Abstract:
This paper presents the research developed to find out if the public statements of admirals of the Portuguese Navy about the public policy of maritime authority generate civilian supremacy crises in Portugal. Civilian supremacy is one of the pillars of democracy, and its crisis, even if only in one policy, has impact in democracy. The analysis was done by applying the theory of the civilizing process by Norbert Elias, considered some criticisms pointed at it, and was supplemented by the theory of the elites of Gaetano Mosca. The empirical validation focused on the statements of admirals, with a representative sample presented in this paper, with highlights for the period since 2005, in which those chiefs no longer made use of the frugality and pudency that were their mark before 2005. This new behaviour can be interpretd in the light of Elias theory as a loss of shame and, together with Mosca´s theory, as decivilizing processes.
 

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