Defective democracy

It’s an exercise that will take place every two years, and the conclusions this time have been based on answers from 1207 adults, taken during July last year.

The first big surprise is that only 56% of those questioned preferred democracy over any other form of government – and 15% considered that in some circumstances even an authoritative government is preferable to democracy!

According to those questioned, Portuguese democracy as it stands today has various defects: lack of trust in politicians/ the government came top of the list (19%), followed by ineffective leaders (11%), social inequalities (10%), corruption (10%), the crisis (5%), everyone for him-/ herself/ no respect for others (5%) and lack of real democracy/ democracy that simply doesn’t work (5%).

For 37%, unemployment is one of Portuguese society’s greatest problems today, followed by poverty and social exclusion (16%), State debt (3%), economic growth (11%), crime (8%), taxes (6%), the future of the national health system (4%) and the permanence of Portugal within the Euro (2%).

More than 75% of those questioned agreed with the statements: “politicians only worry about their own interests”, “political decisions in our country favour large economical interests over anything else” and “politicians aren’t interested in what people think”.

After politcal leaders, democracy is seen as defective due to the Justice system: 59% of those questioned did not consider that all citizens, irrespective of their economic, social or political standing, were treated equally – and the majority (54%) said that legal decisions came so slowly that it wasn’t worth the trouble of taking anything to court.

Up to the date of the study, the President Cavaco Silva was the public figure most felt by citizens to be in tune with concerns of the Portuguese people (22%).

It’s unlikely, after this week’s gaffe, that he’ll get that kind of support again…

But is there any hope? Well, there’s a shred of it. People questioned felt most represented by the social protest movements (11.9%), above political parties (10.3%), trades unions (9.5%), the Church (7.3%) and borough councillors (2.7%).

António Costa Pinto, the coordinator of the study, highlighted one conclusion: “strong anti-party political feeling is a benchmark that has begun to bring Portuguese society together”.

The study was undertaken with the support of the Luso-American Foundation for Development, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It has its own website on http://www.bqd.ics.ul.pt/