Horst Pietschmann - Corrupção nas Índias espanholas Revisão de um debate na historiografia sobre a América hispano-colonial - trad. Denis G. Rolla e Alfredo de J. Flores (Revista da Escola Superior de Direito Municipal, v. 9, n. 17, p. 19-34, 2023) (original) (raw)
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Bureaucracy and corruption in colonial Spanish America: an approach attempt The new phenomenon of the nascent modern state is rapidly beginning to impact the Spanish colonial world. Through the implantation of an administrative bureaucratic system, the Crown begins, in an experimental way, already during the regency of Fernando, the Catholic, and with greater vigor in the reigns of Carlos V and Felipe II, to eliminate the excessive and deeply rooted power to medieval-type concessions that held the leaders of the conquering hosts in the areas of the new colonization. The absence of feudal institutions and the impediment to their proliferation, as soon as the conquest of a new territory was completed, made possible –at least in the jurisdictional and institutional sphere –the creation of an administrative system that, in its generallines, was completely modeled according to the requirements of this modern state in formation. So much so that in America this new system of government was given in its purest form. Extensive legislation regulated the internal organization of this administrative apparatus, gave norms for the execution of the power conferred to the officials who composed it and, above all, sought to prevent abuses by officials. This ideal of an impartial, loyal, incorrupt public official dedicated to the good of the monarchy is not only found in the legislation ultimately emanating from the sovereign, but also has strong roots in peninsular society. The reality, however, was very different. thus, the aim is a first approximation to this complex theme which, due to its transcendence, certainly deserves a deeper and more systematic study than can be done in the light of a new bibliography and some well-known sources, in so few pages. KEYWORDS: Spanish empire; Bureaucracy; Corruption; Spanish America.
Abstract: Humanism and the high nobility are distinct social spheres, but in many cases, they are united by a common interest in the new “sciences” and their debates on nature, human beings, their social organization, their history and their cultural expressions in the canon of science, which are widely discussed in this period of the Renaissance. This period saw the emergence and affirmation not only of the role of the individual, but also the dissolution of traditional forms of sociability and social organization, of religiosity, of thought and behavior. Thus, all these processes contributed to the division of opinions and judgments and caused concern to rulers who felt the responsibility and were concerned about their role. For the first time, this type of interest and these debates largely transcended the scope of theological and philosophical schools. Keywords: Politics (colonial Spanish America). Renaissance humanism. Spanish Empire. Charles V (Charles I of Spain).
In Hispanic America, the regions have begun to articulate more by virtue of economic dynamism, demographic, institutional and power concentrations, and other geopolitical factors. The new articulations of the colonial space only partially, and when was the case, responded to the governmental structures of the imperial apparatus established during the 16th century. At the same time, there is an inverse process: for different causes - geopolitical, economic, etc. - certain regions, even equipped with their own bureaucratic apparatus, enter into the orbit of more powerful centers that can politically and economically impose their authority and power. This set of contradictory developments, which until now has been studied only partially in the economic dimension, but very little in the political-administrative sphere, is actually the beginning of the process we call the proto-state formation phase. The reforms of the 18th century are, in large measure, the consequence or the late answer to previous developments that have been produced against the will of the metropolis, in moments of weakness of the Crown, during the process of imperial disarticulation that occurs not only in America, but also in European possessions. It is precisely the global perspective of the Spanish Empire during the second half of the 17th century that allows us to characterize this process of imperial disintegration as a process of emergence of new political entities that acquire a greater degree of autonomy and influenced the formation of new independent states.
Os conflitos entre poderes locais e governos centrais têm uma longa tradição não somente na América hispano-colonial, mas também na Europa moderna em geral, como pode dar testemunho uma série interminável de conflitos, sendo que muitos dos quais levaram a rebeliões ou guerras civis na época moderna. Prescindiremos então da multiplicidade de agitações contra autoridades ou elites locais que pertencem a distinta categoria; estamos interessados, no entanto, em rebeliões com maior abrangência espacial e com articulação de reivindicações políticas. Nesta linha de rebeliões, a instituição que é, por antonomásia, o órgão de cristalização do poder local-isto é, os municípios e cabildos-está sempre presente de uma forma ou de outra. Estes quase sempre articulam o descontentamento local. A rebelião ou a resistência são sempre dirigidas não contra o rei, mas sim contra uma hierarquia interposta entre aqueles que protestam e este último, ou seja, a autoridade central do Estado, da Monarquia ou-qualquer que seja a forma com que se queira chamar-de toda a comunidade. Isto prova que, em linhas gerais, a interação entre os atores locais e a autoridade central, pelo menos durante a época colonial, mesmo em casos de resistência armada, desenvolve-se ao longo do quadro jurídico-institucional existente. Será importante averiguar o quanto isso haveria de mudar depois da Independência. Palavras-chave: Rebeliões (América hispano-colonial). Municípios. Atores locais. Autoridade central.
“Possuidores despóticos”: Historiografia, denúncia e fontes sobre a corrupção na América portuguesa
Revista Complutense de Historia de América, 1970
Este artigo, dividido em quatro tópicos, defende o argumento de que havia na cultura política do Antigo Regime uma distinção entre o que era visto e vivenciado como lícito e ilícito e, portanto, que o conceito de corrupção -embora com contornos e nuances próprias, e concepções específicas de acordo com diferentes conjunturas históricas- aplica-se igualmente às sociedades da época moderna. Nas duas primeiras partes do texto nos propomos a uma breve discussão sobre o tema da corrupção no espaço social luso-brasileiro, tanto a partir da historiografia recente, quanto por meio de obras de autores que viveram e escreveram nos séculos XVII e XVIII. Em seguida analisaremos uma representação dos moradores do Rio de Janeiro à rainha D. Maria I, de 1779, acusando os oficiais da Câmara de intrusão, despotismo e usurpação de direitos em relação à posse de terrenos urbanos, que lhes haviam sido garantidos desde a fundação da cidade. Por fim, abordaremos, ao destacar as fontes sobre as quais nos ...