ABSTRACT
The failure of democratic constitutionalism is largely based on a type of mismanagement which fundamentally arose out of non-management. Lenin scolded the Social-Democrats and the trade unionists because they used, in the main, peaceful processes which, he felt, induced them to make so many compromises with the existing order that, in the end, they were bound to be assimilated and absorbed by it. In Portugal, General Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho became the leader of those who believed in a "second road to socialism." Portugal benefits from an electoral system even less proportional than that of Germany and from provisions concerning the constitutional structure which, on the whole, may be considered more favourable to executive stability than those of the Grundgesetz. That Spain's economic situation has improved so much since the early 1960s makes it particularly urgent to come to grips with current troubles. There must be a clear recognition of both the primacy of both politics and political form.
