The International Conference «40 years after April 25, 1974,the Crisis of Liberal Democracies» is a joint organization of three Portuguese Teaching and Research Institutions: DCP&PP (Department of Political Science and Public Policies) and CIES-IUL (Research Centre for Sociological Studies), both from ISCTE-IUL (Lisbon University Institute: see http://www.iscte-iul.pt/en/home.aspx); IHC-UNL (Institute of Contemporary History from the Nova University: see http://ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/en); and CES-UC (Centre for Social Studies from the University of Coimbra – see http://www.ces.uc.pt/ces/cesEN.php). The individual scientific organizers are Fernando Rosas (IHC-UNL), André Freire and José Manuel Leite Viegas (DCP&PP and CIES-IUL, ISCTE-IUL) and José Manuel Pureza (CES-UC).

In the year that coincides with the 40 years of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution (April 25, 1974), which initiated the so-called «third-wave of democratization» world-wide, in general, and the transition to democracy in Portugal (after 48 years of dictatorship), in particular, this International Conference «40 years after April 25, 1974,the Crisis of Liberal Democracies» has two major objectives.
On the one hand, it intends to be a kind of academic memorial of the successful transition to democracy 40 years ago. On the other hand, using both the contribute of several Social and Political Sciences and Humanities (History, Political Science, International Relations, Economy, Sociology, Philosophy) and combining comparative and historical approaches, the conference intends to reflect about the several indicators of a crisis of liberal and representative democracies in Europe (technocratic governments with a unclear popular mandate, party governments governing without a political mandate for their actions, consecutive and deep violation of electoral commitments by elected governments/political parties, a huge compression of social rights against the will of the people, etc.), at least since the 2008 major international financial and economic crisis since the great depression (1929).

The conference will take place at ISCTE-IUL (Lisbon University Institute), 8-10 May, 2014, Lisbon, Portugal, and will have an opening session (with two opening lectures, with two invited lecturers) and will have five academic panels, plus a final panel with representatives of the political parties represented in the Portuguese Parliament. In each of the five academic panels, half of the paper givers / half of the papers will be presented by people especially invited to do so by the scientific organizers (see the draft program below), and the other half of the papers will be presented by paper givers that respond to the present call for papers and are selected to do so by the scientific organizers.

Thus, we instigate everyone who intends to present a paper in the International Conference «40 years after April 25, 1974,the Crisis of Liberal Democracies», ISCTE-IUL (Lisbon University Institute), 8-10 May, 2014, Lisbon, Portugal, to present a developed abstract (500-600 words maximum), where both the scientific perspective, the data and methodology to be used are all specified.
Paper proposals should also include the identification of the authors, a short CV (around 5 lines) for all papers givers in each proposal, and a link to the full CV for all papers givers in each proposal. The paper proposal should also specify in which panel they want to be included (only one option for each paper).

Comparative and longitudinal (i.e., comparing not only countries but also time periods: before and after 2008) papers are mostly wanted.
We intend to publish the revised version of the papers presented at the conference and selected by their high quality. The proposals should be sent simultaneously to: CIES-IUL (andre.freire@iscte.pt and jmlv@iscte.pt ), IHC-UNL ( fernandorosas.ihc@fcsh.unl.pt), and CES-UC (jmp@ces.uc.pt).

Deadline for the submission of proposals: 31 October 2013
Deadline for the notification of acceptance: 30 November 2013