The political parties in nineteenth century Portugal (historiographic discourses and contemporary opinions)

Abstract

The object of this text is to analyse the Portuguese political party reality in the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the Regenerator period after 1851, more from the discursive than the empirical point of view. The article studies the words which were used, both in the past and the present, to speak of the things, in this case of the parties and the party system. It then identifies the possible implications, both in terms of the concrete differentiation of the various types of party in the second half of the 19th century and the establishment of chronological landmarks, for the different phases of their evolution. By way of an introduction the first part of the article lists the defining characteristics of the so-called «parties of the notables» of the 19th century, as opposed to the «parties of the masses» typical of the democratic systems of the 20th century. It also looks at the philosophical and socio-political prejudices with which the liberal culture of the time regarded them, and which were largely responsible for the pejorative association of the «party» reality with the «faction» reality. This is followed by a review of the albeit little that was written about the political party reality in 19th century Portugal and, in particular, of the myth that the period between 1851-1890 can be treated as a uniform whole dominated, as far as the political parties are concerned, by the English model of two-party alternation. The second part of the article proceeds from the presupposition that the opinions, feelings and expectations of the historical agents of the past have the same value as facts for the historian of today. It gathers together the most prominent evaluations that the Portuguese intelligentsia produced on the party phenomenon during the years of the constitutional monarchy. The study of the political and cultural discourse of the period provides us with the reasons for the forming of the pattern of thought that persisted throughout the whole 19^th century constitutionalist period: that the division between the parties was more of an evil - inevitable to some, corrigible to others - than a blessing. Referring back to «vintismo» (pro-revolutionary movement of the 1820 revolution), the anti-party line of Portuguese liberalism showed itself to be structural, although varying in intensity: the abundant criticism that was directed at the parties was sometimes mixed with praise and reformist utopia that they themselves produced. This shows that the correct comprehension of how contemporaries saw the problem is an invaluable starting point for putting the party reality in the nineteenth century in perspective, avoiding taking for reality what was projected and for a default to be lamented what was possibly a feature to be contextualized.