Edalina Rodrigues Sanches

Portuguese Citizens’ Support for Democracy: 40 Years after the Carnation Revolution

Abstract Forty years after the Carnation Revolution, the relatively young Portuguese democracy is experiencing dramatically low levels of public specific support for democracy. This article tests the leverage of demand-side and supply-side accounts to explain differentials in public satisfaction with democracy. Through ordinary least squares regression analyses that draw on the unique data of the ‘Barometer 40 Years of Democracy in Portugal (2014)’, this articles shows that age cohort, identification with extreme parties, evaluation of the country’s political past, and economic performance are strong correlates of citizens’ specific support for democracy.

Policy Congruence in a Competitive Authoritarian Regime: Learning from the Angolan Case

Building on the theoretical proposition that congruence is as much a property to be measured in authoritarian regimes as it is in democratic regimes, the aim of this article is to understand the phenomenon of ideological and political congruence in Angola. To carry out this analysis, we rely on two original surveys, conducted in 2012 with members of parliament (MPs) and college students (voters), covering equivalent policy issues. The results, to some extent exploratory, suggest moderate levels of congruence between MPs and voters. This article contributes to the existing scholarship through a case study that escapes a golden rule in this field – i.e., it is not a democracy. Moreover, it features congruence as a potentially relevant factor in understanding dominant parties’ persistence in authoritarian settings.