After opening its doors to the public (last Tuesday), the Quartel do Carmo in Lisbon is organizing this Thursday the conference “Five Decades of Democracy” organized by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. And both the date – practically a week away from April 25 – and the theme and place are symbolic, as Largo do Carmo was one of the most important phases of the revolution (it was there that Marcelo Caetano surrendered to the army of the Movimento das Forças Armed).
In a statement, the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation emphasizes the role played by the Carnation Revolution, partially justifying the holding of this session. In fact, it was April 25 that, as the organization says, “started a process of democratic transition that caught the attention of the international community”. Despite the influence and impact the regime change has had internationally, the Foundation says, “national policies continue to have specific features that are important to know and useful for thinking about the threats that loom” over the vast majority of today’s “liberal democracies”.
For this reason, the organization explains, one of the points of the conference is precisely the presentation of the translated version of the Oxford Handbook of Portuguese Politics, published internationally last October. Now the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, in collaboration with Tinta da China, is editing the translated version, entitled O Essencial da Política Portuguesa. When the original version was released, Pedro Magalhães and Jorge Fernandes explained to DN that “the book series is a political science classic and during this time there have been others that have focused on topics, mostly electoral systems”. When we got to the present day, the researchers (together with António Costa Pinto, the third organizer) managed to bring together people who have “quite multiple perspectives” on Portuguese reality, then noted and concluded that this diversity of approaches made it possible to “put together a puzzle that conveys different ideas”, for example, the book deals with the historical context of the Portuguese political system and ends, for example, with the party system. There is “a contextualization of the rules of the game and of what is special in the Portuguese case on the one hand, but also comparable to other contexts,” said Pedro Magalhães.
After the presentation of the book – led by Pedro Magalhães – there will be a debate with Daniel Ziblatt, from Harvard University, and Sheri Berman, from Columbia University (both in the United States). According to the organization, academics will try to answer questions about the past, present and future of democracies: “Why are democracies inherently better than dictatorships? Are democracies as we know them at risk of disappearing? Is it that they have been weakened by anti-democratic forces and their own loopholes? And how can we prevent the destruction of democracy in the age of populism?” Moderation will be led by Ayesha Hazarika, Scottish political commentator. The event – which is already sold out – starts at 5 p.m.
Source: DN
