ABSTRACT
As the first third wave democracy, Portugal provides an interesting case when examining the party systems of third wave democracies. The Portuguese party system institutionalized rapidly. On the surface, Portugal appears to be remarkably stable, not least compared to other bailout countries. Voting behavior post-bailout closely approximated that in the pre-bailout elections of 2009, and considerably more so than the other bailout countries. Moreover, the government also appears to be “business as usual”, with formally a minority Socialist government taking office. However, this stability masks considerable change, with potentially far-reaching implications for the party system, not least the greater cooperation between the PS and the parties to its left.
