Page 133 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

In short, political action in (liberal) democracy must be guided by the concretization of different
principles that are at the base of any modern and pluralistic society (Nunes and Rego 2014):

1 Responsiveness, 2 Empowerment, and 3 Accountability.

In democracy, the source of legitimacy that is substantive and not merely for mal can come from two
different sources.
The primary source stems from the popular will expressed through the vote in the framework of clear and

unam bigamous proposals that are borne in specific electoral acts.

This first source is the most widely used solution because it reflects the will of the majority.

However, it has the disadvantage of relegating the opinions and perspectives of minorities to the

background.

Based on the rules of representative demo racy, these minorities have more difficulty in making

their voices heard.

Representation has the enormous advantage of allowing adequate governability since elected
officials are mandated to execute a program previously validated by voters.

It is hoped that there is a huge congruence and even correspondence between the validated and

the executed program (responsiveness), even though this is not always the case.

In this context, it has been suggested that as an alternative source of legitimacy, active and

participative involvement of society and different social actors (empowerment) should occur.

To be legitimate, the direct participation of society in collective purposes implies a broad base of

support so that the absence of citizens’ votes can be filled by an adequate, enlarged, and
transparent representation (accountability).

Greater participation in collective life is an expression of higher levels of citizenship and civic

responsibility (Dworkin 2000).

122 Academic Year 2025/2026