Assembly of the Republic
Encyclopedia
The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese
: Assembleia da República, ɐsẽˈblɐjɐ dɐ ʁɛˈpublikɐ) is the Portuguese
parliament
. It is located in a historical building in Lisbon
, referred to as Palácio de São Bento, the site of an old Benedictine monastery. The Palace of São Bento was formerly known as the seat of the National Assembly (Assembleia Nacional) during the Estado Novo regime.
According to the Portuguese Constitution, the unicameral Assembly "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens." The constitution names the assembly as one of the country's organs of supreme authority.
through a vote of no confidence, to change the country's laws, and to amend the constitution
(this one requires a majority of two-thirds). In addition to these key powers, the constitution grants to the Assembly extensive legislative powers and substantial control over the budget
, the right to authorize the government to raise taxes and grant loans, the power to ratify treaties and other kinds of international agreements, and the duty to approve or reject decisions by the President of the Republic to declare war and make peace. The assembly also appoints many members of important state institutions, such as ten of the thirteen members of the Constitutional Court and seven of the sixteen members of the Council of State.
The constitution requires the assembly to quickly review and approve an incoming government's program. Parliamentary rules allow the assembly to call for committees of inquiry to examine the government's actions. Political opposition represented in the assembly has the power to review the cabinet's actions, even though it is unlikely that the actions can be reversed. Party groups can also call for interpellations that require debates about specific government policies.
, one for each autonomous regions, Azores
(Portuguese: Açores) and Madeira
, one for Portuguese living in Europe and a last one for those living in the rest of the world. Except for the constituencies for Portuguese living abroad, which are fixed at two members each, the number of voters registered in a constituency determines the number of its members in the assembly, using the D'Hondt method
of proportional representation
. Constituencies vary greatly in size; from as large as the district of Lisbon, which returns 48 representatives, to as small as the district of Portalegre, which elects just two.
According to the constitution, members of the assembly represent the entire country, not the constituency from which they are elected. This directive was reinforced in practice by the strong role of political parties in regard to members of the assembly. Party leadership, for example, determined in which areas candidates were to run for office, thus often weakening members' ties to their constituencies. Moreover, members of the assembly were expected to vote with their party and to work within parliamentary groups based on party membership. Party discipline was strong, and insubordinate members could be coerced through a variety of means. A further obstacle to members' independence was that their bills first had to be submitted to the parliamentary groups, and it was these group leaders who set the assembly's agenda.
The President of the Republic Assembly is the second hierarchical figure in the Portuguese state and is usually nominated by the party that holds the majority of the seats, the President is aided by four vice-presidents, nominated by the other parties represented in the parliament and is usually the speaker, when he is not present, one of the vice-presidents takes the role of speaker. When the President of the Republic
is, for any reason, unable to perform to job, the President of the Assembly of the Republic becomes his substitute.
! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 54px"|#
! align="center" style="width: 280px"|President
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Party
! align="center" style="width: 80px"|Term
|-
| -
|bgcolor=blue|
| Albino Soares Pinto dos Reis
| UN
| 1945 - 1961
|-
| -
|bgcolor=blue|
| Mário de Figueiredo
| UN
| 1961 - 1969
|-
| -
|bgcolor=blue|
| Carlos Monteiro do Amaral Neto
| UN
| 1969 - 1974
|}
! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 54px"|#
! align="center" style="width: 280px"|President
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Party
! align="center" style="width: 80px"|Term
|-
| 1
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
| Henrique Teixeira de Queirós de Barros
| PS
| 1975 - 1976
|}
! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 54px"|#
! align="center" style="width: 280px"|President
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Party
! align="center" style="width: 80px"|Term
|-
| 1
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
| Vasco da Gama Fernandes
| PS
| 1976 - 1978
|-
| 2
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
| Teófilo Carvalho dos Santos
| PS
| 1978 - 1980
|-
| 3
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
| Leonardo Eugénio Ramos Ribeiro de Almeida
| PSD
| 1980 - 1981
|-
| 4
|bgcolor=#0093DD|
| Francisco Manuel Lopes Vieira de Oliveira Dias
| CDS
| 1981 - 1982
|-
| 5
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
| Leonardo Eugénio Ramos Ribeiro de Almeida
| PSD
| 1982 - 1983
|-
| 6
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
| Manuel Alfredo Tito de Morais
| PS
| 1983 - 1984
|-
| 7
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
| Fernando Monteiro do Amaral
| PSD
| 1984 - 1987
|-
| 8
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
| Victor Pereira Crespo
| PSD
| 1987 - 1991
|-
| 9
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
| António Moreira Barbosa de Melo
| PSD
| 1991 - 1995
|-
| 10
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
| António de Almeida Santos
| PS
| 1995 - 2002
|-
| 11
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
| João Bosco Soares da Mota Amaral
| PSD
| 2002 - 2005
|-
| 12
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
| Jaime José de Matos da Gama
| PS
| 2005 - 2011
|-
| 13
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
| Maria da Assunção Esteves
| PSD
| 2011–Present
|}
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
: Assembleia da República, ɐsẽˈblɐjɐ dɐ ʁɛˈpublikɐ) is the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
. It is located in a historical building in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, referred to as Palácio de São Bento, the site of an old Benedictine monastery. The Palace of São Bento was formerly known as the seat of the National Assembly (Assembleia Nacional) during the Estado Novo regime.
According to the Portuguese Constitution, the unicameral Assembly "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens." The constitution names the assembly as one of the country's organs of supreme authority.
Powers and duties of the Assembly
The Assembly of the Republic's powers derives from its power to dismiss a governmentGovernment
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
through a vote of no confidence, to change the country's laws, and to amend the constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
(this one requires a majority of two-thirds). In addition to these key powers, the constitution grants to the Assembly extensive legislative powers and substantial control over the budget
Budget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
, the right to authorize the government to raise taxes and grant loans, the power to ratify treaties and other kinds of international agreements, and the duty to approve or reject decisions by the President of the Republic to declare war and make peace. The assembly also appoints many members of important state institutions, such as ten of the thirteen members of the Constitutional Court and seven of the sixteen members of the Council of State.
The constitution requires the assembly to quickly review and approve an incoming government's program. Parliamentary rules allow the assembly to call for committees of inquiry to examine the government's actions. Political opposition represented in the assembly has the power to review the cabinet's actions, even though it is unlikely that the actions can be reversed. Party groups can also call for interpellations that require debates about specific government policies.
Structure
The assembly consisted at first of 250 members, but the constitutional reforms of 1989 reduced its number to between 180 and 230. Members are elected by popular vote for legislative terms of four years from the country's twenty-two constituencies (eighteen in mainland Portugal corresponding to each districtDistricts of Portugal
Portugal is divided into 18 districts in mainland Portugal, plus two autonomous regions .The Portuguese Constitution of 1976 specifies that Portugal have only, as first level divisions, the autonomous regions and the administrative regions...
, one for each autonomous regions, Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
(Portuguese: Açores) and Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
, one for Portuguese living in Europe and a last one for those living in the rest of the world. Except for the constituencies for Portuguese living abroad, which are fixed at two members each, the number of voters registered in a constituency determines the number of its members in the assembly, using the D'Hondt method
D'Hondt method
The d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
of proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
. Constituencies vary greatly in size; from as large as the district of Lisbon, which returns 48 representatives, to as small as the district of Portalegre, which elects just two.
The President of the Republic Assembly is the second hierarchical figure in the Portuguese state and is usually nominated by the party that holds the majority of the seats, the President is aided by four vice-presidents, nominated by the other parties represented in the parliament and is usually the speaker, when he is not present, one of the vice-presidents takes the role of speaker. When the President of the Republic
President of Portugal
Portugal has been a republic since 1910, and since that time the head of state has been the president, whose official title is President of the Portuguese Republic ....
is, for any reason, unable to perform to job, the President of the Assembly of the Republic becomes his substitute.
Presidents of the National Assembly
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 54px"|#
! align="center" style="width: 280px"|President
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Party
! align="center" style="width: 80px"|Term
|-
|
|bgcolor=blue|
|
|
National Union (Portugal)
The National Union was the only legal political party in Portugal for most of the period of the Estado Novo, a right-wing dictatorship dominated by António de Oliveira Salazar....
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=blue|
|
|
National Union (Portugal)
The National Union was the only legal political party in Portugal for most of the period of the Estado Novo, a right-wing dictatorship dominated by António de Oliveira Salazar....
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=blue|
|
|
National Union (Portugal)
The National Union was the only legal political party in Portugal for most of the period of the Estado Novo, a right-wing dictatorship dominated by António de Oliveira Salazar....
|
|}
President of the Constituent Assembly
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 54px"|#
! align="center" style="width: 280px"|President
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Party
! align="center" style="width: 80px"|Term
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
|
|
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
|
|}
Presidents of the Assembly of the Republic
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 54px"|#
! align="center" style="width: 280px"|President
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Party
! align="center" style="width: 80px"|Term
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
|
Vasco da Gama Fernandes
Vasco da Gama Fernandes , was a Portuguese politician.-Career:He was a Licentiate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and became a Lawyer and a Politician....
|
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
|
Teófilo Carvalho dos Santos
Teófilo Carvalho dos Santos , was a Portuguese politician.-Career:He was a Licentiate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon....
|
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
|
|
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#0093DD|
|
|
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
|
|
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
|
|
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
|
|
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
|
Vítor Crespo
Victor Pereira Crespo is a Portuguese politician and parliamentary.-Career:Crespo was born in Leiria, Milagres...
|
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
|
|
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
|
António de Almeida Santos
António de Almeida Santos, GCL , is a Portuguese lawyer, politician, parliamentary and minister in several occasions.-Career:...
|
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
|
|
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF66FF|
|
|
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
|
|-
|
|bgcolor=#FF9900|
|
Maria da Assunção Esteves
Maria da Assunção Andrade Esteves is a Portuguese politician and was a Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party–People's Party coalition; part of the European People's Party–European Democrats group.On 21 June 2011 she was elected President of the Assembly of...
|
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
|
|}