Party government parties in a young democracy: Portugal 1976-1995

Abstract

This article analyses the influence of political parties on the working of government between 1976 and 1995. The first part discusses the gradual preponderance of parties in Portuguese politics. We then focus on the parties' control of government appointments and their role in the formulation of policies in the governments they support. An analysis of appointments shows that the parties gradually excluded the military from the government and resisted the attempts to presidentialise governments in the seventies. Where government policies are concerned, the data confirm the marginality of the parties as organisations, in the conception and formulation of legislative proposals, both in more prominent and in more routine policies.