It is rare for a regime to be overthrown by external forces without first having internally degraded to the point of being unable to resist threats. Whether because its defenses in relation to the outside were neglected, or because internally discredit undermined its ability to mobilize resistance, for the last 150 years, from the Monarchy to the Estado Novo, not forgetting the fleeting First Republic, the regimes fell when they were unable to regenerate their qualities and accommodated themselves to their vices.
Other examples can be found in History, not just in Portugal, from Ancient Egypt to the USSR, passing through the Roman Empire, which demonstrate that it is from the gradual “dysfunction” of their institutions that regimes collapse. The most powerful empires fell when there were no longer many who were willing to sacrifice themselves in defense of an entity that had become abstract and no longer satisfied its concrete needs.
On the other hand, it is not always comfortable to admit that dictatorships, even those characterized by reasonable violence against their opponents, can continue over time as long as they keep the majority of the population in a state of relative apathy when satisfying their most basic needs, taking into account their historical context.
When we talk about the crisis of Democracy or political regimes with a liberal matrix and their difficulties in the face of attacks by critics who want to replace them with something different, even when they do not explain this clearly, using metaphors such as “regeneration” or “refoundation”, it is not always admitted that threats are only fearful in proportion to the weakness of the response capacity. Democracy, more or less liberal, will only truly give way when citizens consider it not worth defending and, for better or for worse, consider that the alternatives – be it the so-called “illiberal democracy” or another “new republic” type regime – present themselves as more capable of solving the problems that are most relevant to the majority of the population.
This is to say that, in the Portuguese case, which until half a dozen years ago was distinguished by the absence of extreme right-wing radical movements with relevant electoral weight and by the normalization, through entry, even if indirect, into the “arch of governance” of the extreme left, an undeniable political crisis set in when the (democratic) regime seemed more concerned with submission to external directives than with ensuring the regular functioning of public institutions that were supposed to serve citizens, from Health to Justice, including Education.
Democracy will only be in crisis if its ruling elite does not realize that, more than responding to provocations, it must govern so that citizens feel confidence in those who govern them and, therefore, a desire to defend the regime.
Basic Education Teacher.
Write without applying the new Spelling Agreement