Portuguese Journal of Social Science - Volume 11, Issue 2, 2012

Most of the empirical research on political representation has either focused on the analysis of descriptive representation, or on policy or ideological correspondence between voters and MPs. Only occasionally research has paid attention to what are the representatives' attitudes towards political representation, or to the type of relationship they establish with their voters and parties in this regard. By exploring the attitudes and behaviour of Portuguese deputies towards their role as representatives, using data from 2008, this article intends to contribute to filling that gap in the literature. Although mainly descriptive, the article also intends to unravel the individual determinants for the focus and style of representation. The findings suggest that the party is the main reference in representational relationships in Portugal, and that the factors that best explain the focus and style of representation are the deputies' immediate political goals.

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the relationship between trade unions and political parties. Based upon the concept of political field proposed by Pierre Bourdieu, this study centres on the evolution of parliamentary recruitment among trade union leaders. It is a study that, being based upon the historical relation between these two social and political actors, aims to reflect upon the ideas of politics and representation.

In this article, we study how Portuguese citizens see and assess the democratic regime in a longitudinal and comparative perspective. This individual-level study is based on the assumption that mass attitudes have a clear and direct impact on politics, especially on democratic polities. Inspired by the original theoretical and conceptual Easton's framework, developed and reformulated later by other authors (Norris, Kinglemann and Dalton), we explore the multidimensional perspective of the concept of political support, its levels and components. Building on a wide range of national and cross-national survey indicators for evidence, concerning both the Portuguese case and some European countries included in the fifth wave of the World Values Survey, we analyse and try understanding the longitudinal trends concerning each political system's dimensions or components. The main objective of this article is to find out to what extent it is possible to speak of an erosion of Portuguese citizens' support for the political system during the last decade, and if there has been to discern its nature, cumulative effects and magnitude. The time series analysis allowed us to conclude that the hypothesis of a crisis of legitimacy in Portugal during this period must be rejected. Thus, what seems to be contested in Portugal, as in other European democracies, are the political objects that comprise a more specific level of support, including regime performance, regime institutions and political actors, due to an increasing level of frustration of accumulated unfulfilled expectations of democracy processes.

The economic and social crises the Western democracies are currently experiencing have aggravated ideological polarisation and increased citizens' distrust of both politicians and political institutions. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain consensus just at the moment when it is most needed in order to put into effect those reforms the situation demands. It is in this context that studies of democratic deliberation gain new relevance and significance, particularly within parliaments, which are the places, par excellence, for political debate and consensus building. However, democratic deliberation requires more than just institutions, rules and regulations: it requires a political culture that is imbued with these principles and values, that is to say, it need citizens and political actors with positive attitudes towards the various dimensions of democratic deliberation. The results obtained here point in the general direction of support for the different aspects of deliberation, both in the attitudes of the citizens' and the deputies, indicating some very specific differences between each of them.

The present article analyses the 5 June 2011, parliamentary elections in Portugal, and begins by introducing the reader to the background of the elections: the exercise of power in the 11th legislature, the economic crisis, the Bailout Agreement for Portugal, and the electoral campaign. Then the 2011 electoral results are described and compared with previous national elections. Overall, the picture displays a strong defeat of the left that paved the way for the most neoliberal government in Portuguese history. Voters also voted for stability: the right-wing parties declared they were willing to co-operate (and in fact they formed a coalition government very quickly), whereas the left-wing parties have shown on several occasions that they are unable and unwilling to co-operate.

The main purpose of the present article is to describe and explain the influence of the electoral rules, the type of elections and the patterns of political competition upon citizens' participation and voting choice in the Portuguese local elections between 1979 and 2009. Using aggregate data with the county as our unit of analysis, we will test the impact of the electoral rules, bipartism (concentration of the vote and/or seats in the two major parties, although in the present article we use mainly concentration of the vote) and the pattern of political competition upon turnout. Additionally, we will also test the impact of the electoral rules, and the pattern of political competition upon the level of bipartism at the local level. Several other control variables are also considered. Using a similar model we will try also to explain the level of party competitiveness in each county. By and large, we show that local democracy, the level of party competitiveness and the presence of non-partisan lists boosts participation. However, district magnitude works contrary to our expectations: the smaller the district, the greater the participation. Thus, local democracy has more impact than electoral rules in this case. We also show that bipartism is positively associated with low levels of competitiveness, absence of non-partisan lists and absence of simultaneous government (i.e. of the same party in power at both local and national level). Competitiveness is boosted by the presence of simultaneous government. These findings are rather robust because they remain after controlling for several other variables.

This article assesses the Portuguese position in regard to the challenges of brain circulation, from the analysis of a few set of public measures that have been implemented in the recent past. The management of brain circulation undertaken over the last years, along with the management of scientific and technological production and dissemination, access to education and training resources, comprise a strategy that follows much of the international trends in regard to the states' empowerment through the reinforcement of scientific and technological knowledge. However, as the text tries to show, such strategy in the Portuguese case, is also profoundly shaped by the country's semi-peripheral position. The text tries to provide some evidence of the obstacles that may menace and jeopardise the eventual success of the country's efforts to overcome its semi-peripheral reality.

Finally, the text suggests we bring forward a new set of questions about the ethics underlying the assumption of certain forms of knowledge (in the case under scrutiny, scientific and technological knowledge) as superior to other forms.

The suggestion for this new set of questions follows the analysis present in the text of how an economically selective policy of immigration like exists in Portugal also shelters the present regime that facilitates the legal entrance and residence of highly-skilled immigrants (HSI).