XV LUSOPHONE WEEK OF
SOCIAL STUDIES
Lusophone University of Oporto - June 2-4, 2009
In need of
a “Critique of Electoral-Democratic Reason”
An economic crisis is posing grave limitations to the political
intervention of the modern States and calls for a debate about the will of the
peoples in shaping the «public decision».
The situation is so grave that it imperils the very survival of the
Political Regime, and it questions equally the credibility of the Electoral
Systems.
In this context, a debate about the forms of representation and
Electoral System needs to be high on the agenda of the democratic States guided
by the rule of law. The social scientists of the Lusophone
States cannot ignore the issue.
Portugal will soon face three electoral events, namely the EU elections,
national parliamentary elections and municipal elections.
The electorate of EU will choose its delegates in a Europe that failed
to approve the Treaty of Lisbon, and is presently confronted by problems of economic and
monetary cohesion.
Portugal will choose its deputies in the context of “Global Crisis” and
a crisis of the legitimacy of institutions and marked by serious doubts about a
functioning judiciary, the balance of powers and the transparency of Public
Administration.
Lastly, at the municipal level, an increase of shifting of
responsibilities and of public funds endangers the proper functioning of a
Social State. This raises the spectre of
“euro-regions” (such is the case that affects Portugal closely, that of
Euro-region of the NW Iberian Peninsula: North of Portugal and Galicia”) and
the need of re-assessing the “vexata questio” of Regionalization in Portugal.
The crises of European institutions, in the Social State and the global
economic crisis are by themselves sufficient to demoralize the citizens and
turn them away from “public decisions” at a time when greater mobilization of
the citizens would be the only way to respond effectively to the discredited
Political System.
The “Electoral System” needs a thorough re-assessment if it merits to be
seen as a base of the Republican and Democratic Rule. This will be the central
theme of the debate during the XV Lusophone Week of
Social Studies. Despite all the problems, the modern political science
continues to believe that “democracy is the worst form of Government except all
those other forms that have been tried from time to time” (W. Churchill), and
in a democratic rule, the democratic elections” are the “worst solution, but
after testing all the others”. But they need to be constantly re-assessed and
perfected through an ongoing critique of the Democratic-Electoral Reason”, in
Portugal and in all Lusophone States.
Professor Fernando Santos Neves,
President, ACSEL (e-mail: reitoria@ulp.pt)
Secretariate of ACSEL's Executive Board