The National Council of Administration () was part of the

executive power The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

between 1919 and 1933, ruling alongside the

President of the Republic The President of the Republic is a title used for heads of state and/or heads of government in countries having republican form of government. Designation In most cases the president of a republic is elected, either: * by direct universal s ...

.The Constitution

Library of Congress Country Studies The Country Studies are works published by the Federal Research Division of the United States Library of Congress, freely available for use by researchers. No copyright is claimed on them. Therefore, they have been dedicated to the public domain ...

The ''colegiado'' system was proposed by President

José Batlle y Ordóñez José Pablo Torcuato Batlle y Ordóñez ( or ; 23 May 1856 – 20 October 1929), nicknamed ''Don Pepe'', was a prominent Uruguayan politician who served two terms as President of Uruguay for the Colorado Party. The son of a former president, ...

during his second term in office, with the aim of creating an executive body similar to the Swiss

Federal Council Federal Council may refer to: Governmental bodies * Federal Council of Australasia, a forerunner to the current Commonwealth of Australia * Federal Council of Austria, the upper house of the Austrian federal parliament * Federal Council of German ...

. Batlle had been opposed to the

presidential system A presidential, strong-president, or single-executive system (sometimes also congressional system) is a form of government in which a head of government (usually titled " president") heads an executive branch that derives its authority and l ...

, believing that a collegiate body would lower the risk of a

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

emerging. Although the proposal was unsuccessful in 1916, Batlle negotiated a compromise with the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

to include the system in a new constitution approved in a 1917 referendum. The compromise provided for a president and a nine-member National Council of Administration, which consisted of six members of the winning party and also three from the runner-up party. The president was responsible for foreign affairs, national security and agriculture, whilst the NCA oversaw the budget, education, healthcare, industry, industrial relations, labour, livestock and public works. The National Council of Administration had a chairman distinct from the president, making Uruguay the second Latin american country, after

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, to have a

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

with the adoption of the 1917 constitution. Although the new system worked well in its early years, in the early 1930s a series of conflicts involving the council and the president led to a presidential coup by

Gabriel Terra José Luis Gabriel Terra Leivas (August 1, 1873 – September 15, 1942) was a Uruguayan lawyer and statesman who served as the 26th constitutional president of Uruguay from 1931 to 1933 and as dictator until 1938. He led a traditionalist and ...

in 1933. A new constitution was drawn up, which abolished the National Council of Administration.

Presidents of the National Council

Feliciano Viera Feliciano Alberto Viera Borges (8 November 1872 – 13 November 1927) was a Uruguayan political figure. Background Viera was born in Salto, where he started his education at the Academy of Osimani and Llerena. When he was fifteen he went to M ...

(1919–1921) *

(1921–1923, 1927–1928) *

Julio Maria Sosa Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) *Julio (surname) *Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...

(1923–1925) *

Luis Alberto de Herrera Luis Alberto de Herrera (Montevideo, 22 July 1873 – 8 April 1959) was a Uruguayan lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. Political and diplomatic roles A national leader of great importance during the first half of the 20th century, he ...

(1925–1927) *

Luis Carlos Caviglia Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

(1928–1929) *

Baltasar Brum Baltasar Brum Rodríguez, GCTE (18 June 1883 – 31 March 1933) was a Uruguayan political figure. He was President of Uruguay from 1919 to 1923. Background Brum was born in the Department of Artigas near the city of Salto, where he began his ...

(1929–1931) *

Juan Pedro Fabini ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philipp ...

(1931–1933) *

Antonio Rubio Pérez Antonio Rubio Pérez ( Soriano, 1882 – 28 November 1953) was a Uruguayan journalist and politician. He briefly served as President of the National Council of Administration in 1933. He served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies of Urug ...

(March 1933)

Notable visitors

* In December 1928, US President-elect

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

addressed the National Council of Administration during his trip through Latin America.

References

Collective heads of state Political history of Uruguay {{Uruguay-gov-stub

Presidents of the National Council

Notable visitors

See also

References