Corporative metamorphoses? - associations of economic interests and the institutionalization of democracy in Portugal (II)

Abstract

The first part of the text, published in the latest number of Análise Social, has been reviewed by the authors and they have added some notes on the main «events» between 1987 and September 1991. It was first written in 1987 as part of an international project («Interest organizations and democratic consolidation in Southern Europe») involving Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Turkish researchers. The project was coordinated at the European University Institute in Florence by the North American professor Philippe Schmitter. Rather than a «democratic consolidation», on which the authors are unwilling to make prophecies, it is about the actions, omissions and transformations of the main organizations representing economic interests throughout the long process of establishing and institutionalizing the present political regime in Portugal. After a brief, theoretic introduction, the first part of the text, published in the nº. 114 of Análise Social, includes chapters on the evolution of the Portuguese syndicalist movement (from the first «opening up» of the Salazar regime by Marcello Caetano) and the advent, after the 25th of April, of new entrepreneurs' associations. In the present second part of the text the authors consider the farmers' associations and draw some tentative conclusions.