Local Government in Portugal and Civil Society Organizations: Who Represents Citizens and Territories?

Government has the responsibility to ensure economic, social and territorial cohesion, territorial planning and sustained development, as it was written into the 1976 Portuguese Constitution. A democratic system was established in Portugal, which implies freely elected representatives within a party system, and citizen participation, whether directly or indirectly. Voting is the main form of political participation. In local government citizen groups may also present independent candidacies. Other forms of citizen participation include participatory budgets, decentralised municipal assembly meetings, popular legislative initiatives, direct interpellation of the local council and neighbourhood associations with consultation and execution capacities. Those are all forms of civil society involvement in local government and they may contribute to democratic consolidation and higher support for democracy. Regardless of such tools, is local government in Portugal attending to the constitutional goals of citizen participation, as well as making voters a part of the decision process? Are local representatives interacting with civil society and representing their citizens and territories’ best interests? After decades of investments in infrastructures, municipal representatives are presently investing in other assets that may improve their image and reputation: considering changes in rural areas and huge crisis related to industrial disinvestment and relocation to unregulated markets, which have created unemployment and depopulation, all over the country there are massive investments in services and tourism-related activities, both in cities and rural areas. The environment has entered the political agenda, and municipalities have designed plans for climate action, involving multiple local stakeholders. Also, transparency and citizen participation have become flagship programs. Which municipalities are investing in these strategies, and presenting practical results? Does citizen participation contribute to changing policies? This research focuses on urban / rural contrast and the responses of central and local government to society’s new challenges, such as climate change and water scarcity, new forms of extractivism, including intensive agriculture and mining, investments in tourism, gentrification and the real estate problem, depopulation of interior regions and demographic pyramid turned upside down, immigration and new labour conditions, among others. NGOs and civil society organizations are raising awareness on many of these issues. Is our territory protected from the risks posed by these challenges? These are the first results of a larger project. Some case studies are presented which might contribute to improving local governance, by divulging better public administration practices, as well as positively empowering citizens by influencing attitudes towards their own capacity for participation.