Paulo Portas and the discursive legitimation of austerity policies in Portugal

Abstract

The article discusses the discursive strategies employed between 2012 and 2014 by Paulo Portas in order to legitimize austerity policies in Portugal. Drawing from Fonseca and Ferreira’s (2015) work, the article argues, based on critical discourse analysis, that the legitimization discursive strategies, namely the invocation of a “state of exception”, blaming, efficiency, no alternatives, and appeal to emotions, are associated with a complex articulation between the concepts of “output legitimacy” and “input legitimacy” (Scharpf, 1999), as well as to an empirical model of political decision-making in a context of crisis (Jones, 2009).