ABSTRACT
With the ‘Carnation Revolution’ of 25 April 1974, Portugal initiated the so-called ‘third wave’ of worldwide democratisation. A stable party system quickly emerged, and by 1976 four parties represented almost 90 per cent of the electorate. Apart from a brief period during the mid-1980s when the centre-left Party of Democratic Renewal (PRD) emerged and disappeared, the party system has remained relatively stable. The general tendency (1987–2005) was for the vote to concentrate on the two centrist ‘catch-all’ parties: the centre-left Socialist Party (PS, Partido Socialista), and the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD, Partido Social Democrata). 1 Alongside the PS and the PSD, the Communist Party (PCP, Partido Comunista Português) and the conservative (although with significant Christian Democratic influences) Democratic Social Centre (CDS, Centro Democrático e Social) have become the system’s main parties. 2 Some smaller parties have also obtained seats in parliament during the democratic period, especially the Left Bloc (BE, Bloco de Esquerda). 3
