Political Representation and Citizenship in Portugal: From Crisis to Renewal

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Representative democracies are facing huge challenges that stem from long trends of citizens dissatisfaction and weakening of political legitimacy, on the one hand, and the effects of global economic and financial crisis on electoral alignments and the patterns of government, on the other. This volume uses the Portuguese case as an important case study to examine the long-term debate on the crisis of representative democracies with the attempt to assess the impact of the Great Recession. In particular, this study examines two relevant dimensions, namely citizens participation and mobilization, as well as longitudinal evolution of the linkages between voters and MPs, highlighting both continuities and changes. Through a wide and rich data collection and the comparative perspective adopted, this study furthers our understanding of how Portuguese democracy has bounced back and has emerged as a peculiar case among European democracies, especially if we look at innovate democratic practices - at both citizens and elites level that have been adopted after the Great Recession.

Reviews

Why Portugal did constitute an exceptional case among bailout countries during the Great Recession This distinguished team of Portuguese political scientists provides several answers to this question, thoroughly analyzing how citizens and parliamentary representation interacted before and after the financial crisis. This book is an extraordinary example of how democracies overcome difficult crises and are able to display institutional stability, economic sustainability, and political success. -- Jos Ramn Montero, Universidad Autnoma de Madrid

Author Bio

Marco Lisi is assistant professor in the department of political studies at Nova University of Lisbon.



Andr Freire is professor of political science at the University Institute of Lisbon.



Emmanouil Tsatsanis is researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology at the University Institute of Lisbon.