Una herramienta para la rendición de cuentas: Peticiones al Congreso de Diputados y transparencia en el reinado de Isabel II (1837-1868)

This article addresses practices connected to the concepts of accountability and transparency during the Spanish reign of Isabel II from the study of petitions addressed to the parliament. In detail, 2,981 petitions from seven different legislatures are examined, representing periods under governments of opposing political trends after the constitutional recognition of the right to petition (1837-1868). Beyond a general distinction between mercy and political requests, the paper shows that the idea of transparency was entailed within requirements of political responsibilities and clarification of laws. Indeed, it was the insistence of petitioners that led patrician liberalism to accountability, regardless of ideological tendencies. Without this action, in general political elites tended to omit these demands, which were extensively ignored and almost never resolved. However, progressive liberalism, in the Constituent legislature of 1854-1856, introduced accountability in petitions, although in a restricted way and with limited effectiveness.