Miguel Fernandes

Sebast ião Barata

DEMOCRAC

Y 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 5th 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 Republic

Fig. 1 - Assassination of D. CarlosFig. 3 – appealing poster to the vote

On April 25 th 1974, a revolution took part. The PortugueseMilitary Forces invaded Lisbon and demanded the resignationof President Américo Tomás.

Without any military support, the Government had no chanceto resist and on the following days, Democracy was officially

proclaimed .

This revolution was namedRevolução dos Cravos (TheCarnation Revolution)because the military neverused any kind of violenceto fight for theirprincipals. It’s also namedlike this because all thesolders’s weapons werefilled with carnations

DEMOCRACY

Fig. 4 – Soldiers during the Revolution

In 1975, and for the first 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 first 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 first

European countries being ruled

by a Democracy.

DEMOCRACY

Fig. 5 – Ramalho Eanes swearing

The first 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 first 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-democracia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf_hNPcwqzs

http://www.portugal.gov.pt/pt.aspx

https://www.google.pt/imghp?hl=pt -

PT&tab=wi&ei=jTRcUobaKIXlsgbQzoGIAQ&ved=0CAQQqi4oAg

http://www.rtp.pt/programa/tv/p29467

WEBGRAPHY

Students: Sebastião Barata and Miguel Fernandes