2. 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
3. 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
4. On April 25th 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 officially
proclaimed.
This revolution was named
Revolução dos Cravos (The
Carnation Revolution)
because the military never
used any kind of violence
to fight for their
principals. It’s also named
like this because all the
solders’s weapons were
filled with carnations
DEMOCRACY
Fig. 4 – Soldiers during the Revolution
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. 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
9. As said before, our political system is formed by four organs
of sovereignty. They are:
POLITICAL SYSTEM
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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
13. 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
14. 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
15. 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
