Objective/Context:

This article studies the political responsibility of the Extraordinary Congress of 1847 in the development of the Bolivian Revolution of that year. It was summoned by the government of José de Ballivián (1841-1847) to authorize him to wage a possible war with Peru, in which the notion of national independence was associated with that of mercantile liberty and which sought to resolve a long- standing tariff dispute that could have implications for territorial expansion. Since this gathering took place in the context of the loss of political and social capital of the Executive, it is hypothesized that the effort of the Presidency to pacify Bolivia internally through an international war, posed in terms of patriotic unity, made it possible for the Congress to act as the promoter of the Revolution and to empower itself as the governing body. The revolutionary legitimizing argument was built on the basis, on the one hand, of the discussions among the representatives on the distribution of the powers of the State with the Executive; on the other hand, of the fear of the population that the armed solution would expose Bolivians to commercial, territorial and freedom losses and, even, to the deprivation of independence.

Originality:

This study presents a new perspective on the political leadership exercised by the Congress, first, by contradicting the cliché on the governmental omniscience of the Executive and, second, by showing the leading role of the representatives in the promotion of political and constitutional use of arms, as opposed to the cliché of a public life defined by military caudillos or by caudillista militarism.

Methodology:

Through a theoretical interweaving of neo- constitutionalism and legal sociology, together with a method of conceptual history, the article identifies the actors and parties of the Revolution, their motivations and reciprocal relations, their action protocol, and their initiatives aimed at both pacifying and promoting the Revolution.

Conclusions:

The leadership of the Legislative in the fall of Ballivián through the revolutionary solution shows the intention of the former to preserve the constituent and law-creating conscience to which Bolivia’s republican existence was owed. Likewise, the role of the congressmen in the appeal of constitutional armed violence-citizenship in arms-helps to clarify the dynamics of institutional and social legitimization and delegitimization of the revolutionary leadership in the 19th century.

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