Electoral Systems and Representative Democracy in the Threshold of Portuguese Constitutionalism

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17811/hc.v0i19.513

Keywords:

Representative Democracy, Parliament, Elections, Portugal, XIX Century.

Abstract

Parliament (“Cortes”, for the Portuguese case sub judice) is the supreme symbol of representative democracy. At the cornerstone of its formation is the election of the representatives by the political community. This study will focus on how the representatives of the first Portuguese constituent “Cortes” were elected for the elaboration of the Constitution of 1822. In the year of the revolution of 1820 there was a clash between the old medieval electoral system and the new vintista electoral system, which ended up defining the course to be followed by political representation and which has indelibly marked the Portuguese parliamentarism until the present day. Based on this fray between the two electoral processes, this article intends to assess the evolution of the theory of voting and electoral law in Portugal between 1820 and 1822.

Enviado el (Submission Date): 12/09/2017
Aceptado el (Acceptance Date):16/11/2017

Author Biographies

José Domingues, Universidade Lusíada - Norte

Professor auxiliar da faculdade de Direito

Manuel Monteiro, Universidade Lusíada - Norte

Professor auxiliar da faculdade de Direito

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Published

2018-05-10

Issue

No. 19 (2018): Historia Constitucional N. 19 (2018)

Section

Europe

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