Manuel García Pelayo

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Manuel García Pelayo (born Corrales del Vino-Zamora, Spain on May 23, 1909 – died Caracas, Venezuela on February 25, 1991), prominent Political Scientist and Jurist. Founder of the modern Department of Political Science of the Central University of Venezuela. He was elected President of the Constitutional Tribunal of Spain in 1980.

He studied high school at the Institute of Zamora (1926) and later moved to Madrid where he studied Law at the Universidad Central until (1934). He obtained a scholarship from the "Junta de Ampliación de Estudios" and studied at the University of Vienna. When on July 18, 1936 the Spanish Civil War started, he enlisted in the Republican army even though his father and brother were fighting for the Nationalist. He fought in several battles and became a Captain in the General Staff. When the civil war ended he was sent to concentration camps and put into prison until 1941. Once he was released he married Mercedes Velásquez Fernández-Pimentel. In 1947, he is invited to teach at the Instituto de Estudios Políticos de Madrid by its director, Francisco Javier Conde. In 1950, he began to be known as an important author with the publication of a work on Comparative Constitutional Law ("Derecho Constitucional Comparado"), which became a landmark in this area for the Spanish language and was redited more than 20 times.

In 1951, he travelled to Argentina and started working as a lawyer while teaching Law at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Then in 1954, taught political science at the University of Puerto Rico until 1958 when the Department of Government and Law of the Central University of Venezuela hired him to found the new Institute and Department of Political Science. He taught and published many works during these years until his retirement in 1979. In 1980, he returned to Spain, after an invitation from King Juan Carlos to become part of the recently created Constitutional Tribunal. He then was elected as its President, position that he occupied until 1986. A year later García Pelayo returned to Caracas, where he passed away in 1991 after a long illness.

The Institute of Comparative Public Law[1] of the Universidad Carlos III of Spain was named after García Pelayo in 1997.

[edit] Works

  • Auctoritas. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Derecho, 1969
  • Burocracia y tecnocracia y otros escritos. Madrid: Alianza, 1984
  • Ciencia política: introducción elemental a la teoría general de sistemas. Caracas: s.n., 1975
  • Las culturas del libro. Caracas: Monte Ávila, 1976
  • Del mito y de la razón en la historia del pensamiento político. Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1968
  • Derecho constitucional. 5ª ed. Madrid: Manuales de la Revista de Occidente, 1959
  • Derecho constitucional comparado. 4ª ed. Madrid: Alianza, 1984
  • El estado de partidos. Madrid: Editorial Alianza, 1986
  • El estado social y sus implicaciones. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1975
  • La estratificación social de los países desarrollados. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Derecho, 1975
  • Federico II de Suabia y el nacimiento del Estado moderno. Caracas: Fundación García Pelayo, 1994
  • Las formas políticas en el antiguo Oriente. Caracas: Monte Ávila, 1993
  • Idea de la política y otros escritos. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1983
  • Ideología e iconología. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1963
  • Las funciones de los parlamentos bicamerales. Caracas: Ediciones del Congreso de la República, 1971
  • Los mitos políticos. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1981
  • Obras completas. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1993. 3 v.
  • Las transformaciones del Estado contemporáneo. 2ª ed. Madrid: Alianza, 1985
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