Twenty years ago when Samuel Huntington (1991) argued that a third wave of democratization had swept the globe from 1974 to 1990 - referring to no more than 30 countries which had made the transition from authoritarianism to democracy - Portugal was included among them. Now, there is no dispute as to whether Portuguese democracy is consolidated or not. In our case, as in many others, what is at stake is not whether democracy exists, but its quality (Shin 2006; Diamond and Morlino 2004; O’ Donnell 2004; Morlino 2002; Diamond 2002). Democracy is also the political regime preferred by the majority of Portuguese citizens, a pattern of attitudes which is confirmed by the peremptory rejection of all other possible alternative political regimes. Nonetheless, Portuguese democracy faces a paradox: democratic institutions are subject to great and continuous distrust by Portuguese citizens. Data from different sources show that, in spite of the support enjoyed by the democratic regime per se, a large majority of Portuguese people do not trust - in different degrees - in political parties, parliament, executive branches, courts of law, as well as health, educational, and other public services. Based on the conceptual redefinition this paper examines the bases and sources of the contradictory conviviality among citizens’ democratic dissatisfaction and distrust in public institutions and their support to democracy in Portugal. Seeking to reconcile cultural and institutional theories about the importance of trust for democratic regimes, this paper considers systematically and in a comparative manner both the determinants and the consequences of trust for regime support in Portugal, and particularly its effects to apparent growing consensus on the need for political reform to adapt democracy to new conditions.
