Tiago Fernandes e Rui Banco

tiago.fernandes@eui.eu   rui.branco@fcsh.unl.pt

Departamento de Estudos Políticos, FCSH-UNL

This paper studies the relationship between civil society and the quality of democracy by looking at the patterns of development of the Portuguese civic landscape during the democratic period (1974-2010). It is set in the comparative framework of third wave new democracies. We argue that the crucial connection between civil society and the quality of democracy is the extent to which voluntary associations give voice and empower popular and middle sectors. We look at the universe of voluntary associations created in Portugal between 1974 and 2010 (around 61.000), from the National Register of Associations (Ministry of the Interior). Employing a typology of associations, we study the general pattern of development of associations representing popular and middle class constituencies. While finding that democracy was very favorable to the whole of civil society, we also found that, from the perspective of the quality of democracy, the emerging picture is more nuanced. Unions and cooperatives declined over the democratic period; neighborhood associations saw a stable pattern of growth and consolidation; and parents, student's and women's associations grew and expanded.

We argue that these variations are explained by different pattern of state-society relations. Specifically, we argue that institutions/policies which were established in the 1930s, in the founding years of dictatorship, were designed to repress and exclude popular sectors. This affected the workers and cooperative movement producing during the transition a highly antagonistic pattern of civil society-state relationships and radicalized conflicts between the center and the left. This had the consequence of making social policies regarding labor (salaries, skill training, corporatist consultation etc) highly divisive, thus reinforcing the closing of state institutions towards these social groups.

Inversely, in the patterns of civil society stabilization and growth, the enactment of social policies and the creation of regulatory and political institutions affecting each sub-sector were friendlier towards civil society organizations. This happened with institutions and policies designed during the transition and the immediate post-transition phases (regarding education and gender issues), which were created to include societal pressures from below and were the result of a more consensual relationship between political forces of the center and the left. In the long run this had the effect of empowering civil society organizations.