State, crisis and regulation in the Southern Europe (a comparative reflection on the Portuguese experience)

Abstract

The analysis of the evolution of the Portuguese social formation from the pre-revolutionary situation of 1974-1975 up to this day may also make possible the examination of the peripheric capitalism theories within the framework of the Southern Europe. In what extent are they also valid for Europe those analyses on the structural dependence made in Latin America? Has the structural blockade that is to be seen today in Portugal the same nature visible in the peripheric formations distorted by the articulation depending on the present capitalist system? How could we elaborate, for Portugal, an alternate strategy of separation and autonomous development under these well-determined historical and geographical conditions? Such are the main issues that build the background for this reflection, according to the following steps: First, one compares the principal regulation mechanisms of the Portuguese capitalism, before and after the coup d'État of 1974, remarking the different forms of external dependence in the two periods (between the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies, on one side, and from the middle of the seventies till today, on the other side). Secondly one considers the structural blockade situation that was again established in Portugal in the end of the seventies, the explanation of which - according to the author - lies at the «internal» political level of the social existence of Portugal, that is, of the relations between social groups and classes and of their expressions in the domination of the State political organization. In third place, one traces a brief comparative analysis of the Portuguese economy within the framework of the Southern Europe; as a conclusion the author presents some hypotheses concerning the nature of the Portuguese peripheric capitalism.