former+republic

геогр.; сокр. от Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

геогр.; сокр. от Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

   Portugal's economy, under the influence of the European Economic Community (EEC), and later with the assistance of the European Union (EU), grew rapidly in 1985-86; through 1992, the average annual growth was 4-5 percent. While such growth rates did not last into the late 1990s, portions of Portugal's society achieved unprecedented prosperity, although poverty remained entrenched. It is important, however, to place this current growth, which includes some not altogether desirable developments, in historical perspective. On at least three occasions in this century, Portugal's economy has experienced severe dislocation and instability: during the turbulent First Republic (1911-25); during the Estado Novo, when the world Depression came into play (1930-39); and during the aftermath of the Revolution of 25 April, 1974. At other periods, and even during the Estado Novo, there were eras of relatively steady growth and development, despite the fact that Portugal's weak economy lagged behind industrialized Western Europe's economies, perhaps more than Prime Minister Antônio de Oliveira Salazar wished to admit to the public or to foreigners.

   For a number of reasons, Portugal's backward economy underwent considerable growth and development following the beginning of the colonial wars in Africa in early 1961. Recent research findings suggest that, contrary to the "stagnation thesis" that states that the Estado Novo economy during the last 14 years of its existence experienced little or no growth, there were important changes, policy shifts, structural evolution, and impressive growth rates. In fact, the average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate (1961-74) was about 7 percent. The war in Africa was one significant factor in the post-1961 economic changes. The new costs of finance and spending on the military and police actions in the African and Asian empires in 1961 and thereafter forced changes in economic policy.

   Starting in 1963-64, the relatively closed economy was opened up to foreign investment, and Lisbon began to use deficit financing and more borrowing at home and abroad. Increased foreign investment, residence, and technical and military assistance also had effects on economic growth and development. Salazar's government moved toward greater trade and integration with various international bodies by signing agreements with the European Free Trade Association and several international finance groups. New multinational corporations began to operate in the country, along with foreign-based banks. Meanwhile, foreign tourism increased massively from the early 1960s on, and the tourism industry experienced unprecedented expansion. By 1973-74, Portugal received more than 8 million tourists annually for the first time.

   Under Prime Minister Marcello Caetano, other important economic changes occurred. High annual economic growth rates continued until the world energy crisis inflation and a recession hit Portugal in 1973. Caetano's system, through new development plans, modernized aspects of the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors and linked reform in education with plans for social change. It also introduced cadres of forward-looking technocrats at various levels. The general motto of Caetano's version of the Estado Novo was "Evolution with Continuity," but he was unable to solve the key problems, which were more political and social than economic. As the boom period went "bust" in 1973-74, and growth slowed greatly, it became clear that Caetano and his governing circle had no way out of the African wars and could find no easy compromise solution to the need to democratize Portugal's restive society. The economic background of the Revolution of 25 April 1974 was a severe energy shortage caused by the world energy crisis and Arab oil boycott, as well as high general inflation, increasing debts from the African wars, and a weakening currency. While the regime prescribed greater Portuguese investment in Africa, in fact Portuguese businesses were increasingly investing outside of the escudo area in Western Europe and the United States.

   During the two years of political and social turmoil following the Revolution of 25 April 1974, the economy weakened. Production, income, reserves, and annual growth fell drastically during 1974-76. Amidst labor-management conflict, there was a burst of strikes, and income and productivity plummeted. Ironically, one factor that cushioned the economic impact of the revolution was the significant gold reserve supply that the Estado Novo had accumulated, principally during Salazar's years. Another factor was emigration from Portugal and the former colonies in Africa, which to a degree reduced pressures for employment. The sudden infusion of more than 600,000 refugees from Africa did increase the unemployment rate, which in 1975 was 10-15 percent. But, by 1990, the unemployment rate was down to about 5-6 percent.

   After 1985, Portugal's economy experienced high growth rates again, which averaged 4-5 percent through 1992. Substantial economic assistance from the EEC and individual countries such as the United States, as well as the political stability and administrative continuity that derived from majority Social Democratic Party (PSD) governments starting in mid-1987, supported new growth and development in the EEC's second poorest country. With rapid infrastruc-tural change and some unregulated development, Portugal's leaders harbored a justifiable concern that a fragile environment and ecology were under new, unacceptable pressures. Among other improvements in the standard of living since 1974 was an increase in per capita income. By 1991, the average minimum monthly wage was about 40,000 escudos, and per capita income was about $5,000 per annum. By the end of the 20th century, despite continuing poverty at several levels in Portugal, Portugal's economy had made significant progress. In the space of 15 years, Portugal had halved the large gap in living standards between itself and the remainder of the EU. For example, when Portugal joined the EU in 1986, its GDP, in terms of purchasing power-parity, was only 53 percent of the EU average. By 2000, Portugal's GDP had reached 75 percent of the EU average, a considerable achievement. Whether Portugal could narrow this gap even further in a reasonable amount of time remained a sensitive question in Lisbon. Besides structural poverty and the fact that, in 2006, the EU largesse in structural funds (loans and grants) virtually ceased, a major challenge for Portugal's economy will be to reduce the size of the public sector (about 50 percent of GDP is in the central government) to increase productivity, attract outside investment, and diversify the economy. For Portugal's economic planners, the 21st century promises to be challenging.

    See also Empire, Portuguese overseas.

   Supposedly the ideology or ideologies characteristic of the Estado Novo developed and directed by Prime Minister An- tónio de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970), who governed Portugal as premier from 1932 to 1968, and his ruling group of associates and colleagues. Scholars debate why this regime endured so long and the extent to which it was or was not fascist. As to ideologies, Salazar's own education and beliefs were strongly influenced by his Catholic education for nine years in the Seminary at Viseu, by the decrees of Popes Leo X and Pius IX, and by conservative, rural customs. Rather than one ideology, the former Coimbra University economics professor reflected various creeds including Portuguese nationalism, integralism, corporativism doctrines, and various Catholic beliefs that were derived from Thomist teachings, as well as from the writings of the French ideologue Charles Maurras and his disciples. The spirit of Salazarism, if there is any truth to the notion of there being one typical ideology, is founded on a reaction against basic ideas from the French Revolution of individual liberty, fraternity, and equality; against the revolutionary collectivist doctrines including socialism and communism; and against the excesses of politics and government during the ill-fated First Republic (1910-26). Salazar, nevertheless, was not only a man of thought but also a man of action.

    See also Catholic church.

(PS)

   Although the Socialist Party's origins can be traced back to the 1850s, its existence has not been continuous. The party did not achieve or maintain a large base of support until after the Revolution of 25 April 1974. Historically, it played only a minor political role when compared to other European socialist parties.

   During the Estado Novo, the PS found it difficult to maintain a clandestine existence, and the already weak party literally withered away. Different groups and associations endeavored to keep socialist ideals alive, but they failed to create an organizational structure that would endure. In 1964, Mário Soares, Francisco Ramos da Costa, and Manuel Tito de Morais established the Portuguese Socialist Action / Acção Socialista Português (ASP) in Geneva, a group of individuals with similar views rather than a true political party. Most members were middle-class professionals committed to democratizing the nation. The rigidity of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) led some to join the ASP.

   By the early 1970s, ASP nuclei existed beyond Portugal in Paris, London, Rome, Brussels, Frankfurt, Sweden, and Switzerland; these consisted of members studying, working, teaching, researching, or in other activities. Extensive connections were developed with other foreign socialist parties. Changing conditions in Portugal, as well as the colonial wars, led several ASP members to advocate the creation of a real political party, strengthening the organization within Portugal, and positioning this to compete for power once the regime changed.

   The current PS was founded clandestinely on 19 April 1973, by a group of 27 exiled Portuguese and domestic ASP representatives at the Kurt Schumacher Academy of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Bad Munstereifel, West Germany. The founding philosophy was influenced by nondogmatic Marxism as militants sought to create a classless society. The rhetoric was to be revolutionary to outflank its competitors, especially the PCP, on its left. The party hoped to attract reform-minded Catholics and other groups that were committed to democracy but could not support the communists.

   At the time of the 1974 revolution, the PS was little more than an elite faction based mainly among exiles. It was weakly organized and had little grassroots support outside the major cities and larger towns. Its organization did not improve significantly until the campaign for the April 1975 constituent elections. Since then, the PS has become very pragmatic and moderate and has increasingly diluted its socialist program until it has become a center-left party. Among the party's most consistent principles in its platform since the late 1970s has been its support for Portugal's membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Union (EU), a view that clashed with those of its rivals to the left, especially the PCP. Given the PS's broad base of support, the increased distance between its leftist rhetoric and its more conservative actions has led to sharp internal divisions in the party. The PS and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) are now the two dominant parties in the Portuguese political party system.

   In doctrine and rhetoric the PS has undergone a de-Marxification and a movement toward the center as a means to challenge its principal rival for hegemony, the PSD. The uneven record of the PS in general elections since its victory in 1975, and sometimes its failure to keep strong legislative majorities, have discouraged voters. While the party lost the 1979 and 1980 general elections, it triumphed in the 1983 elections, when it won 36 percent of the vote, but it still did not gain an absolute majority in the Assembly of the Republic. The PSD led by Cavaco Silva dominated elections from 1985 to 1995, only to be defeated by the PS in the 1995 general elections. By 2000, the PS had conquered the commanding heights of the polity: President Jorge Sampaio had been reelected for a second term, PS prime minister António Guterres was entrenched, and the mayor of Lisbon was João Soares, son of the former socialist president, Mário Soares (1986-96).

   The ideological transformation of the PS occurred gradually after 1975, within the context of a strong PSD, an increasingly conservative electorate, and the de-Marxification of other European Socialist parties, including those in Germany and Scandinavia. While the PS paid less attention to the PCP on its left and more attention to the PSD, party leaders shed Marxist trappings. In the 1986 PS official program, for example, the text does not include the word Marxism.

   Despite the party's election victories in the mid- and late-1990s, the leadership discovered that their grasp of power and their hegemony in governance at various levels was threatened by various factors: President Jorge Sampaio's second term, the constitution mandated, had to be his last.

   Following the defeat of the PS by the PSD in the municipal elections of December 2001, Premier Antônio Guterres resigned his post, and President Sampaio dissolved parliament and called parliamentary elections for the spring. In the 17 March 2002 elections, following Guterres's resignation as party leader, the PS was defeated by the PSD by a vote of 40 percent to 38 percent. Among the factors that brought about the socialists' departure from office was the worsening post-September 11 economy and disarray within the PS leadership circles, as well as charges of corruption among PS office holders. However, the PS won 45 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections of 2005, and the leader of the party, José Sócrates, a self-described "market-oriented socialist" became prime minister.

   ■ This information can become rapidly dated or obsolete, depending on circumstances, and websites can disappear from the internet.

   ■ Websites from Portuguese Government Agencies and Institutions

   ■ On investments, trade, and tourism from Ministry of Economy: http://www.portugal.org

   ■ On cultural events, calendars, online version of periodical Agenda Cultural (Lisbon's Câmara Municipal): http://www.cm-lisboa.pt

   ■ Search engine and catalogue of Portuguese webpages by category, such as museums, and entertainment: http://www.sapo.pt [SAPO=Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses]

   ■ Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa website: http://www.bn.pt [links to online catalogue of BNL: PORBASE]

   ■ National archives website: http://iantt.pt

   ■ Websites for Portuguese daily newspapers online (including Jornal de Notícas, Público, Avante, and Correio da Manhã): Publico's website: http://www.publico.com

   ■ Websites of Leading Political Parties: PSD: http://www.psd.pt PS: http://www.ps.pt PCP: http://www.pcp.pt PP: http://partido-popular.pt

   ■ Websites of Interest from Former Colonies

   ■ On Macau: http://www.macau.ctm.net/

   ■ On Mozambique: Eduardo Mondlane University website, Maputo: http://www.uem.mz Link to Mozambique's webpage and libraries:

   ■ http://www.sas.vpenn.edu/African_studies/Country_specific/Mozambique.html

   ■ On Angola: Republic of Angola website: http://www.angola.org On Cape Verde Islands:

   ■ Government website: http://www.umassd.edu/specialprograms/caboverde/capeverdean.html

   ■ On East Timor: East Timor Action Network: etan-outreach\@igc.apc.org [New York base] etan-dc\@igc.apc.org [Washington, DC base]

   ■ Portuguese Pousadas (State-run Inns) www.pousadas.pt