CON VOTO Y VOZ: UNA NUEVA MIRADA A LAS CULTURAS POLÍTICAS LIBERALES DESDE LA PERSPECTIVA DE LOS ELECTORES

This text aims to balance some of the elements identified as defining and shared features of the different liberal political cultures, from a view based on political elites, with the understanding voters maintained of their condition and the meaning they gave to the vote. To achieve this goal the text will examine electoral protests, petitions for inclusion in the electoral census and other documentation written by voters during the consolidation of liberalism in Spain (1837-1868). From a conceptual analysis of the discourses and a cultural view based on the voice of the voters, the prevailing vision of liberal politics will be revised. The main conclusions show that despite their ideological differences most voters understood the vote as a right, and that they used electoral requests as a means of political participation.