Miguel Fernandes Sebastião

Barata

DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL SYSTEM IN PORTUGAL

Portugal has been living in a Republic since 1910, however our Democracy is only 39 years old.

Our organs of sovereignty are: The President of Portugal Assembly of Republic Government Judicial system

The Portuguese Constitution assures the citizen’s rights and freedom, two of the most important principles in Portuguese Democracy.

The vote is the way people express their political thoughts/opinion about the parties.

INTRODUCTION

Monarchy was the first political system to appear in Portugal, like most European countries in that time. It lasted from 1143 to 1910 and was reignited by 34 kings.

After almost eight centuries of Monarchy, a republic was implanted on October 5 th 1910. The first years of the republic were marked by political instability and social crisis.

A military coup took part in 1926 and in 1933 a dictatorship called Estado Novo was created. This lasted until 1974.

BRIEF HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE POLITICAL SYSTEM BEFORE

DEMOCRACY

Fig. 2 - The RepublicFig. 1 - Assassination of D.

CarlosFig. 3 – appealing poster to the vote

On April 25 th 1974, a revolution took part. The Portuguese Military Forces invaded Lisbon and demanded the resignation of President Américo Tomás.

Without any military support, the Government had no chance to resist and on the following days, Democracy was offi cially proclaimed .

This revolution was named Revolução dos Cravos (The Carnation Revolution) because the military never used any kind of violence to fi ght for their principals. It’s also named like this because all the solders’s weapons were fi lled with carnations

DEMOCRACY

Fig. 4 – Soldiers during the Revolution

In 1975, and for the fi rst time in Portugal, free elections were held, meaning that every citizen over 18 years old got the chance to vote, despite its gender or social status. This was the begging of the political system as we know it today.

The fi rst elected president by the people was named António Ramalho Eanes, after António Spínola and Costa Gomes, the self-proclaimed Presidents by that time, had both renounced.

With this event Portugal became one of the fi rst European countries being ruled by a Democracy.

DEMOCRACY

Fig. 5 – Ramalho Eanes swearing

The fi rst years were instable, because there were still people in favor of dictatorship and that led to many manifestations against the new government. The situation was so serious, that in 1975 Portugal almost had a civil war.

In order to calm down the situation, several decisions were made: Abolition of censorship and PIDE (Portugal

political police) The end of the Ultramar War (war with ex-

colonies) Release of all political prisoners

In 1976 the fi rst Portuguese Constitution was approved to guarantee that the rights and duties of democracy were being accomplished.

DEMOCRACY

Fig. 6– The Portuguese

Constitution

The national symbols of our Republic are The National Anthem, called “A Portuguesa”, and The Flag. These symbols belong to our identity and history, still having great recognition by all population nowadays.

DEMOCRACY

Fig. 7 – Portuguese Flag

Since the end of the instability of the 70s till the second half of the last decade, Portugal had been living quietly. But since the beginning of the world crisis things have changed.

The amount of strikes and manifestations has been increasing dramatically due to our constant social and economical instability. We reached the point of several resignations by members of the government and even by the previous Prime-Minister.

DEMOCRACY NOWADAYS

Fig. 8 – Manifestation in Lisbon, September 15th 2012

As said before, our political system is formed by four organs of sovereignty. They are:

POLITICAL SYSTEM

The President is elected every 5 years and can have two mandates in a row. He has the final word in every decision made by Assembly of Republic, although he doesn’t participate in the process of forming them. He also has the power of dismissing the government.

THE PRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC

Fig. 9 – Cavaco Silva, the current Portuguese

President

It’s the entity that has the function of debating the current situation/aspects of Portugal. It’s composed by the parties elected by the people and the majority of the members of it are from the government.

ASSEMBLY OF REPUBLIC

Fig. 10 – Assembly of Republic

The Government is elected every 4 years. The leader of the elected party becomes Prime-Minister and he chooses the minister of every other department, for instance the Economy or the Environment Department. It’s the one that formulates all the decisions about the country and it’s also in charge of the Assembly of Republic.

GOVERNMENT

Fig. 11 – Pedro Passos Coelho, the current Portuguese Prime-Minister

This entity is the only one that is not elected and is fully independent. It’s the most powerful entity in Portugal, even more than the President. The main organ inside the Judicial System is the Constitutional Court, that assures the following of the Constitution.

JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Fig. 12 – The Justice

Every 4 years another election takes place: the local elections. The people elect the representatives of their autarchies and the elected local government has a certain independence in what regards the national government.

Another distinct point of our political system are our two self-governing regions: Madeira and Açores. Basically they have more autonomy than any other area in the continent, but they depend on the National Government socially and economically.

POLITICAL SYSTEM

Fig. 13 – Portuguese municipal map

After the presentation of this work, we hope we have successfully shown how our democracy and political system work and the history behind it.

CONCLUSION

http://www.slideshare.net/Phyllipa/a-democraciahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf_hNPcwqzshttp://www.portugal.gov.pt/pt.aspxhttps://www.google.pt/imghp?hl=pt-PT&tab=wi&ei=jT

RcUobaKIXlsgbQzoGIAQ&ved=0CAQQqi4oAghttp://www.rtp.pt/programa/tv/p29467

WEBGRAPHY

Students: Sebastião Barata and Miguel

Fernandes