The theoretical concept of the town in the Spanish Enlightenment; local police forces and the new ideas of order, comfort and public propriety

Abstract

During the period of the Enlightenment in Spain, a new public body, the Town or Municipal Police, grew up. This had its origins in the general concept of the Police as responsible for the achieving of human happiness within the absolute State and more precisely for the establishing in society of a sense of public well-being. This new force strives to facilitate good govemment and the well-being of inhabitants of the town by means of a varied series of measures designed to improve the conditions of urban social life. Special attention was paid to those features connected with establishing a better ordered society, the development of the proposal for urban comfort and the setting up of an aesthetically more pleasing 'face' to the buildings and streets of the 18th century town. In this context, then, a new concept of urban organization appeared, known in those times by such terms as order, comfort, and public propriety.