Contribution to a systematization of an apparent political caos: the case of the First Portuguese Republic

Abstract

The best known explanations postulate a picture of political instability for the interpretation of the fall of the First Portuguese Republic. For the author, the political instability indeed plays an essential role in the analysis of the overthrowing of it,but not as a part of the question. That is to say, Kathleen Schwartzman's suggestion is to pick up the traditional question - why did the Republic fall? - and the traditional answer - it fell because of a high rate of political instability - and to reformulate them. And the reformulated question is then: why was the First Republic so affected and destroyed by personal rivalry, by conflicts between parties, by political instability? To answer the question the author makes an analysis of the governments of the First Republic (types, causes of resignation, intersection of the precedent variables, duration of the governments according to their types), endring with the presentation of some new research hints resulting from the important empirical indicia disclosed by the reformulation of the issue.
The work by K. Schwartzman is followed by a comment by Luís Salgado de Matos, which, on its turn, motivated an answer by the author, included in this some number of Análise Social too.