Abstract

Parliamentary allowances and immunity are normal devices in the functioning of the political field and operate today in the way of evidence. Analysis of their genesis and routinization in Chile between 1812 and 1925 through the parliamentary debates to which they gave rise reveals their underlying social and political logic in the framework of numerous battles between agents who were the bearers of rival definitions of disinterestedness and virtue. Through a sociohistory of the political passions involved, this article shows how these two devices affected the differentiation of the political field and the autonomization of the parliamentary sphere that resulted in a profound transformation of its agents and their political work.