Social classes, votes and power: a peasant space

Abstract

While denoting the existence of protagonists and figurants on social processes, the brief discussion of some classical concepts of political sociology, such as Power and State, together with that of Class, acts as an introduction and a reference to the analysis of the post 25th April politicai behaviour carried out in a region of Minho. The characteristic living conditions of peasant fractions are the basis of systems of specific dispositions and practices which are politically expressed, too. Nevertheless, some kind of incapacity to handle with the national problems of «high policy» is being suppressed by both the wide range of transformations occured in the Portuguese society and the accelerated and significant recomposition of the local classist structure. When one studies the evolution of the electoral results, observes the emergence of new mediators and «notables», follows the struggle for power inside the institutions, the reference to the different class fractions and their trajectory, connected with the changes occured within the rural space, always appears fruitful to explain the processes under analysis.