1. Summary
This essay addresses the political idea of the popular will of Jean Jacques Rousseau and the consequences of it in the independence struggle of Mexico in 1810.
From the results to the triumph of the independence struggle in Mexico, the obtaining of sovereignty and the enactment of new laws in the constitution of the new Mexican nation.
And primarily, this essay tries to draw attention to the actions of Mexican society in this new century, almost 213 years after the beginning of the independence struggle to establish the sovereignty of Mexico.
2. Introduction
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (1712-1778) French philosopher of the eighteenth century who with his work created in 1762 "The Social Contract or the principles of political law".
Political idea that deeply influenced to start the French Revolution of (1789-1799). This work made Rousseau so unpopular by shaking the monarchical society of France that it cost him exile in Switzerland, (he returned to France in 1776 under a false name).
Rousseau argues in this work, that the power that governs society is the general will that looks for the common good of all citizens. But this power only takes shape when each person in common puts all its value under the supreme direction of the general will, where each member is an indivisible part of the whole. In this way, society must be able to protect people and their property with all the common force available in society.
Man in his natural state is free, but by voluntarily joining the artificial social contract he leaves his natural state because of the needs that arise to coexist in the new society.
Morality and reason are now necessary to establish a normative regime in the new social contract to avoid domination of one over the other and also to achieve the representation and participation of all members of society.
This is the origin of the idea of democracy, where all members now recognize the authority of reason to unite through a law created by themselves.
This new society now receives the name of Republic where all the members live in common agreement.
Rousseau establishes that the people are now sovereign, where all members are equal and society cannot decide anything that violates the interests of each and that the laws of the republic are established by and for the social pact and not for the benefit and particular convenience of the individual.
The laws of the republic must be the result of public deliberation since sovereignty arises from this.
The people are now a subject and object of sovereign power; subject because he gives all his rights to the community and object because when he gives his rights to society he gives them to himself.
3. Development
Consequences of the social contract and the French Revolution in New Spain.
With the advent of the French Revolution in 1789 and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens by the French Revolutionaries, the spirit of insurgency in Latin America was stirred and New Spain was no exception.
The new political idea of Rousseau's Social Contract of 1762 was considered as the precursor idea of the independence struggle in Mexico.
Above all, the proclamation of the principle of popular will; that sovereignty resides in the people, a political idea totally contrary to the political-theological postulate of the Spanish crown that only accepted that the postulate that the king only received the sovereignty of God - "omnis potestas a Deo" -.
Ideology that well justified the permanence of the absolute monarchical regime for several centuries as a form of government.
Of course, in New Spain the circles of conservatives and the rancid monarchy defended the postulate "omnis potestas a Deo" to the extent of classifying Rousseau's principle of popular sovereignty as heresy…
To such a degree was the reaction of the monarchy in Mexico that the Court of the Holy Office in Mexico issued an edict on August 27, 1808 published on September 4 and 5 of the same year in the Diario de México; In said edict it was mentioned… "that anyone who deviated from the fundamental principle that the King received the sovereignty of God himself and that this principle should be believed with divine faith should be denounced without fear of the Holy Office.
That the idea of the sovereignty of the people of Rousseau was a manifest heresy that contravened obedience to established monarchs. "…
In truth Rousseau's political theory came to shake up the entire political and social order of the time; He contributed to uphold the very liberal and reformist ideas that were adopted by the independentista caudillos in Mexico to start the independence struggle in Mexico.
Curiously, the idea of Rousseau's popular will was already reflected in the same Spanish constitution of 1812 in its article 3, where it was mentioned… “that sovereign power resides essentially in the nation, that it belongs to it and that this is not but the general will that emanates from the social contract ”….
Rousseau's social contract and the ideology of José María Morelos y Pavón (1765-1815) "The Servant of the nation".
José María Morelos (765-1815) unlike Miguel Hidalgo and Ignacio López Rayón independentista caudillos; He personified the people of Mexico who speak and fight.
Morelos' fight was against Spain to achieve the independence of the nation but also against the Creoles who kept the people exploited with cruelty.
Morelos's struggle was external against Spain and at the same time internal in a class struggle; the most violent of the XIX century.
And it did not matter how long it took to obtain sovereignty, since the freedom of men is imprescriptible. The social scope of the Morelos struggle was due to the fact that as a priest he came to know the suffering and misery of the people and this places him as one of the great heroes in the history of Mexico.
And it is enough to read the version of the interview between Morelos and Andrés Quintana Roo that took place on September 13, 1813 to realize the greatness of this great leader:
Morelos says: “I am a servant of the nation because it assumes the largest, most legitimate and inviolable sovereignty, I want it to have a government derived from the people; that he breaks all the ties that hold him and accepts and considers Spain as a sister and never again as the dominator of America.
I want us to make the declaration that there is no other nobility than that of virtue, knowledge, patriotism and charity; that we are all equal, since we come from the same origin; that there are no privileges or ancestors; that it is neither rational nor human nor because there are slaves, because the color of the face does not change that of the heart or that of thought; that the children of the farmer and the barretero be educated as well as those of the rich landowner; that everyone who complains about justice, has a court that listens to him, protects him and defends him against the strong and the arbitrary.
That it be declared that ours is already ours and for our children, that they have faith, a cause and a flag under which we all swear to die, rather than see her oppressed as she is now and when she is free we are ready to defend her "
On September 14, 1813, in his political text "Sentimientos a la Nación" Morelos exposed Rousseau's thought when referring to popular sovereignty in article 5… “Sovereignty immediately derives from the people, who only want to deposit it on their representatives, dividing its powers into; legislative, executive and judicial ”…
Rousseau's social contract and reforms in the laws of the new Mexican nation.
In the first Mexican Independence Act of November 6, 1813, it was established that sovereignty in favor of North America… was "forever and ever broken and the independence of the Spanish throne dissolved" and being empowered to "establish the laws that most they agree for the best arrangement and inner happiness, to make war and peace and establish alliances with monarchs and republics "…
Undoubtedly, the document that most faithfully embraces Rousseau's theory in the new Mexican nation is the Apatzingán Constitution of October 22, 1814.
Although this document was officially called the "Constitutional Decree of Freedom of Mexican America" in its article 2, it postulated… "The power to enact laws and establish the form of government that best suits society"…
In the document called "Provisional Political Regulations of the Mexican Empire of January 10, 1823, in its article 5 it was declared that…" The Mexican nation is free, independent and sovereign "…
Derived from the Apatzingán Constitution of 1814, it was established in the Constitutive Act of the Federation promulgated on January 31, 1824 that:…. sovereignty resides radically and essentially in the nation and therefore only it has the right to adopt and establish through its representatives the form of government and other fundamental laws that seem more convenient to it ”….
The Federal Constitution of 1824 in its article 1 establishes that "the Mexican nation is forever free and independent from the Spanish government and from any other power" and in its article 4 it mentions that "the form of representative republic is adopted for its government popular and federal. ”
Rousseau's social contract and the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1917.
Result of the struggle of the Mexican Revolution and with the triumph of the constitutionalist army, the constituent congress promulgated on February 5, 1917 in the city of Querétaro, the present Mexican constitution.
Articles 39, 40 and 41 establish the political theory of the social contract and Rousseau's popular will of 1762, remaining as follows:
Article 39. National sovereignty resides essentially and originally in the people.
All public power derives from the people and is instituted for their benefit. The people have at all times the inalienable right to alter or modify the form of their government.
Article 40. It is the will of the Mexican people to become a representative, democratic, secular, federal Republic, made up of free and sovereign States in everything related to their internal regime; but united in a federation established according to the principles of this fundamental law.
Article 41. The people exercise their sovereignty through the Powers of the Union, in the cases of their competence, and by those of the States, regarding their internal regimes, in the terms respectively established by this Federal Constitution and the individuals of the States, which in no case may contravene the provisions of the Federal Pact.
The renewal of the Legislative and Executive powers will be carried out through free, authentic and periodic elections, in accordance with the following bases….
4. Conclusions
Rousseau's social contract, and the popular will of the Mexican citizen in the present.
The cat "Morris" gets 7,500 votes; (Process Magazine 08 July 2013).
The Preliminary Election Results Program (PREP) in Xalapa had counted more than 7,500 votes between null and voices and “unregistered candidates”, votes that “El Candigato Morris” claimed as their own….
"The Candigato Morris" is considered to be an initiative that called for voting for an animated character instead of the candidates nominated by the political parties, as a sign of being fed up with the corruption of the political class…
And the winner is… the Abstentionist Party (El Economista Newspaper 08 July 2013).
… None of the 2,181 individuals who competed last Sunday for a popularly elected office that they have won can claim to have in their favor the majority of their rightful voters. A conservative calculation indicates that in all cases abstentionists exceeded 50% of the citizens registered in the register.
An example: Chihuahua where the State Electoral Institute announced that the voter turnout was 35.98%, which means that 64.02% of the registered voters did not appear to vote….
Much has been written in relation to Rousseau's political theory of popular will; The meaning of this has been analyzed and especially how it influenced and gave rise to the ideals of the independence struggle in Mexico.
It is a fact that thanks to the deep conviction of the great Mexican heroes and leaders, great achievements were obtained; achievements that gave rise to new laws; to establish the sovereignty of our nation, with all that this means and above all the consequences of these great achievements obtained in the armed struggles of Mexico; freedom, well-being and order for our nation.
However, the role that Mexican citizenship has been playing in the social contract is far from the original idea of Rousseau's popular will and the ideals of Mexican heroes:
It is enough to read the reports of the magazine Proceso and the newspaper El Economista of July 2013 to realize what is happening in our country.
The Morris cat gets 7,500 votes in the City of Xalapa Ver. From where a group of people preferred to elect a feline animal as a popular representative for the municipal government in Veracruz, given that they are disappointed in the political parties and the corruption of the same candidates. of always, that they only appear before the citizens to request the vote and that after once they obtain a seat of power they only seek their personal enrichment among other things.
And what about 64% of abstentionism in the last July elections. This figure speaks volumes about the interest in the social contract and the popular will in Mexico to elect the popular representatives to govern.
All the achievements and benefits obtained by the great heroes and the armed struggles that occurred in Mexico, mean nothing if the citizenship does not fulfill its role in the social contract.
The power vacuum that citizens are leaving in the social contract, abandoning the right of the popular will that corresponds to maintain sovereignty, can be filled again by those same dark forces against which so many men and women heroically fought to constitute the sovereign nation that we now have in our hands.
It is necessary that each Mexican citizen; be it this candidate for a position of popular election, as a member in the structure of a political party, as a representative of a governmental authority, as a member of an electoral tribunal and more importantly as the citizen who comes to vote to elect their representatives in an election, make use of the rights and carry out the obligations that correspond to you in the social contract established in our political constitution in order to maintain and strengthen the sovereignty of our nation.
The efforts, struggles, and sufferings that the great Mexican heroes had to face, suffer, and overcome to give us a new free and sovereign nation may simply have been in vain.
5. References
- Wikipedia, 2013Burgoa Orihuela, 2010Burgoa Orihuela, 2010CPEUM, 2013Process, July 2013Economist, July 2013
6. Bibliography
- Burgoa Orihuela, I. (2010). Constitutional right. Mexico DF: Porrua.CPEUM. (2013). Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. México.economista, E. (July 2013). And the winner is the abstentionist party. El economista.Proceso, R. (July 2013). Weekly magazine. Process.Wikipedia. (August 25, 2013). http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_contrato_social. Retrieved on August 20, 2013, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_contrato_social,
