I live in a country that, since 1975 has had two parties in government, the socialist party (PS) and the social-democratic party (PSD).
To tell the truth, they're sort of similar, for the most part.
But there are a few important differences.
PS is what we call center-left, while PSD is center-right.
PS takes a bit more care of the social part by taxing more on businesses and harmful goods (like tobacco and gas) and taxing less on the common people.
PSD goes a bit the other way, increasing taxes like VAT (that affect everyone) while relaxing some business taxation. Also, the stock market around here has been remarkably exempt from taxes... no, I lie... it's taxed at something like half VAT. Economists like this approach a lot - it seems the belief in the trickle down economics is still firmly believed in... in spite of the brutal truth that the 1% keep increasing their share of the world's wealth.
PS's way of encouraging businesses is to simplify the huge load of bureaucracy that is required around here... I can't say it's at a German level of paper-work, but damned close!
At the same time, PS assigns a larger share of the budget to social purposes, like healthcare and science&education, while PSD was on its merry way to defund science and hospitals, and privatize as much as possible...
Regarding privatizations, Portugal's airline, TAP, is mostly owned by the state. And it's been heading the privatization way for a while... the new PS government put a stop to that. The rationale is that TAP must maintain some connections to portuguese speaking countries, like Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and others... and the private sector might not see much profit in some of those connections... or in their frequency...
To tell the truth, they're sort of similar, for the most part.
But there are a few important differences.
PS is what we call center-left, while PSD is center-right.
PS takes a bit more care of the social part by taxing more on businesses and harmful goods (like tobacco and gas) and taxing less on the common people.
PSD goes a bit the other way, increasing taxes like VAT (that affect everyone) while relaxing some business taxation. Also, the stock market around here has been remarkably exempt from taxes... no, I lie... it's taxed at something like half VAT. Economists like this approach a lot - it seems the belief in the trickle down economics is still firmly believed in... in spite of the brutal truth that the 1% keep increasing their share of the world's wealth.
PS's way of encouraging businesses is to simplify the huge load of bureaucracy that is required around here... I can't say it's at a German level of paper-work, but damned close!
At the same time, PS assigns a larger share of the budget to social purposes, like healthcare and science&education, while PSD was on its merry way to defund science and hospitals, and privatize as much as possible...
Regarding privatizations, Portugal's airline, TAP, is mostly owned by the state. And it's been heading the privatization way for a while... the new PS government put a stop to that. The rationale is that TAP must maintain some connections to portuguese speaking countries, like Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and others... and the private sector might not see much profit in some of those connections... or in their frequency...
