In this article, democracy is conceived as the source of legitimacy of political representation. Thus, in order to debate representation, one must previously clarify and uphold a specific model of democracy. Democracy here is understood as the procedural ideal of political equality (isocracy). Arguments contrary to procedural concepts of democracy are analyzed and rejected, and the weaknesses of rival substanti...
The language of power spoken by the inhabitants of the Mueda plateau in the course of the neoliberal transformation of Mozambican political and economic life is substantially different to the language spoken by democratic reformers, despite the commonalities and internal variations in both languages. In the rift between the languages, the Muedans adopt a critical stance towards the current process of democratiz...
Political philosophy as philosophy of politics is related to the political conditions of its own activity. The political defense of philosophy, which is a fundamental element of political philosophy, is the unavoidable result of the confrontation between several forms of existence that are available to human beings. However, the political regime and its historical vitality interfere with the way the philosopher...
For a variety of reasons, including changes in the character of democracy as well as changes at the level of the parties themselves as well as at the level of the wider society, contemporary parties find themselves less and less able to function as representative agencies. The age of the mass party has passed, and, at least in any foreseeable future, it is unlikely to be recoverable. At the same time, however, ...
A qualidade da democracia é, mais do que nunca, um tema que está na ordem do dia. Considerando o contexto atual marcado por uma diversidade de desafios colocados à democracia nos campos social, económico, cultural e de política interna e externa, o livro Democracia em Portugal 2022 pretende promover o debate público sobre a democracia em Portugal e noutros países, a partir das mais recentes abordagens desenvolv...
Moral psychology has devalued the role of reasoning in moral life. Nevertheless, the Argumentative Theory of Reasoning (ATR) is a proposal of evolutionary psychology that vindicates the effectiveness of reasoning in communicative processes. This theory even defends its convergence with deliberative democracy. And yet, we hold that the ATR is unsuccessful when supplying a psychological basis for deliberative dem...
As presentes linhas pretendem trazer à luz algumas reflexões sobre a evolução da democracia e a importância do sistema educativo na afirmação de uma cidadania plena. Uma cidadania moderna que traga consigo um novo olhar sobre a forma como lidamos com os direitos, os deveres, a liberdade e a responsabilidade. Até pelo que abaixo se escreve, vimos então afirmar a nossa liberdade em escrever e expor as presentes c...
Neste artigo sustenta-se que a democraticidade é o fundamento da legitimidade da representação. Assim, debater normativamente o problema da representação passa pela elucidação e defesa prévias de um modelo de democracia. Defende-se a democracia como o ideal (processual) da igualdade política (isocracia). Analisam-se e rejeitam-se as objecções às concepções processuais de democracia e expõem-se as debilidades da...
The attitudes towards democracy as one of the organising axes of the patterns of political culture in Portugal are analysed. A bidimensional structure of the thought on the democratic regime has been identified: on the one hand, a support anchored on the refusal of communism, on the other hand, a support to democracy funded on the refusal of fascism. The former is related to more heterogeneous structures of pol...
This paper is about populism as a phenomenon and it highlights the legitimacy crisis that characterizes liberal democracy in contemporary societies. However, according to the hypothesis presented here, the concept of populism lacks a normative approach capable of detecting and emphasizing the risks involved in this type of representation, in which the bond between rulers and ruled is exposed to a lower degree o...