Socio-historical Foundations of Citizenship Practice: After the Revolution in Portugal

• In Event: 293 - Regular Session. Perspectives on Citizenship

Abstract

This paper shows how macro-historical processes of change can activate robust and enduring forms of citizenship practice, providing both survey-based evidence for this claim and a theorization of the causal mechanisms involved. Focusing on the case of Portugal, where democratization followed the historically unusual path of social revolution, we examine survey data on civic practice covering twenty countries and find Portugal to be a world leader in public participation in the electronic public sphere. When we examine the subsection of the population socialized politically in the country’s post-revolutionary democracy, we find other indicators of lively citizenship practice. The paper takes the examination of this specific national case as the basis for developing an argument of broad theoretical relevance on the social underpinnings of lively and participatory citizenship practice. With an empirical foundation for our claims in survey data and other sources, our analysis of Portugal offers an interpretation of that case that substantially revises existing assumptions in the literature. More importantly, through our examination of this case, we show how large-scale macro-historical processes of change can encourage lively civic practice manifested at the individual level. Our argument highlights the importance of hierarchy-challenging collective experiences that reorient the character of institutional practice.

Authors

• Robert M. Fishman, University of Notre Dame

• Manuel Villaverde Cabral, University of Lisboa