This is a question that Gyurko posed to us in our political novel class.
Perhaps part of the answer lies in the values upon which the political structure of the viceroyalties were based:
"They stemmed from the fundamental Roman Catholic premise, most clearly articulated by Thomas Aquinas, that there were three kinds of law: divine law, that is, God's own heavenly will; natural law, a perfect reflection or embodiment of divine law in the world of nature; and human law, man's thoroughly imperfect attempt to approximate God's will within society...the ruler, once in power, was responsible to his or her own conscience and to God - not to the will of the people...Resuscitated in the postcolonial era, as it has often been, the code also furnished, as we shall see, a devastating critique of democratic theory."
Modern Latin America, Skidmore and Smith
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