The science in the public arena: Doctors, political representation and expert knowledge in early Spanish Liberalism

Abstract

Since the Constitutional Triennium (1820-23), Spanish parliament became a key platform for physicians who strove to make their voices heard and opinions taken to account on issues such as public health policies and legislation adapted to the principles of liberalism, professional regulation, etc. Governing élites, absolutists and liberals alike, endorsed the notion of the need for governmental intervention in health-related issues, and, at the same time, the physicians fought to monopolize their authority in the field of medicine, improve their image and ensure their position as a group among the social élites of the time. To have physicians represented among the deputies in the parliament who would intervene in the new legislation was seen as a fundamental goal. In this article, we discuss the political and professional implications of this professional strategy of medical professionals between 1830s and 1860s, after the fruitful experience during the Constitutional Triennium. The progressists among the physicians put into practice several strategies to get to positions of power; this link between professional struggle and specific political movements had its advantages and gave its fruits, but also some negative implications. We analyse the results of this strategy showing that physicians’ political representation contributed to the acknowledgement of the physicians’ expert authority in the medical field and helped their social ascension to the point that they became part of the «forces vives» of their communities in the following decades.