ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a foundational period in the history of the early republic, between the 1820s and the 1850s, when Congress played a crucial role in the structuring of the country's political culture, republican state, and party politics. Although Congress remains understudied, this chapter proposes that this longstanding institution of democracy was central to the evolution of the public sphere and civil society in Colombia. This early lettered public sphere, which manifested in an abundant periodical press for the promotion of electoral campaigns and partisan public policies, later contributed to the formal emergence of the political parties, Liberal and Conservative. This chapter argues that the press was an essential element of electoral confrontations for Congress, the executive, provincial legislatures, and local city councils. It demonstrates that electoral disputes were uninterrupted, dynamic, and deeply contested and that a strong political opposition was active in all branches of government. The chapter establishes that despite patron-client politics and bossism, as well as restrictions to broad political participation by all citizens, a “republican habitus” emerged early in Colombia and Congress played a key role in this process.
