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Portugal The Elite
Before the Revolution of 1974, Portugal's elite could
be
divided into five groups; the nobility, the large
landowners, the
heads of large businesses, the members of learned
professions,
and high-ranking military officers. These elites were
closely
connected and intertwined in numerous complex ways.
The oldest group historically was the nobility. It
generally
traced its origins to the formative period of Portuguese
history.
The monarchy had frequently granted noble titles to the
elite in
return for loyalty and service. In modern times, this
nobility
continued frequently to use its titles of duke, count, or
marquis. A title was a symbol of status and was often
eagerly
sought, although the younger, more liberal generation
frequently
scoffed at such titles. Some of the titled nobility went
into the
learned professions or high government service. In the
modern
age, a titled nobility seemed anachronistic, but in
Portugal this
elite lingered on.
A second group, often overlapping with the first,
consisted
of large landowners, or latifundiários. They were
chiefly
concentrated in the Alentejo, but other areas of Portugal,
such
as the Beira and Ribatejo, also contained large estates.
Increasingly, this landholding element had become absentee
landlords, settling in Lisbon and leaving their estates in
the
hands of managers. In Lisbon, the landed elites frequently
diversified into business and industry but kept their
estates,
sometimes as profit-making enterprises, but most often as
symbols
of status. This elite was also in the process of being
eclipsed
when the Revolution of 1974 occurred.
More important than either of these first two groups
were
business people and industrialists. These elements had
come to
prominence in Portugal in the 1960s and early 1970s as
Portuguese
economic growth accelerated and the country
industrialized. The
business elite was often well educated and had emerged
from the
middle class. It filled the ranks of managers,
administrators,
and company presidents. Quite a number married, or their
children
married, into the nobility or the landed class. As
Portugal
continued to develop economically, the business groups
gained in
influence, particularly as the survival of the regime came
to
depend on a prosperous economy.
A fourth group among the elite consisted of the learned
professions, including university professors. Medicine as
a
profession had traditionally enjoyed particular prestige
in
Portugal. Lawyers similarly enjoyed prestige; many of them
went
into government service or became managers of banks and
major
companies. University professors were also valued: Salazar
and
Caetano were both university dons, and their cabinets
often
included several professors. The high prestige stemmed in
part
from the fact that university education was so rare in
Portugal
and a professor far rarer still; it also stemmed from the
need
for technical expertise in the government. Because of the
large
number of university professors, Salazar's regime was
often
referred to as a catedratocracia, a term derived
from the
Portuguese word for university chair, cátedra.
The fifth elite was the military officer corps. These
were
men, often from middle- or lower middle-class ranks, who
had made
it to the top in a very important institution: the armed
forces.
Education and the military, in fact, were among the few
means
open to ambitious middle-class youth to rise in the social
scale
in highly class-conscious Portugal. The military officers
did not
always mingle well with the upper-class civilians, but the
power
and importance of the armed forces meant they had to be
paid
serious attention. In addition, many of the banks, large
businesses, and elite family groups, as a way of
protecting their
interests, placed military officers on their payrolls.
These elites were closely interrelated. A landowner
living in
the city might go into business or banking; a wealthy
business
person or industrialist might buy land. They themselves or
their
children would acquire an education and enter the learned
professions. Business elites formed groups in which they
owned
diverse holdings: typically, insurance, hotels,
construction,
banking, real estate, and newspapers. They hired
university
professors and military officers to help administer these
holdings--or as an "insurance policy." Some members of the
group
held government positions--often carrying out private and
public
activities simultaneously. These groups were tightly
inbred
and often overlapping, with powerful
political-economic-military
connections.
The Revolution of 1974 largely destroyed this
oligarchic
system. Many of the old political elites associated with
the
regime were forced into exile, and others had their
businesses
confiscated. Almost all lost their positions and many of
their
holdings as a result of the revolution. Many members of
the old
elite eventually found their way back to Portugal and some
began
again to prosper in the late 1980s. But the strength of
the elite
was nowhere near so great as it was before 1974 and may
have been
ended permanently.
Data as of January 1993
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