Volume (17): Issue (3)

The main aim of this article is to describe the long and winding path that covers most of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries that led Portugal’s republican political leadership to create an army general staff. This path, which covers the period of the constitutional monarchy during the nineteenth century to the republican revolution of 1910, attempts to determine the reasons that led the leadership of the constitutional monarchy to create a different corps – the general staff – that shared only a part of the functions with the army general staff. To assess the reason for the delay in creating this corps, the political reasons given by the new republican leadership will be considered as the trigger determining the creation of a general staff that was consistent with that of other European powers, and of Germany in particular, and that could also respond to the peculiar military needs of the new Portuguese republic.

This article examines the poetic use of the revolution in four songs written and played by the Portuguese rapper Sam the Kid, the bands The Soaked Lamb, Os Quais, and The Loafing Heroes. Despite these songs showing aesthetic and formal differences, the revolution is a common trope to discuss the post-revolutionary nation. The Portuguese singers did not experience the revolution because they were born in the 1970s. A close analysis of these compositions suggests that the revolution is part of the collective imaginary and stands as the moment utopia could have been made real in Portugal. In times of crisis, the revolution emerges as the impetus to change and 1974 becomes the Portuguese appropriation of utopia in the twenty-first century. Rap, bossa nova, indie and roots emerge as legitimate musical genres to discuss postmodern times and the post-revolutionary nation. In ‘Abstenção’ (‘Abstention’) (released by Sam the Kid in 2006) and in ‘Palhaços’ (‘Clowns’) (released by The Soaked Lamb in 2012), the present is gloomy and the memory of the Carnation Revolution is appropriated to give voice to the dispossessed of the Portuguese democracy and offered to make amends with the memory of the failed revolutionary solutions. ‘Meu Caro Amigo Chico’ (‘My Dear Friend Chico’) (released by Os Quais in 2012) and ‘The Shepherd’ (released by The Loafing Heroes in 2014) are compositions where the crisis of utopia is redeemed to reconfigure the conceptual limits of individualism and the body, an extension of the world, becomes the unchartered territory of utopia.

During one of the worst economic crises that Portugal has faced in the last decades, with a considerable debt to deal with, emigration, population loss, ageing and unemployment afflicted our economy and society, particularly in rural territories. The aim of this article is to access the main local and central government policies to fight depopulation and territorial inequalities, and their attempts at sustainable development. What remains in the Portuguese inland regions and how is it being addressed by the few who still believe in life outside the cities? What is the role of local government in the sustainable development of the territory? All over the country, and particularly in rural areas, there is an urgent need to attract people and investment (Almeida 2017a). What are the main issues addressed by the central government to deal with this problem? For this research, a database was built with the political programmes of the 308 mayors elected in 2013, which were subject to a thorough analysis, and the new socialist government recently approved National Programme for Territorial Cohesion, aimed at promoting a more balanced territorial planning. This article describes the demographic situation and compares the municipalities’ economic strategies. The results are yet to be observed, but these new local and central policies at least reflect a change of paradigm from the social-democrat coalition government (2011–15) and introduce a discourse of hope for inland regions, even if the political time of each government (four-year terms) is never enough to solve such complex issues.

The article focuses on the politicization of Portuguese Labour Code reforms since the early 2000s. More specifically, it looks at the link between mechanisms of politicization and Europeanization from a variety of perspectives, including decision-making processes and agenda setting, political divides and reform coalitions. By adopting a longitudinal approach, the article shows how the economic crisis and troika bailout have affected connections between politicization and Europeanization. Portuguese labour market policies have followed a continuous process of increased flexibility in recent years irrespective of governments’ partisan orientations and without any significant variations. It remains that the economic crisis – and the memorandum agreed with the troika and implemented against the backdrop of a sovereign debt crisis – have had a considerable effect on political debate and social protest while deepening the polarization that divides Portuguese trade unions and governing parties. The processes of Europeanization and politicization are addressed from a qualitative perspective that is crucial in the understanding of the politics of labour reforms in Portugal as it sheds light on the political conditions of reforms coalitions and their constraints.

Planned home births happen across Europe, but there are countries where informal and formal limitations can be found by families. This article draws upon a short research project conducted in Denmark in March 2014, which aimed to explore the organization of home birth in Denmark and to compare it to the Portuguese case. Private home births, in Portugal, and publicly funded home births, in Denmark, show interesting similarities when looking at the individual experience of choosing and planning a birth at home. However, through this comparative analysis, I argue that the limitations imposed around the option of home birth in Portugal raise important inequalities between women and families planning to give birth at home and those planning a hospital birth. The successful models found in Denmark can potentially serve as grounds for a broader discussion and as a trigger for change in Portuguese policies, to promote ethical and evidence-based practices among professionals, and the improvement in perinatal health outcomes for families who experience planned home births.

This article analyses the European strategy of partnership towards Latin American and Caribbean countries during the twenty-first century. The author singles out the main stages (cycles) of the negotiation processes between the two regions and gives an assessment of the trade and economic relations and priorities existing on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Also examined are the possible risks and consequences for Latin American and Caribbean countries in the event of profound transatlantic cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the United States.

This article analyses which factors seem to influence the research production of economics academics in Portuguese universities. The availability of the empirical data from the one-off national Portuguese census on degrees’ accreditation collected via the curricular files that all university academics had to submit to the national accreditation body (comprising an extensive list of detailed information regarding each academic in every public university) allowed for the opportunity of the study. The methodological procedures involve the analysis of the relationships between variables, an additive ordinal logistic model, a hierarchical cluster analysis and optimal scaling techniques. The results provide detailed information on the factors that influence research output production by academics and the relationship to factors shaping the academic career. This work has, at least, two main advantages: to describe the research performance of the academics by the time the new career statutes replaced the previous ones within a context of enhancing quality and productivity; and to be part of a scholarly reference that can be used (in a comparative perspective) for future studies.