Local élites and electoral competition in 1911

Abstract

The consecration of the new Republican regime issued from the Revolution of the 5^th October was the keynote of the national elections held on the 28^th May, 1911. The electorate was not going to the polls wherever no lists of the opposition existed. The PRP (Republican Party) and the provisional government prevailed over the whole electoral process. Nevertheless, almost 60% of the circles in the mainland and in the Islands have had full electoral processes. The author analyses one of such cases - the circle nº. 30 (comprising the municipia of Alcobaça, Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Pederneira, Peniche and Pombal, in the district of Leiria) where two opposed lists fought for a majority and obtained identical results. The situation under analysis shows the existing confrontal of factions in the PRP which has already been considered as a front-party. Furthermore, it proves the existence of apolitical market provided with financial resources and equipment able to create mobilizing alternatives for the electorate. So, the suffrage appears like an indicator of either old or new fractions and tensions among the local elites. It also becomes a privileged occasion for renegotiating the relationship between the center and the periphery of the political system, which had been convulsed by the Revolution and subsequent events. By searching out the local sources, some of them totally original, the author attempts to follow both the strategies of the different intervenors and their political trajectories, as well as the means of political action in competition.