Clientelism, the «participation crisis» and delegitimization of the First Portuguese Republic

Abstract

The difficulty of access to political institutions is a subject chosen by several authors, who have written about the problems of political development. For example, the interest shown by Gabriel Almond and his followers in the «participation crisis» and the case of Seymour Lipset's analysis of the «crisis of change» in democracies. This article deals with the difficulty of access in the First Republic and shows its decisive importance in the processes of delegitimization and destabilization of the regime. However, he only deals with some of the aspects of one of the channels of participation-elections. These aspects are manipulation and injustice with regard to the right to vote, electoral circles, vote-counting and the census.