The main goal of this paper is to analyze the role of the Socialist International in democracy promotion, having as case study its activity in the mid-1970s, during the Iberian democratization processes. The role of non-state actors and their transnational activities recently became a relevant subject in international history. The specific characteristics of these actors, namely their ability to overcome the governmental framework and interact transnationally without the constraints of state-actors, turned them particularly interesting when analyzing political regime change and democracy promotion. However, the SI’s democracy promotion activities cannot be analyzed independently from the ones developed by its member-parties, in particular the West-German SPD, which played a decisive role on the SI’s international involvement in this period. Willy Brandt’s Presidency of the SI (1976-1992) was determinant for its international activity, mainly because he was simultaneously leader of the SPD and had access to a very powerful resource for its international activity: the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). All these elements combined resulted in a strong West German leadership in the Socialist International. The triangulation between the party (SPD), Bonn’s government and the SI was very effective during the Portuguese and Spanish transitions to democracy and reflected the broad range of possibilities that these instruments allowed when working towards the same goal. This paper will be the result of original research developed in archives from Germany, Netherlands, US and Portugal, besides comprising the most recent inputs from the literature on the topic.

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relações transatlânticas; democratização; Portugal; Alemanha Federal; SPD