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Portugal Constitutional Development
Portugal is governed under the constitution of 1976
whose
preliminary drafting was largely completed in 1975, then
finished
and officially promulgated in early 1976. At the time the
constitution was being drafted, a democratic outcome was
still
uncertain in the midst of the revolution. Even after a
leftist
coup had been put down in November 1975, it was not known
if the
armed forces would respect the assembly and allow work on
the
constitution to go forward. The MFA and leftist groups
pressured
and cajoled the assembly, and there was much discussion of
establishing a revolutionary and socialist system of
government.
Moreover, not all of the assembly's members were committed
to
parliamentary democracy. The membership was intensely
partisan,
with some 60 percent of the seats occupied by the left.
After great struggle, the Constituent Assembly
eventually
adopted a constitution that provided for a democratic,
parliamentary system with political parties, elections, a
parliament, and a prime minister. The document also
established
an independent judiciary and listed a number of human
rights.
Although relatively few of these provisions are
exceptional, some
of the constitution's features are noteworthy; including
its
ideological content, its provision for the role of the
military,
and its dual presidential-parliamentary system.
Until the constitutional revisions of 1982 and 1989,
the
constitution was a highly charged ideological document
with
numerous references to socialism, the rights of workers,
and the
desirability of a socialist economy. It severely
restricted
private investment and business activity. Many of these
articles
were advanced by PCP representatives in the Constituent
Assembly,
but they were also advocated by members of the PS, who at
that
time, for electoral reasons, were seeking to be as
revolutionary
as the far left. The resulting document proclaimed that
the
object of the republic was "to ensure the transition to
socialism." The constitution also urged the state to
"socialize
the means of production and abolish the exploitation of
man by
man," phrases that echoed Marx's Communist
Manifesto.
Workers' Committees were given the right to supervise the
management of enterprises and to have their
representatives
elected to the boards of state-owned firms. The
government, among
many admonitions along the same vein, was to "direct its
work
toward the socialization of medicine and the medicopharmaceutical sectors."
Next, the military was given great political power
through
the role given by the constitution to the MFA-controlled
Council
of the Revolution that, in effect, made the MFA a separate
and
almost co-equal branch of government. The council was to
be an
advisory body to the president (who was at first likely to
come
from the military itself), and would function as a sort of
constitutional court to ensure that the laws passed by
parliament
were in accord with the MFA's desires and did not
undermine the
achievements of the revolution. The council was also to
serve as
a high-level decision-making body for the armed forces
themselves. The council was a concession to the MFA for
allowing
the Constituent Assembly to sit and promulgate a new
"basic law."
Some of the Portuguese left, especially the PCP, supported
the
idea in the hope that it would continue to enjoy MFA
support even
if it lost ground with the electorate.
The final innovative feature of the constitution was
that it
provided for a system of government that was both
presidential
and parliamentarian. The Constituent Assembly favored two
centers
of power in order to avoid both the dangers of an
excessively
strong executive, as was the case during the Salazar
period, and
the weaknesses of parliamentary instability, as was the
case in
the First Republic.
The constitution was controversial from the start. It
was
widely seen in political circles as a compromise document
in that
all participants in its drafting had been able to
incorporate in
it provisions they found vital. The constitution's
parliamentary
sections had the support of the PS, the PSD, and the CDS;
its
socialistic content had the support of the PCP and its
allies and
the PS.
Even before the constitution became law, politicians
had
agreed to change some provisions after the five-year
period in
which changes were prohibited. Objections to the document
centered on its ideological content, its economic
restrictions,
and its recognition of a military role in the governance
of the
country. The CDS, the party furthest to the right among
those
which had participated in the document's drafting, refused
to
ratify it. However, the party agreed to abide by it in the
interim.
By the early 1980s, the political climate was ripe for
constitutional reform. The center-right coalition AD,
formed by
the PSD, the CDS, and the monarchist party, the PPM, was
in
power; the PS had been voted out of office, and the PCP
was
politically isolated. The first amendments, enacted in
1982,
dealt with the constitution's political arrangements.
Although
many of the economic provisions of the constitution had
been not
been implemented and were, in effect, ignored, there were
not yet
enough votes to reach the required two-thirds majority
needed for
their amendment.
The 1982 amendments were enacted through the combined
votes
of the AD and the PS. This combination of center-right and
center-left political forces managed to end the military's
control of Portuguese politics
(see
The Armed Forces in Political Life after 1975
, ch. 5). It abolished the Council of the
Revolution, controlled by the military, and replaced it
with two
consultative bodies. One of these, the Higher Council of
National
Defense, was limited to commenting on military matters.
The
other, the Council of State, was broadly representative of
the
entire country and did not have the power to prevent
government
and parliamentary actions by declaring them
unconstitutional.
Another amendment created a Constitutional Court to review
the
constitutionality of legislation. Because ten of its
thirteen
judges were chosen by the Assembly of the Republic, it was
under
parliamentary control. Another important change reduced
the
president's power by restricting presidential ability to
dismiss
the government, dissolve parliament, or veto legislation.
Despite these amendments, centrists and conservatives
continued to criticize the constitution as too ideological
and
economically restrictive. Hence, the constitution was
amended
again in 1989. Many economic restrictions were removed and
much
ideological language eliminated, while governmental
structures
remained unchanged. The most important change enabled the
state
to privatize much of the property and many of the
enterprises
nationalized during the mid-1970s.
Further amendments were to become possible in 1994.
Political
scientists speculated that the electoral system might be
amended
so that Portuguese living abroad could vote in
presidential
elections, a change that had long been sought. Another
change
could be the introduction of the concept of the
"constructive
vote of no confidence" used in Germany to help shore up
minority
governments. This parliamentary provision would permit a
government to remain in place despite a vote of no
confidence if
the parliament could not form an alternative government
and would
prevent purely negative majorities from destroying a
government.
As of the early 1990s, a Portuguese government that
received a
vote of no confidence had to resign.
Data as of January 1993
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