Read the full essay here.
About the Author
Mário Soares, a founder of Portuguese democracy who served as prime minister and later as president (1986–1996) of his country, is now president of the Mário Soares Foundation in Lisbon. The following essay is based on a lecture that he delivered in December 1998 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The lecture, which concluded the series entitled “The Democratic Invention,” was co-sponsored by the Mário Soares Foundation, the Luso-American Development Foundation, and the International Forum for Democratic Studies.