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Portugal The Salazar-Caetano Era
The republic was replaced by a military dictatorship
that
promised order, authority, and discipline. The military
regime
abolished political parties, took steps against the small
but
vocal Marxist groups, and did away with republican
institutions.
In 1928 it invited University of Coimbra professor António
de
Oliveira Salazar to serve as minister of finance. In 1932
he
became prime minister. That year marked the beginning of
his
regime, the New State (Estado Novo; see
The New State
, ch. 1).
Under Salazar (1932-68), Portugal became, at least
formally,
a corporative state. The new constitution of 1933 embodied
the
corporatist theory, under which government was to be
formed of
economic entities organized according to their function,
rather
than by individual representation. Employers were to form
one
group, labor another, and they and other groups were to
deal with
one another through their representative organizations.
In reality, however, Salazar headed an autocratic
dictatorship with the help of an efficient secret police.
Strict
censorship was introduced, the politically suspect were
monitored, and the regime's opponents were jailed, sent
into
exile, and occasionally killed.
Portugal drifted and floundered under this repressive
regime
for several decades. Economic conditions improved slightly
in the
1950s, when Salazar instituted the first of two five-year
economic plans. These plans stimulated some growth, and
living
standards began to rise.
The 1960s, however, were crisis years for Portugal.
Guerrilla
movements emerged in the Portuguese African colonies of
Angola,
Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau (formerly Portuguese Guinea)
that
aimed at liberating those territories from "the last
colonial
empire." Fighting three guerrilla movements for more than
a
decade proved to be enormously draining for a small, poor
country
in terms of labor and financial resources. At the same
time,
social changes brought about by urbanization, emigration,
the
growth of the working class, and the emergence of a
sizeable
middle class put new pressures on the political system to
liberalize. Instead, Salazar increased repression, and the
regime
became even more rigid and ossified.
When Salazar was incapacitated in an accident in 1968,
the
Council of State, a high-level advisory body created by
the
constitution of 1933, chose Marcello Caetano (1968-74) to
succeed
him. Caetano, though a Salazar protégé, tried to modernize
and
liberalize the old Salazar system. He was opposed,
however, by a
group widely referred to as "the bunker," the old
Salazaristas.
These included the country's president, Admiral Américo
Tomás,
the senior officers of the armed forces, and the heads of
some of
the country's largest financial groups. The bunker was
powerful
enough that any fundamental change would certainly have
led to
Caetano's immediate overthrow.
As Caetano promised reform but fell into indecision,
the
sense began to grow among all groups--the armed forces,
the
opposition, and liberals within the regime--that only a
revolution could produce the changes that Portugal sorely
needed.
Contributing to this feeling were a number of growing
tensions on
the political and social scene.
The continuing economic drain caused by the military
campaigns in Africa was exacerbated by the first great oil
"shock" of 1973. Politically, the desire for democracy, or
at
least a greater opening up of the political system, was
increasing. Social tensions mounted, as well, because of
the slow
pace of change and the absence of opportunities for
advancement.
The decisive ingredient in these tensions was
dissension
within the military itself, long a bulwark of the regime.
Younger
military academy graduates resented a program introduced
by
Caetano whereby university graduates who completed a brief
training program could be commissioned at the same rank as
academy graduates. Caetano had begun the program because
it was
becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new officers as
casualties from the African wars mounted
(see The Military Takeover of 1974
, ch. 5).
Data as of January 1993
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