75

This paper studies the relationship between democratization and the development of civil society in Portugal during the 1974–2010 period. We argue that the various historical models of public policy implementation shaped subsequent patterns of associational development during democratic period. When the enactment of social policies and the creation of regulatory and political institutions affecting each subsector were friendlier toward civil society organizations, these blossomed. Thus, in the long run, civil society organizations were empowered whenever institutions and policies designed during the transition and the immediate post-transition phase were created to include societal pressures from below as the result of a more consensual relationship between the elite and masses.