Walter C Opello Jr - Portugals Political Development: A Comparative Approach

Portugal's Political Development

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Portugal's early developmental experience created a highly centralized administrative state that continues to have a powerful influence on the nature and style of the country's government and politics. Emphasizing this theme, Dr. Opello shows that, contrary to the conclusions of scholars who have analyzed Portugal from Latin American or Third World perspectives, Portuguese political development is more comparable to the pattern of development of West European countries, especially France. He compares Portugal's political experience with that of other West European countries and concludes by speculating about the future of Portugal's fledgling democracy.

Walter C. Opello, Jr., is associate professor of political science at the University of Mississippi. His articles on Portuguese politics and government and on Portuguese-speaking Africa have appeared in several books and journals.

A Comparative Approach

Walter C. Opello , Jr.

First published 1985 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge
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Copyright 1985 by Taylor & Francis

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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 84-62208

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28395-7(hbk)

Political scientists who study West European politics have traditionally focused their attention on the major powers--Great Britain, France, West Germany, and Italy--and neglected the smaller countries of the region. Lately, however, some scholars have begun to turn their attention toward West Europe's smaller democracies. Third, until the collapse of authoritarianism in 1974, Portugal tended to be oriented economically and politically toward Africa where she had three colonies--Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea (Bissau) --and toward her former colony, Brazil. The African colonies, which were the subject of grandiose dreams of Portuguese policymakers during the authoritarian period, acted as a political and economic counterweight to Portugal's small size and meager natural resources and magnified her international importance and prestige. Finally, Portugal has been neglected because few political scientists possess competency in the Portuguese language. Those who do are usually concerned with Brazil or Portuguese-speaking Africa (Portugal's former colonies). Moreover, political scientists with an interest in Iberian politics are invariably drawn toward Portugal's neighbor, Spain.

Therefore, little is known of Portuguese society and politics from a social science point of view and Portugal has not been included to any significant degree in the comparative political research tradition on West Europe. It is vitally important that Portugal now be included in this tradition. First, as political scientists we are concerned with making broad generalizations about politics. Portugal is a political system and now has a very active.democratic political life. Like other political systems the experience of Portugal may serve to suggest new hypotheses and invalidate or support existing ones. Despite the arguments of some political scientists--namely, the corporatists, of which more below--the various approaches that have been used to study West European politics can be as fruitfully applied to Portugal as anywhere. The Portuguese political tradition, although no doubt different in important ways from that of the major powers, is as much West European as is that of France, West Germany or Italy. The inclusion of Portugal within the tradition of comparative scholarship adds one more case to the universe of pluralist democracies and can aid our understanding of the West European political experience generally.

Second, it is important to add Portugal to the body of comparative studies on Western Europe because it is highly relevant to a host of specialized theoretical problems of comparative politics, especially those having to do with the breakdown of authoritarianism and the instauration of democracy. How is it that a country with practically no democratic tradition almost overnight turned away from authoritarianism and established a pluralist democracy? The inclusion of Portugal in the tradition of comparative scholarship can shed additional light on this question as well as more "mundane" ones concerning nationstate formation, political party and party system development, electoral behavior, national-local linkages, political culture, and so on.