Patterns of political culture in Portugal: attitudes towards democracy

Abstract

The attitudes towards democracy as one of the organising axes of the patterns of political culture in Portugal are analysed. A bidimensional structure of the thought on the democratic regime has been identified: on the one hand, a support anchored on the refusal of communism, on the other hand, a support to democracy funded on the refusal of fascism. The former is related to more heterogeneous structures of political thought, the latter presents some relatively consistent correlations with both political democratic values and the processes and institutions which materialize them. At last, the relation between these attitudes, the class structure and the social identities is presented.