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Portugal's first attempt at democracy
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Prior to the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, Portugal’s experience with democracy had not been particularly successful so it is fair to wonder. Its First Republic lasted from 1910 to 1926 before the May 1926 coup d’état occurred. The Ditadora Nacional followed soon after by the Estado Novo, which was greatly inspired by conservative and authoritarian ideologies, was developed by António de Oliveira Salazar, ruler of Portugal from 1932 to 1968.
The aim of this research paper is to examine why Portugal did not fall back into fascism or embrace Communism but rather, whole-heartedly adopted democracy.
The Portuguese revolution is regularly glossed over in historical accounts of democracy and regime change. Why would the transition to democracy in a European nation be rendered almost insignificant? Firstly, the Portuguese experience was qualitatively different from many other regime changes precisely because the transition in Portugal acquired many of the characteristics of a revolution. In some senses, what occurred after was not only a process of establishing democracy, but the process of producing a revolution that was tame. The Portuguese upheaval did not turn the world upside down or shake things up, though for several months in 1975 Portugal recaptured the euphoria that often comes with revolutions albeit with little bloodshed. It was precisely because of the relative absence of bloodletting that the Portuguese revolution has tended to be subject to relative amnesia in the history books.
As with any revolution, it is difficult to retrospectively recapture the brief interlude of euphoria experienced especially in that moment when anything and everything seemed possible.
There are certainly structural constraints in ...
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...nce, but in the negotiations conducted with George Kenna, chargé d’affaires in Lisbon, Salazar obtained a critical quid pro quo from Washington, which committed the United States to respect the territorial integrity of Portuguese colonies in return for access to the Azores facilities. This concession was the first significant breach in the US anticolonial position, which subsequently became the starting point for many of the problems that would limit US policy toward Portugal and Portuguese Africa thereafter. Salazar deeply distrusted the growing US role in international affairs and was intent on curbing it with regard to Portuguese interests.
The second period of the possibility of change occurred between 1958 and 1962.
The third window of opportunity occurred between 1968 and 1971 shortly after Salazar’s incapacitation and the installation of Marcello Caetano.
While the Brazilian Revolution emerged largely from the influence of the American Revolution, some variation remains between those two revolutions in exactly how those revolutions were executed and what the reasons for them were.
of 'rebellious' liberation's and shifting views, a change fundamental to the future. These years for
By the early 1960’s widespread concern for social and economic justice and increased levels of political participation had boosted the popularity of parties that advocated radical economic and social change. Thus, in 1964, Eduardo Frei, a Christian Democrat, won an overwhelming mandate to carry out a revolution in liberty. Six years later, in 1970, Salvador Allende, the leader of a coalition of Marxist and Social Democratic parties, was elected President on a platform that promised to bring about a peaceful transition to socialism. The Popular Unity program and the authors of its economic strategy “envisioned a carefully controlled revolution from above” (139), that radical social, political and economic change could be brought about within the framework of the constitution and the laws. According to Allende, “this required a carefully controlled and phased revolutionary process, which was also neces...
As one can imagine, the citizenry was not pleased with his actions. After Bautista came to power once more in 1952 many people in Cuba were disgusted by Bautista’s actions and preferred Cuba’s democracy, as flawed as it was. (Citation). Additionally, many citizens started to plan a way to get rid of Bautista and formed a revolution that would be capable of bring about a...
On August 29, Congress voted against a motion to stop Joao Goulart from becoming president. This motion was brought to Congress by the heads of the three branches of the milit...
Przeworski, A., 2004. Capitalism, Development and Democracy. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 24, No. 4 (96), Pp. 489-497
In making this argument this essay seeks to five things. Firstly, to define democracy within the contemporary context offering the key characteristics of a modern re...
Portugal’s political past has had a variety of types Government. They have ranged from monarchy and constitutional monarchy to republic and dictatorship. Democracy came in really late for Portugal. Today Portugal is a modern parliamentary democracy, which was adopted in 1976. It has a similar government like us with a president and 3 branches of government (legislative, judicial, and executive), however it has a prime minister that is head of the national government. The current president of Portugal is Anibal Cavaro Silva and is the head of State. In Portugal a president is elected by popular vote to a five year term and is legible for a second term.
A military dictatorship replaced the republican regime by pledging order and stability, which the republican regime was significantly lacking. António de Oliveira Salazar became the Prime Minister in 1932 and established an autocratic regime that essentially functioned by repressing and monitoring political opponents with a help of secret state policed called PIDE. Nevertheless, Salazar was a talented economist who managed to eliminate...
26th of July Movement. "Program Manifesto of the 26th of July Movement". in Cuba in Revolution. Ed. R. Bonachea and Nelson Valdés. Garden City, NJ: 1972.
Now days democracy has been establish in every Latin America country except Cuba, which is still a socialist state. It seemed that every other alternative form of government such as Marxism or Leninism has failed and been replaced by democracy. Furthermore it looks like people in Latin American really enjoy democracy and its’ benefits, as they also consider it to be the best form of government. After the failure of authoritarian leaders and the military intervene their lives, Latin American citizens wanted to change their system into a more fair and honest system, democracy. Democracy is usually defined as a system of honesty, equality, freedom of rights, though for Latin America countries it means gains, welfare and patronage. Latin American did not work the democratic system properly as it should be and different obstacles keep the system away from being consolidated. Democracy in Latin America still face serious problems in matters as grinding poverty, huge social gaps, corruption, drug dealing, inefficient governments and most importantly governments who promote and use military. The real question is why democracy actually failed even though democracy is what people want. Paraguay is a case of failure in transition democracy because of the corruption and other things that will be argued in this essay. Paraguay and Ecuador are considered to be the only countries that democratization did not achieve consolidation, in differ from Chilli and Central American.
In the final days of 1958, ragged rebels began the process of driving out forces loyal to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. By New Year’s Day, the nation was theirs, and Fidel Castro, Ché Guevara, Raúl Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos and their companions rode triumphantly into Havana and history. The revolution began long before, however, and the eventual rebel triumph was the result of many years of hardship, guerrilla warfare and propaganda battles.
This essay will critically discuss how democracy can become corrupt, within some governments and what causes it. By using historical and current evidence to point out why democracy becomes undesirable. Also pointing out classical characteristics of democracy, executive powers, leading to corruption in the early forms of government.
After the revolution actually happens there is a period called the honeymoon period where the fall of the old regime allows new things to happen. Before the revolution occurred, there were many instances where decolonization was apparent. In African territories, guerrillas movements were rising and that weakened the Portuguese empire. When the Carnation Revolution ended, the MFA created the National Salvation Junta whose prime purpose was to suppress wars and to help the colonies from withdrawing. After these occurrences, African territories such Angola and Mozambique experienced mass decolonization. The Portuguese colonies refugees were called retornados. India had also invaded Goa, which was one of Portugal's territories and that led to
Through his study, Lijphart arrives at a conclusion that a parliamentary, PR electoral system is the best form of government for ethnically diverse and economically underdeveloped countries, such as the countries in Latin America. His rationale for this argument is that parliamentary, PR systems allow for multiple parties to be involved in government, not just the majority. However, Karl contradicts Lijphart, arguing that it is not possible to create a procedure for implementing democracy in developing countries, because the type of democracy created is dependent upon structural and institutional constraints. The transition to democracy in Venezuela, the strongest democratic Latin American country, does well to convey this idea. The success of petroleum exchange causing the decline of landowning elites was a structural change, which allowed the country to create a democratic government without the opposition of the anti democratic elites. This “path dependent” approach is relatively contradictory to the argument of Lijphart, who suggests a direct implementation of a democratic government based on an existing electoral system. Lijphart’s argument neglects the contextual aspect of a developing country’s transition to a democratic government which Karl strongly supports, creating a disjunction between the two