Driven primarily by political concerns to secure democracy, Portugal's accession to the EU in 1986 also served as a catalyst for dynamic economic development following a complex process of democratization and the decolonization of Europe's last empire. This book analyses how the European Union has helped shape the political process in Portugal on key institutions, elites, and its citizen's attitudes.

Examines the transition to, and consolidation of, democracy in Portugal following the revolutionary events of 1975, during a period of major changes in socioeconomic structure. Nataf emphasizes that not only political institutions but also the fabric of social relations were uprooted, and he compares the Portuguese case to other models of European democratization and postwar settlements.

This book examines how patterns of political representation, party system, and political culture have changed in Southern Europe following the “Great Recession” of 2008. It draws on the experience of Portugal to argue that austerity measures have significantly deepened the legitimacy crisis of democratic institutions, but the resilience of party system is remarkable in comparison. The case of Portugal present some interesting differences from other southern European democracies, since on one hand it suffered a deep economic crisis and the consequent bailout from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union, but on the other hand the party system remained stable. Nevertheless the impact of the crisis did reinforce a centre-periphery cleavage within the European Union, and especially in the Eurozone, Portugal is a central element of this new cleavage notoriously aggravated by Brexit.

Portugal in the Twenty-First Century: Politics, Society, and Economics, edited by Sebastián Royo, reflects on the legacies of authoritarianism on the democratization process and addresses issues related to Portugal's integration into the European Union, with the perspective offered by its twenty-three years of membership. Portugal in the Twenty-First Century reflects on what has happened in the country and in Europe during the last three decades. The analysis is divided into two sections: political and sociological perspectives, and economic and social perspectives. The contributors identify basic changes in the economy and society of Portugal that occurred as a result of the democratization and European integration processes. They also assess the impact that these changes have had on the quality of Portuguese democracy, and on the country's economic development. Royo's collection reflects on how far Portugal has come since the Carnation Revolution in 1974 in order to better understand where it is headed now, at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Portugal in the Twenty-First Century: Politics, Society, and Economics, edited by Sebastián Royo, provides an original series of analyses of the development of Portuguese politics, sociology, and economics since the transition to democracy and the accession to the European Union. Drawing on the research by established scholars, Royo offers an up-to-date assessment of Portuguese political and economic issues. It is essential reading for those interested in understanding contemporary Portugal.

This vividly-written book is the first comprehensive assessment of the origins of the present-day democratic regime in Portugal to be placed in a broad international historical context. After a vibrant account of the collapse of the old regime in 1974, it studies the complex revolutionary period that followed, and the struggle in Europe and Africa to define the future role of Europe's then poorest country. International repercussions are examined and comparisons are drawn with the more general collapse of communism in the late 1980s.

This book is clearly written and gives a comprehensive overview of the Portuguese state from its founding through its democratic consolidation. Although it will be accessible to undergraduates, it will also be essential background reading for any English-speaking scholar doing social science research on Portugal.

This book, by Sonja Zmerli and Marc Hooghe, presents cutting-edge empirical research on political trust as a relational concept. From a European comparative perspective it addresses a broad range of contested issues. Can political trust be conceived as a one-dimensional concept and to what extent do international population surveys warrant the culturally equivalent measurement of political trust across European societies? Is there indeed an observable general trend of declining levels of political trust? What are the individual, societal and political prerequisites of political trust and how do they translate into trustful attitudes? Why do so many Eastern European citizens still distrust their political institutions and how does the implementation of welfare state policies both enhance and benefit from political trust? The comprehensive empirical evidence presented in this book by leading scholars provides valuable insights into the relational aspects of political trust and will certainly stimulate future research. This book features: a state-of-the-art European perspective on political trust; an analysis of the most recent trends with regard to the development of political trust; a comparison of traditional and emerging democracies in Europe; the consequences of political trust on political stability and the welfare state; a counterbalance to the gloomy American picture of declining political trust levels.

This book examines Portugal’s transition from dictatorship to democracy by focusing on Lourinhã’s urbanization and economic development since 1966. Since 1966, Lourinhã’s urban landscape has transformed as Portugal democratized. From a rural town with little infrastructure and few institutions in 1966, Lourinhã emerged by 2001 as a modern European town. This work highlights key areas of economic and urban development and argues that Lourinhã’s political culture became more institutional, creating a withering expectation of citizen participation in local development, as Portugal transitioned from dictatorship to democracy. Raphael Costa asks whether Portugal was on the path towards democracy before 1974, and if the rapid shift to democracy was the blessing it appeared to be by the 1990s. Did democratization ultimately disenfranchise the Portuguese in important ways? This work uses Lourinhã's development as an example of the Portuguese experience to argue that the Carnation Revolution, although a watershed in Portugal's politico-cultural evolution, should not be understood as the moment when democracy came to Portugal.

This book explores the argument that Portugal has been an exception to the trend of political upheaval and electoral instability across Southern Europe following the financial crisis and the bailout period. It does so by mapping and exploring in-depth three key dimensions: the governmental arena, the party system and citizens’ political attitudes. The five chapters in this edited volume show that a number of factors combine to make Portugal not only a very stimulating case study, but also an exception within the South European panorama: the stability of its party system, and that of the mainstream parties’ electoral support in particular; the quick recovery of political attitudes after the end of the bailout period (2011-2014); the absence of competitive populist challengers until 2019, despite high levels of populist attitudes amongst the citizenry; the successful and stable union between anti-austerity parties supporting the socialist government (dubbed the ‘Contraption’) and its adoption of an ‘austerity by stealth’ model. This book shows that it is possible to combine critical junctures and political stability, responsiveness and responsibility, through the study of one of the most intriguing cases in Southern Europe in the last decades. The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal will be of interest to students, researchers and scholars of Political Science and European Studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, South European Society and Politics.

A distinguished group of scholars examine recent transitions to democracy and the prospects for democratic stability in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay. They also assess the role of elites in the longer-established democratic regimes in Columbia, Costa Rica, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela. The authors conclude that in independent states with long records of political instability and authoritarian rule, democratic consolidation requires the achievement of elite 'consensual unity' - that is, agreement among all politically important elites on the worth of existing democratic institutions and respect for democratic rules-of-the-game, coupled with increased 'structural integration' among those elites. Two processes by which consensual unity can be established are explored - elite settlement, the negotiating of compromises on basic disagreements, and elite convergence, a more subtle series of tactical decisions by rival elites which have cumulative effect, over perhaps a generation.