Tools of Government in the Portuguese Transition to Democracy

Abstract

The Carnations Revolution in 1974 did not bring immediate, radical changes to the government’s control toolkit.¹ However, after the failed military left-wing coup d’etat of November 1975, which marked the consolidation of the MFA-Moderates and the abandonment of the radical revolutionary agenda, the pattern of utilisation of most of the basic resources underwent important transformations. The coercive organisation instruments (Section 5.1) and nodality tools (Section 5.2) were very important for the initial provisional governments but abandoned after the November coup. Organisational design was used to recentralise the military by eliminating the parallel MFA hierarchical structures that had emerged during the revolution. Military education and training, which had been marginal since the outbreak of the Colonial Wars, gained salience progressively after 1976 (Section 5.1.2). Conversely, after 1976, the use of authority tools such as military appointments and demotions decreased. The autonomy and special functions that had been granted to the military were severely curtailed by the constitutional reform and the new defence law in 1982 (Section 5.3). Finally, the utilisation of treasure continued to be very low and only after 1985 did military investment and rearmament programmes acquire significance (Section 5.4). Table 5.1 outlines the main tools employed during this period.