Caetano Spring

Abstract

Antonio Salazar's illness forced his entourage to choose a successor. The choice fell on a man who was one of the crea-tors of the New State regime; in the 1940s and 1950s he held high positions, but in the 1960s he stepped down from pow-er. Marcelo Caetano began his rule with the liberalization of the political system. Some politicians who were previously forced to emigrate were able to return to Portugal. Moderate oppositionists were allowed to participate in parliamentary elections, where they formed a small faction. Attempts were made to reform the regime's economic policies. The new head of government sought to allocate more funds to social programs. Nevertheless, already by 1971-72 the possibilities for liberalizing the regime had been exhausted. The article concludes that despite a number of steps to reform the New State, Caetano was not ready to allow the opposition to actually participate in governing the country.

Keywords

• portugal
• salazar
• new state
• caetano
• spinola