Nationalisation and the opposition to the New State

Abstract

This article analyses the rise of radical anti-capitalist opposition to the New State during the last fifteen years of the regime. It evaluates the way in which proposals such as the destruction of monopolies, nationalisation of the basic sectors, socialisation of the means of production, and economic planning were received. It highlights some of the background to the nationalisation which occurred after 25 April, 1974, without losing sight of the interventionist tradition which the New State had strengthened and which had become part of the Portuguese culture of politics for half a century.