Chasing the facts

The common Portuguese word for municipality is autárquia.  The term would come from ancient Greek implying a certain "self-rule" away from any form of central government (and consequently hinting a corresponding level of self-sufficiency).

It's a word that comes up a lot in Portugal thesedays ahead of 29 September when municipal elections will be held and the general population gets to choose whom will hold the public office for their neighbourhood, city or village, all the way up to the presidente.  Unfortunately, any connection with self-rule is unfetchable.

Officially there is a pre-campaign period followed by a campaign period and I am yet to meet someone able to explain the difference.   For several months already political heads show up on billboards, distracting traffic and ironically covering the publicity of struggling retail entrepreneurs votes are asked from, alongside poor catch frases on some promising future.

How sad is it to observe anxious lifelong politicians pondering which tie not to where as they are temporarily forced to stroll through streets and must meet and greet their potential electorate in a poor attempt to get ahead of any threat of losing their job.  This in a country wherein any citizen is well aware that any potential measure of significance is subject to consent by shadowing creditors under a financial and structural reform programme, which has deprived many muncipalities from any (financial) room to manouevre.  Apparently many people feel the upcoming general elections in Germany are of more relevance to their future that those in their immediate surroundings. 

In absence of any ability to introduce substance in locally desired or needed developments, most of the campaigning and debating in the weeks ahead will feature the usual national disputes between the political parties that have been holding the country hostage in contemporary history.

There are some refreshing signs, the foremost being the efforts of Movimento Branco to combat politicians to overcome a law designed to restrict the number of mandates any elected politician can pursue.  Another positive sign is the growing number of non-partisan candidates, generally distinguishing themselves by genuinity and plain honesty, although some are the mere result of the usual inner-party conflicts. 

In an attempt to detect a potential collective sense of modernity, what is also worth mentioning is that the spending of taxpayers' money on this campainging is estimated to be about a fifth of what it was at the previous municipal elections which for an optimist like me could be a sign that politicians are putting their mouth where the money is.

Internationally, there has been a visibly growing number of analists that - build on the philosophies of scholars in political science throughout the past two centuries marked by industrializing and relative civilizing progression -  the return of city states would indeed be the ideal form of a region or municipality to govern itself into prosperity.

From a more pessimistic perspective, perhaps this is an example where enduring signs of Portugal's (imposed) hardshift can be found.  Where, under "normal" circumstances local governments should be (positioned to) gradually increase their autonomy to a more direct and productive benefit of involved populations, while a national government restrains to matters of nationwide interest, the present state of the nation shows the opposite trend.

Although it is still early to think of a post-credit crunch scenario, it is this type of regression that will prolongue a crisis a population is caught in and very possibly widen the gaps with counterparts it would so very much like to see going the other way.