This paper examines the social changes brought about by the Acclamation War in Elvas, the principal military stronghold of the Portuguese province of the Alentejo, regarded as being key to the defence of the kingdom during the era. Reference is made to the burdens which were borne by local people owing to the war, which were made all the heavier in the case of Elvas due to the huge number of soldiers billeted in the city and also because of the geographical proximity of the Spanish military stronghold of Badajoz. Relations between soldiers and civilians are examined: at times there was hostility and conflict; but there was also co-operation and mutual respect, friendships were forged and family ties were created.

The Galicia-north Portugal Euro-region looks like a future space for university students in Portugal and Galicia. Our research, which is supported by de Spanish ministry of education and science, is about the knowledge they have of it. In it, we present our findings that will be used to develop a communications strategy that can empower this European structure.

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The focus of this article is the dynamic and very visible Portuguese diaspora in Caracas, the result of steady migration between the mid-1940s and early-1980s. It highlights the crucial role of the extensive social networks created by Portuguese immigrants and draws on the now well-established notion of ‘transnational connectivity’ to examine the complex relationships the diaspora has forged simultaneously with receptor society and homeland. The aim is to enhance understanding of the particular characteristics of the diaspora, the notable changes it has undergone over the decades and the extraordinary contribution it has made to Venezuela’s economic and social development.

How ideologically congruent are deputies and voters within European political parties? And which variables best explain left-right party congruence? These are the main questions in this article, which connect to two objectives: describing the left-right congruence situation generated by European political parties providing an individual characterization of deputy-voter’s congruence; and providing an explanation that helps account for parties’ ideological congruence. The article aims to empirically update previous research. Supported by data from the European Representation Studies, it includes political parties from 11 European countries in the sample. The findings reveal that, in respect to the first goal, ideological congruence is more or less similar across countries and parties, showing in particular that the left-wing does not exhibit higher levels of congruence. On the second goal, it was found that deputies’ ideological position on the right wing appears to be the most important explanatory variable for left-right party congruence.

This article reviews the case of the oft-claimed ‘crisis of parties’ in Portugal, and argues that such controversy rest at least in part on ‘ambiguous’ evidence. We will try to answer three fundamental questions: (1) how do Portuguese citizens view and evaluate political parties? (2) What are the sources of public support for political parties in Portugal? And (3) why does anti-party rhetoric resonate with some citizens, but not others? The analysis of empirical data allows the following conclusions. First, citizens’ attitudes towards the parties have a multi-dimensional nature, so it is possible to distinguish two key dimensions conceptually and empirically: diffuse support and specific support for parties. Second, the two types of public support for parties have different sources at the individual level. Third, in the eyes of the Portuguese citizen, parties became a kind of ‘necessary evil’, being criticised for ‘what they actually do’ and supported for ‘what they are supposed to do’.

The construct of life satisfaction assumes increased relevance with the awareness that ‘live longer’ is not the only desirable result of the increase of longevity. The main goal of this study is to provide descriptive information about prevalence of three factors with respect to life satisfaction – Health and Safety, Services and Resources, Residence and Sociability. The construction and validation for the Portuguese middle aged and older population (N=1321) of a life satisfaction instrument was carried through. The proposed three-factor solution provides standard and adequate psychometric requirements for reliable and valid measurement. Therefore Services and Resources, Health and Safety, and Residence and Sociability may be used as determinants of life satisfaction of middle aged and older people not only considering the heterogeneity of the ageing process itself but also because different groups of older people even within a similar cohort might differ in their experience of life satisfaction.

The most common historiographical narrative stresses the importance of liberal revolutions in the evolution of both criminal policy and criminal law—under the old regime, harshness and arbitrariness; after the revolution, humanitarianism and legality. Both assessments are seemingly mistaken—at least for southern European countries. Grace and mercy—a crucial element of royal rule and the proper judicial enforcement of law—moderated the ruthlessness of formal law. While judges were invited to temper the rigor legis with the merciful tuning of general legal provisions according to the doctrinal standards of an exquisite casuistic equity, during the 19th century personal security against arbitrary criminal prosecution was considered a basic pillar of liberalism. However, criminal policy largely reduced the range of formal (legal-judicial) criminal penalties, leading to a harsh and socially biased police practice in the handling of common criminality. With the exception of France, criminal codification only expanded by the mid-19th century; thereafter, criminal doctrine combined references to formal law with philosophical, political and even literary, ingredients, reshaping legality according to a romantic concept of immanent law.

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) has traditionally focused its attention in consolidated political regimes, either democratic or autocratic, thus leaving the study of transitional regimes almost exclusively to comparative politics. This study attempts to counter that trend by demonstrating that a conceptual study of foreign policy decision-making during regime transitions is possible if part of the elements of some of the tools of analysis utilized by FPA are altered, specifically the decision units framework&apos; (Hermann and Hermann 1989). We plan on utilizing the recent innovations in political sociology on the nature of the state (Mann 1993) and its differentiation from the regime (Mazzuca 2003), the state crisis methodology applied recently to popular mobilization under democratic transitions (Duran 2001), as well as the traditional theoretical models of regime transition (e.g. Linz and Stepan 1996; Schmitter, O&apos;Donnell and Whitehead 1986), in helping to study the formulation and implementation of foreign policy decisions during the Portuguese regime transition (1974-76) that started the third wave of democratization.