Autonomy Imagined, Autonomy Lived: From the Architecture of Self-Government to the Horizon of 2076 by João Bosco Mota Amaral.

History, when read from the islands, is never a closed chapter—it is a tide, advancing and receding, carrying memory forward into possibility. The autonomy of the Azores, forged across struggle, negotiation, and vision, now invites not only reflection but projection: what it has been, and what it might yet become.

For over a century, autonomy has evolved from a fragile administrative concession into a robust political reality. Yet its most compelling dimension may lie ahead. As suggests in a reflective and forward-looking meditation, imagining the Azores fifty years into the future is less an exercise in prediction than an act of civic desire—a statement of what ought to be.

By 2076, the centenary of constitutional autonomy, the Azores are envisioned as a society transformed yet faithful to its essence. Demographically, the islands would no longer be marked by the hemorrhage of emigration that defined so much of their past. Instead, they would become a place of convergence—where descendants of Azoreans, now generations removed and scattered across North America and beyond, return not as exiles but as participants in a renewed insular identity. Migration, once a necessity, becomes a choice reversed.

Economically, this imagined Azores transcends its historical limitations without abandoning its roots. Agriculture, fisheries, and tourism remain, but are reimagined through sustainability and technological sophistication. The islands, long peripheral, reposition themselves at the center of emerging sectors—ocean-based industries and space-related activities—demanding high levels of expertise and generating new forms of prosperity. The archipelago becomes not merely a destination, but a node in global networks of knowledge and innovation.

Politically, the vision is equally ambitious. Extremism dissolves in a society that has reconciled itself to pluralism and equity. Governance is marked by renewal, with term limits ensuring that leadership circulates and that institutions remain dynamic rather than stagnant. Traditional parties, such as the Socialists and Social Democrats, evolve—opening themselves to civil society and sharing political space with independent citizen movements. Democracy deepens, not through rhetoric, but through structure.

In this future, the architecture of autonomy matures. Public services—education, healthcare, transport—operate with excellence, often in productive coexistence with private initiative. The relationship between the Azores and the Portuguese state is recalibrated: no longer hierarchical, but dialogical. The President of the Republic engages directly with the region, while the President of the Azorean Government participates in national decision-making at the highest level, ensuring that insular realities inform national policy.

The legal and administrative frameworks evolve accordingly. Regional finances are managed with autonomy and responsibility; public services are fully regionalized; the judiciary is strengthened. Even the symbolic markers of earlier governance—such as the office of the Representative of the Republic—fade, replaced by a more integrated yet respectful constitutional balance.

And yet, amidst these transformations, continuity persists. The Azores maintain their historical connection to the United States, a relationship shaped by centuries of migration, cultural exchange, and strategic cooperation. But in this future, such relationships are conducted with full regional agency—no decision regarding the use of territory, including military facilities, occurs without the explicit consent of Azorean institutions.

What emerges from this vision is not utopia, but coherence: a society aligned with its values, its geography, and its history. A region that has learned from its past without being confined by it.

Autonomy, then, is not a static achievement. It is a practice—renewed daily, contested, refined. From the administrative decrees of the nineteenth century to the revolutionary reimagining after the Carnation Revolution, and onward toward the horizon of 2076, the Azores remind us that self-government is not merely about power. It is about belonging, dignity, and the enduring capacity to imagine oneself otherwise.

João Bosco Mota Amaral was the first President of the Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. This essay has been translated and adapted from Correio dos Açores, an issue dedicated to the 50 years of the Azorean autonomy.