Unidad, desigualdad, comunidad. Las crisis de gobernanza urbana de 1520 y la constitución del orden comunero

Abstract

Unity, inequality, community. The urban government crises of 1520 and the constitution of the comunero order

This article adopts a dual method – retrospective and prospective – in order to  circumvent imperceptible anachronisms in the study of the political condi tions at the urban scale of the Castilian uprising of 1520. The text first propos es an interpretive framework centered on the category of mats established in the comunero capitals and in the urban juntas of 1808. This  approach helps identify the appropriation of the capacity to designate all pub lic offices by the urban community as a precondition of the new communal  governance, and defines as its axes the revocability of governors and the ca pacity for representation of the stratified organisations – of taxpayers and the  privileged – in the urban juntas; finally, the conclusions offer a reflection on  the Comunidades of Castile as a moment of potentially absolute politics, which  makes it possible to overcome the traditional/modern dichotomy.