Cuando la ley fundamental desbarata: Los conservadores y la constitución de 1857

Abstract

In the aftermath of the instability that characterized Mexican national politics in the decades after independence and after ten years of war, the 1857 constitution became a stable juridical framework. This article analyzes the arguments of its Conservative critics, who condemned it as anarchic and incompatible with the character of a Catholic people. It also examines the legal proposals for centralization and administrative consolidation they made for the military and monarchical regimes that governed from Mexico City between 1858-1860 and 1863-1867.