors involved in the spaces of sociability and experiences of Bourbon reformism is methodologically privileged. This approach allows us to go beyond the now conventional dichotomy of politicisation “from above” / “from below”. Rather, it is the connections of the social actors with the circles in which politics occurred that need to be identified and traced, for it was these connections that transformed the actors themselves, leaving aside, in their traditional culture, the social sectors that were excluded. As a result, the reformist enterprise of the Crown was a major way of politicisation before the era of mass politicisation. The cleavages that the participation or exclusion from this process caused are discussed in detail through the example of the Basque Country and Navarre.

Keywords

• Moral economy
• Enlightenment
• Hispanic Monarchy
• Basque Country
• Politicization
• Social networks