Portugal Democratic Government

Democratic government in Portugal started with the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Prior to that Portugal had a history of very authoritarian and repressive rule. So a very young democracy (only 45 years old) and still dysfunctional in many ways.

For a small country of just 10 million people, Portugal has lots of political groupings: socialists, social democrats, communists, liberals, conservatives, greens, christian democrats, workers party etc. Everyone votes for their share of the national cake, not for things that make the cake bigger for everyone. Portuguese government is characterised by messy broadly left-wing or broadly right-wing fragile coalitions that can not make deep long-term reforms.

The general election in October 2019 - on a poor voter turnout of only 55% - gave the following percentages of votes cast:

37% PS. Socialists (Centre-Left)
28% PSD. Social Democrats (Centre-Right)
9% BE. Left Bloc (Left)
6% CDU. Unitary Democratic Coalition (Alliance of Communist and Green parties)
4% CDS. Christian Democrats (Conservative)
3% PAN. People-Animals-Nature. (Green, Animal Rights)
1% CHEGA. Right-wing populist
1% IL. Liberal
1% LIVRE. Eco-socialist

The 3 left-wing parties highlighted in bold have formed a coalition to govern. A large centre-left party relies on far-left parties to govern, so those minority fringe parties get ministerial positions in a bloated cabinet. A coalition based on centre-right core would currently get at best 40% of the seats in parliament - well short of a governing majority. It was that right-wing political group that caused the economic damage to the country in the years 2000-2014. So they have to come back a long way for voter credibility.

Mainland Portugal currently has 18 political districts and there are two separate autonomous regions for the Azores and Madeira islands. Effectively three levels of government (national, regional, local i.e. municipal/council) unlike larger European countries which have four levels of government (national, autonomous regional, provincial and local). This is a good thing. But Portugal still struggles with the distribution of powers between levels of government and ends up with too many state employees at all levels of government. One of many factors that contribute to a very bureaucratic state sector.

Historically Portugal has only ever changed radically at times of national crisis. As an EU member state, the country thinks it is protected from making deep reforms for the next 20+ years. The Portuguese people have that flat wrong. Portugal is too small to be important and should rely on itself not other fickle European countries and an EU supra-national government that is heavily centralised and ultimately only cares for itself. The country absolutely needs to reposition itself for the remainder of this century. Long-term reform in Portugal must start with reform of government - basically shrink and streamline the role of the state in Portuguese life. This is not a one-time revolution. It is an ongoing process that the Portuguese people have to believe in and vote for. Will they ? Unlikely. Portugal faces a dim future because the people of this country will not invest now for future generations.