«Strange political bodies»: the birth of the social movement in 19th-century Portugal .

Authors

  • DIEGO PALACIOS CEREZALES

Keywords:

Portugal, 19th Century, Politics, Social Movements, Popular Protest.

Abstract

Collective mobilisation in the streets and the countryside was a recurrent feature in 19th Century Portuguese politics. An anonymous part of the population, both men and women, and regardless of their social status or the rights the law recognised them as citizens, acted politically. Constitutionally speaking, and despite its real power, the mobilized multitude was an “alien political body” that competed with representative assemblies. In this work I analyse the changes in the repertoire of political collective contention in Portugal: some of its features were an inheritance of older traditions, while some others reflected the reception of the French Revolution and the affirmation of popular sovereignty. Tradition and innovation melted during the political conflicts of Liberal Portugal and a new repertoire of popular contention, the one characteristic of the Social Movement, took shape and became institutionalised.

Published

2010-03-22

Issue

Section

ARTICLES