Political purges and state crisis in Portugal's transition to democracy, 1975-76

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 43, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 305-332

  Pinto, António Costa ^a  

^a INSTITUTO DE CIÊNCIAS SOCIAIS   (Portugal)

Author keywords

Authoritarianism; Democratization; Legacies; Political purges; Portugal; Transitional justice

Indexed keywords

EID: 57749138432     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0022009408089034     Document Type: Review

References (82)

1. Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norma and London 1991), 215.
2. Kieran Williams, Brigid Fowler and Aleks Szczerbiak, 'Explaining Lustration in Central Europe: A "Post-communist Politics" Approach', Democratization 12(1) (2005), 22-43.
3. Jon Elster, Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective (New York 2004), 75.
4. Helga A. Welsh, 'Dealing with the Communist Past: Central and Eastern European Experiences after 1990', Europe-Asia Studies 48(3) (1996), 419-28.
5. For more on the reconversion of communist parties, see Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming the Communist Past: The Regeneration of Communist Parties in East Central Europe (Cambridge 2002).
6. Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America and Post-Communist Europe (Baltimore 1997), 38-54.
7. Nancy Bermeo, 'War and Democratization: Lessons from the Portuguese Experience', Democratization 13(3) (2007), 338-406.
8. Linz and Stepan, Problems, op. cit., 117.
9. There is a very large bibliography dealing with 'transitional justice' processes, the most recent of which is Jon Elster (ed.), Retribution and Reparation in the Transition to Democracy (Cambridge 2006).
10. Of interest in relation to a comparative analysis of the Portuguese case, with particular reference to the administration, militias and political police are, as a general introduction to the phenomenon in Europe, the pioneering works by John H. Herz (ed.), From Dictatorship to Democracy: Coping with the Legacies of Authoritarianism (Westport and London 1982)
11. Alexandra Barahona de Brito, González-Enriquez Cruz and Paloma Aguilar (eds), The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies (Oxford 2001);
12. and Istvan Deak, Jan T. Gross and Tony Judt (eds), The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and its Aftermath (Princeton 2000).
13. For the French case, see Marc-Olivier Baruch (ed.), Une Poignée de Misérables: L'epuration de la société française après la Seconde Guerre Mondial (Paris 2003);
14. for Italy, Hans Woller, L'Epurazione in Italia (Bologna 1997);
15. and for Czechoslovakia, Benjamin Frommer, National Cleansing. Retribution against Nazi collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia (Cambridge 2004).
16. This is the view of, amongst others, Manuel de Lucena, O Estado da Revolução (Lisbon 1978).
17. See the more recent work by Robert M. Fishman, 'Legacies of Democratizing Reform and Revolution: Portugal and Spain Compared', paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (Chicago 2004).
18. Geoffrey Pridham, The Dynamics of Democratization: A Comparative Approach (London 2000).
19. Phillipe C. Schmitter, 'The Democratization of Portugal in its Comparative Perspective', in Fernando Rosas (ed.), Portugal e a Transição para a Democracia (Lisbon 1999).
20. Norrie MacQueen, The Decolonization of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan Revolution and the Dissolution of Empire (London 1997);
21. António Costa Pinto, O Fim do Império Português (Lisbon 2001).
22. António Costa Pinto, Salazar's Dictatorship and European Fascism (New York 1995).
23. Tiago Fernandes, Nem Ditadura nem Revolução: A Ala Liberal no Marcelismo (1968-74) (Lisbon 2005).
24. Leonardo Morlino, Democracy Between Consolidation and Crisis: Parties, Groups and Citizens in Southern Europe (Oxford 1998), 19.
25. Schmitter, 'Democratization', op. cit., 360.
26. Thomas C. Bruneu (ed.), Political Parties and Democracy in Portugal: Organizations, Elections and Public Opinion (Boulder, CO 1997).
27. Rafael Durán Muñoz, Acciones Colectivas y Transiciones a la Democrácia: España y Portugal, 1974-77 (Madrid 1997).
28. Diego Palacios Cerezales, O Poder Caiu na Rua: Crise de Estado e Acções Colectivas na Revolução Portuguesa, 1974-75 (Lisbon 2003);
29. António Costa Pinto, 'The Radical Right in Contemporary Portugal', in Luciano Cheles et al. (eds), The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe (London 1995), 108-28.
30. Kenneth Maxwell, The Making of Portuguese Democracy (Cambridge 1995).
31. Walter C. Opello, Jr, 'Portugal: A Case Study of International Determinants of Regime Transition', in Geoffrey Pridham (ed.), Encouraging Democracy: The International Context of Regime Transition in Southern Europe (Leicester 1991), 84-102;
32. Nuno Severiano Teixeira, 'Between Africa and Europe: Portuguese Foreign Policy', in António Costa Pinto (ed.), Contemporary Portugal (New York 2004);
33. Rui Mateus, Memórias de um PS desconconhecido (Lisbon 1997).
34. Pinto, 'Settling Accounts with the Past in a Troubled Transition to Democracy: The Portuguese Case', in Alexandra Barahona de Brito, Gonzälez-Enriquez Cruz and Paloma Aguilar (eds), The Politics of Memory, op. cit., 65-91.
35. We are dealing here with the first measures that were mainly concerned with the past: with 'the political decisions that were taken immediately following the transition and which were directed at individuals who were responsible for decisions made or implemented under the old regime'. See Jon Elster, 'Coming to Terms with the Past: A Framework for the Study of Justice in the Transition to Democracy', Archives Européennes de Sociologie 39(1), 14;
36. and Jon Elster, Closing the Books
37. In the colonies, the political police remained active for a few weeks immediately following the coup, as the military had hoped that the service could be integrated into a military intelligence police. However, not even the colonial political police could escape the abolition of their service.
38. See Filipa Raimundo, 'The Double Face of Heroes. Transitional Justice and the Political Police (PIDE/DGS) in Portugal's Democratization, 1974-1976', MA dissertation in comparative politics, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, 2007.
39. Artur Costa, 'O Julgamento da PIDE-DGS e o Direito (Transitório) à Memória', in Iva Delgado, Manuel Loff, António Cluny, Carlos Pacheco and Ricardo Monteiro (eds), De Pinochet a Timor Lorosae: Impunidade e Direito à Memória (Lisbon 2000), 39-53;
40. Raimundo, 'The Double Face'
41. Diário do Governo, 1 (146), 744.
42. Diário do Governo, 1 (59), 375.
43. O Século, 27 February 1975.
44. O Século, 1 October 1974. Dinis de Almeida, who was at that time an important figure in the MFA's extreme-left, divided the purges into four periods. General Spínola and the MFA led the first series of purges. The second, which was based on the principle of 'incompetence', was much slower and more complex. The third, which took place during the spring and summer of 1975, involved the removal of right-wing officers. The fourth and final series of purges took place after 25 November 1975, when left-wing officers were removed.
45. See Dinis de Almeida, Ascenção, Apogeu e Queda do MFA (Lisbon 1978), 39-43.
46. Diário do Governo, 1 (62), 430-4.
47. Kenneth Maxwell, 'The Emergence of Portuguese Democracy', in Herz, op. cit., 231-50.
48. There were four different degrees of punishment: transfer to other duties at either the same or a lower grade; suspension for up to three years; compulsory retirement; and dismissal.
49. Diário Popular, 5 September 1974.
50. Artur Maurício and Castelo Branco Chaves, Saneamento na Função Pública (Lisbon 1975), 90.
51. See also O Século, 27 February 1975.
52. António Costa Pinto, 'Salazar's Ministerial Elites', Portuguese Journal of Social Science 3(3) (2004), 103-13.
53. A Capital, 19 April 1975.
54. See the speech delivered by the Socialist Party deputy Raul Rego, which was published in A Luta on 9 February 1977.
55. For example, this was true in the case of Teixeira Ribeiro, a professor at the University of Coimbra who was to become Vasco Gonçalves's deputy prime minister, and the writer and school-teacher Mário Dionísio.
56. For some examples, see P. José Geraldes Freire, Processo de Saneamento. Acusação, Defesa, Depoimentos (Coimbra 1976);
57. and Augusto Lopes Cardoso, As "Monstruosidades vulgares" ou elementos para a História dos "saneamentos" ou os incríveis casos de um Magistrado e de dois professores catedráticos (Braga 1977).
58. For a comparative introduction, see Alexander Mayer-Rieckh and Pablo De Greiff (eds), Justice as Prevention. Vetting Public Employees in Transitional Societies (New York 2007).
59. Fátima Patriarca, 'A Revolução e a Questão Social: Que Justiça Social?', in Fernando Rosas (ed.), Portugal e a Transição para a Democracia (Lisbon 1999), 141.
60. Diário do Governo, 1 (17), 112-3.
61. Harry Makler, 'The Consequences of the Survival and Revival of the Industrial Bourgeoisie', in Lawrence Graham and Douglas L. Wheeler (eds), In Search of Modern Portugal: The Revolution and its Consequences (Madison 1983), 251-83.
62. See also Filipe S. Fernandes and Hermínio Santos, Excomungados de Abril. Os empresários na Revolução (Lisbon 2005);
63. and some interviews in Leonor Xavier, Portugal Tempo de Paixão (Lisbon 2000).
64. Kenneth Maxwell, The Press and the Rebirth of Iberian Democracy (Westport and London 1983).
65. Jorge Freitas Branco and Luísa Tiago de Oliveira, Ao Encontro do Povo: 1-A Missão (Lisbon 1993);
66. Luísa Tiago de Oliveira, Estudantes e Povo na Revoluç ão: O Serviço Cívico Estudantil (Oeiras 2004).
67. Elster, Closing the Books, op. cit., 75.
68. This section owes much to Maria Inácia Rezola, who provided me with material concerning the Council of the Revolution and the purges. For more on this, see her Os Militares na Revoluçao de Abril (Lisbon 2006).
69. Council of the Revolution, Minutes of a meeting dated 11 December 1975, Annexes T and P, Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo (ANTT). Sousa e Castro had already been nominated to take control of the purges, but he took office only after the events of 25 November 1975. See Council of the Revolution, Minutes of a meeting dated 31 October 1975, ANTT.
70. Diário do Governo, 1 (138), 1332.
71. From the Jornal Novo to the Socialist Party's own A Luta.
72. Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo/Conselho da Revolução, CARSP, Relatório de Actividades, 1976-1977-1978.
73. Rui Pena Pires (ed.), Os Retornados: Um Estudo Sociográfico (Lisbon 1984).
74. Diário de Notícias, 16 June 1976.
75. Law 20/97, 19 June 1997.
76. According to this law, the claimant must prove that their claim is related to time 'spent, either within the country or abroad, during which they were victims of political persecution that impeded their ability to engage in normal professional activities and prevented their social insertion into the community because of their membership of a political group, or their participation in political activities destined to promote democracy' at any time between 28 May 1926 and 25 April 1974.
77. If the person identified in the case is still alive, or has been dead for less than 50 years, their file may be consulted only with permission from the individual concerned, or from their descendants. The majority of documents, with names expunged, are open for consultation.
78. Paloma Aguilar, Memoria y Olvido de la Guerra Civil Española (Madrid 1996);
79. Paloma Aguilar, 'Justice, Politics and Memory in the Spanish Transition', in Brito et al. (eds), The Politics of Memory, op. cit.;
80. Nicos C. Alivizatos and P. Nikiforos Dimandoros, 'Politics and the Judiciary in the Greek Transition to Democracy', in James McAdams (ed.), Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies (Notre Dame 1997), 27-60;
81. Dimitris A. Sotiropoulos, 'Swift Gradualism and Variable Outcomes: Vetting in Post-Authoritarian Greece', in Alexander Mayer-Rieckh and Pablo De Greiff (eds), Justice as Prevention. Vetting Public Employees in Transitional Societies (New York 2007), 120-45.
82. Kathrine Hite and Leonardo Morlino (eds), Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe (Notre Dame, IN, 2004).