This paper aims to explain how and why religious cleavage has been activated by political parties, since the first referendum about abortion law in 1997. The Portuguese case can emerge as indicative of the impact of party leaders and strategies on wider political preferences and in explaining absence of religious polarization in a society where religious practices remains high and where religious institutions, notably Catholic Church, have remained influential. The Portuguese democratization process affected the ability of political parties to influence the structure of political behavior (Gunther and Montero: 2001) and the primacy of the “regime question” impelled political leaders to moderate religious polarization. The political leaders deactivated religious issues when the party system was created, but when party leaders perceive electoral advantages, religious issues tend to be politicized. In 1997 and 2007, the abortion liberalization laws triggered the religious cleavage, impacting on the religious vote in elections and reversing partially the deactivation pattern that characterize the consolidation period. Basing from a voluntaristic approach in cleavage politics theory (Sartori: 1968; Pzerworski and Sprague: 1986; Kalyvas: 1995; Enyedi: 2008), we argue that political parties are primarily responsible, trough the control of political agenda, for placing religion and moral issues at the centre of public debate, giving it political relevance or not. This paper will recreate party strategies toward religious issues, like abortion and same-sex marriage, and try to understand if political parties really had motives to politicize abortion or gay marriage, perceiving electoral gains of that activation; merely, reflect an ideological positions; or if they are exploring new political terrains, reaching to a “demand side” not corresponded. A process-tracing approach will be followed and data from political parties analyzed (manifestos, official declarations, minutes of comittee meetings and proposals to party conferences), as well as interviews to political and ecclesiastic leaders.
