Central State and decentralization: precedents and evolution, 1974-1984

Abstract

In Portugal, society and state are strongly centralized in terms either economic and social or political, cultural and administrative. This situation has been reinforced mainly after the first decades of the last century and the democratic regime estabilished in 1974 has not charged, almost in no aspect, the direction chosen then: today the central state and the public sector are larger than ten
years ago. The free election of the organs of local self-government and after 1976, the foundation of the autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira are the two main exceptions to it. The author begins by remarking some centralism indicators, referring a certain number of theoretical or historical aspects of the relations between the state, the regions and the municipalities. Afterwards he enunciates the main factors that originate the centralization of the State and the society in Portugal, showing the Portuguese evolution after the revolution in 1974 and underlining the most important events of the decentralizing and regionalist movement, as well as the main cases of reinforcement of the centralizing tendencies and the main reasons in each case. In the last part one talks about the present limits and insufficiencies of centralism as well as some groundings for the necessary decentralization and regionalization.