ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century, with the advent of liberalism, Portugal began to be transformed from a monarchy to a pluralist democracy of the Western European type. By the beginning of the second decade of democracy, the seemingly intractable economic and social problems of a few years before had begun to ease and Portugal’s nascent democracy appeared to be out of danger. Portugal is under pressure from the European Economic Community (EEC) to put into place regional governments on the mainland. In one incident in 1987, Joaquim Mota Amaral, the president of the regional government of Azores, insisted that the Azorean flag be flown on the same level as Portugal’s national colors. In the economic realm, the future will see greater and greater integration of the Portuguese economy into that of the EEC. The real crunch will come on January 1, 1993, when the EEC is scheduled to become a single, unified market without commercial or trade barriers between member states.
