António Salazar
The Estado Novo
Corporatist, Catholic, authoritarian order.
Reactionary PinochetistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Pinochetist hall →- Role
- Prime Minister
- Era
- 1889–1970
- Region
- Portugal
- Social band
- Reactionary
- Placement
- +90 · +93 · −78
§ Where António Salazar stands
3 axesSalazar was a fiscal conservative who balanced the budget from 1928 and prized sound money, low public spending and private property. His corporatist system, set out in the 1933 National Labour Statute, banned strikes and free unions, while industrial licensing shielded established firms from competition. From the 1950s, development plans and EFTA membership in 1960 opened the economy further, a capitalist order well toward the market pole.
The Estado Novo was a one-party state built around the National Union, with heavy censorship and a political police, PIDE, that tortured opponents and ran the Tarrafal prison camp in Cape Verde. When Humberto Delgado challenged the regime's candidate in the 1958 presidential election, the result was manipulated and direct presidential elections were abolished; PIDE agents murdered Delgado in Spain in 1965.
The Estado Novo's motto was God, Fatherland and Family. The 1933 constitution proclaimed equality before the law except, for women, differences arising from their nature and the good of the family; the 1940 concordat restored Church influence and barred civil divorce for Catholic marriages; and the regime presented Portugal's empire as a single pluricontinental Catholic nation.
How close are you to António Salazar?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalAntónio de Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970) dominated Portuguese politics for four decades, as finance minister from 1928 and as prime minister from 1932 to 1968. Born into a modest rural family in Vimieiro, he studied at a seminary, became a professor of economics at the University of Coimbra and was active in Catholic politics. After the military coup of 1926 he was recalled to the finance ministry in 1928 with a veto over all spending, balanced the budget and built his authority on that success.
As prime minister Salazar created the Estado Novo, or New State, under the 1933 constitution: a corporatist, Catholic and authoritarian regime with a single party, censorship and a political police, later known as PIDE. He kept Portugal neutral in the Second World War and brought it into NATO in 1949, but refused to give up the empire, fighting colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea from 1961. Incapacitated by a fall in 1968, he was replaced by Marcelo Caetano, and the regime fell in the 1974 Carnation Revolution.
Notable for
- 01Founded the Estado Novo
- 02Corporatist economic model
- 03Decades of authoritarian rule
Key works & moments
- 1928Returns as finance minister with a veto over all spending and balances the budget.
- 1932Becomes prime minister, the office he holds until 1968.
- 1933A plebiscite approves the Estado Novo constitution; the National Labour Statute introduces corporatism.
- 1940Signs a concordat with the Vatican; Portugal stays neutral in the Second World War.
- 1961War breaks out in Angola, the first of Portugal's colonial wars; India seizes Goa.
- 1968Incapacitated by a fall, he is replaced by Marcelo Caetano; he dies in 1970.
In their own words
“We do not discuss God and virtue; we do not discuss the Fatherland and its history; we do not discuss Authority and its prestige; we do not discuss the Family and its morality; we do not discuss the glory of work and its duty.”
§ Minds closest to António Salazar
All minds →
§ Also in the Pinochetist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat was António Salazar's political ideology?
António Salazar was a Catholic corporatist and authoritarian conservative: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reactionary Pinochetist. Economically he sat near the market end (+90), defending private property, balanced budgets and sound money within a corporatist framework that banned strikes. On governance he was near the authoritarian maximum (+93), ruling through a single party, censorship and the PIDE political police, and socially he was strongly traditionalist (−78), building the state on God, Fatherland and Family.
Was António Salazar left-wing or right-wing?
Right-wing. Salazar was a Catholic conservative who built his regime against liberal democracy, communism and the secular republicanism of Portugal's First Republic. He protected property and employers, banned free unions and strikes, allied the state with the Church and defended Portugal's colonial empire to the end. Unlike fascist leaders he distrusted mass mobilisation, but his authoritarian, traditionalist order places him firmly on the right.
Was Salazar a fascist?
Most historians say not quite. Salazar borrowed from fascism a corporatist constitution, a single party, a youth organisation and a militia, the Portuguese Legion, but he distrusted mass politics and in 1934 suppressed Portugal's own fascist movement, Rolão Preto's National Syndicalists. His regime relied on the Church, the army and a passive population rather than on a revolutionary movement, so it is usually described as a conservative, Catholic authoritarian dictatorship with some fascist trappings.
Which minds are closest to António Salazar?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to António Salazar are Augusto Pinochet (98% alike), Adam Sutler (96% alike) and Coriolanus Snow (96% alike). The furthest is Emma Goldman (0% alike).