The democratic rhetoric of the austerity measures

The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis of the policy-legitimizing discourses of the political-economic executive in Portugal considering the social and economic crisis thecountry is going through, and how this democratic legitimation is linked to democratictheory. The first parts of this article, is going to sketch the context of today’s rhetoric and aframework to analyse the discourse. The second is an empirical study in which we will try toshow the application of this framework, discussing 4 cases; the TINA discourse, an interview with a high representative of the Troika, the media discussions about the “grandoladas” and the discussion about the case of the budgetary reproval by the constitutional court