La Visita del General de Catalunya: La institució i el seu encaix en el sistema institucional català d'època moderna (segles XV-XVIII).

Abstract

This thesis aims to study the Visita of the General of Catalonia, the political and legal institution dedicated to controlling the officials of the Deputation of the General of Catalonia –mainly known as Generality of Catalonia– within the Early Modern period. In doing so, our work is divided into two major parts: on the one hand, the first part analyses the historical development of the Visita, from its origins inside the Catalan Parliaments of the 15th and the 16th Centuries to its final suppression at the end of the Spanish War of Succession. On the other hand, the second part studies the operations of the Visita of the General, focusing on its internal organisation, the legal procedures, the publication and execution of its sentences and the provenance of the people that worked for the institution. Moreover, we also analyse the economic impact of the Visita's procedures regarding the global budget of the Generality of Catalonia. After all that, we can conclude that the Visita of the General of Catalonia was one of the best examples of the Early Modern Catalan political system, characterised by clearly modern concepts such as accountability, constitutionalism (pactism) and primary use of the dynamics of checks and balances.

Date of Award	13 Jul 2018
Original language	Catalan
Supervisor	Antoni Simon Tarres (Director)