The role of the state and the budget

As the holidays come to an end, we will see political activity return to normal, with the focus in the coming weeks being on the preparation and discussion of the National Budget Proposal (OE).

The OE is the fundamental tool for directing the activities of the government and public administration. The short-, medium- and long-term political and financial choices of the government are set out in the budget (and can be read).

In other words, the State Budget is a document that allows to assess whether the Government, responsible for preparing the proposal, intends to submit it to the Assembly of the Republic for discussion and vote to introduce and implement reforms declared necessary or even essential in several sectors and, if so, to what extent you intend to achieve this intention.

I do not think it is necessary to list multiple sectors of administrative activities and public institutions that need to be reformed to make them operational, correct deficiencies or simply updated. In my opinion, it is more complicated to try to make specific, isolated reform proposals for specific sectors without caring about discussing and reaching consensus on the country’s global strategy in advance.

This discussion implies a serious reflection on the state and its role and function in society. For me, the state exists to ensure freedom of social life and to ensure justice.

Thomas Jefferson declared in the American Declaration of Independence that governments are instituted to secure certain rights, universally recognized as inalienable, without justification, namely, liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness under law, and I believe that the original mission of the state, the very reason for its existence, is to secure the administration of justice, the settlement of conflicts, which leads to the establishment of rules of conduct and institutions specifically charged with the administration and execution of those rules.

Therefore, all the functions that we peacefully accept today should – or can – be performed by the State – education, health, security (in the external sphere involving international representation and defense), promotion of economic and social development, reduction of inequalities. , environmental protection, etc., are the result of the promotion, guarantee and application of justice.

Such a discussion would also necessarily involve an elaboration of the relationship between different powers (legislative, executive, judicial), between different types of institutions (central, regional, autonomous, regulatory), and between public and private.

This is not to say that unanimous agreement on this strategy should be sought, which is impossible, but at least the main political forces represented in the Assembly of the Republic should seek to establish a basic formula reflecting possible agreements with a view to achieving a normal, democratically ideal rotation.

If majority consensus could be achieved in the various constitutional amendments approved since 1982, then I see no reason why this consensus cannot be achieved in a national discussion about what we want Portugal to be in the future. The problem is that we still see no signs of such a discussion.

The author wrote according to the old spelling.