Book review: Ronald H. Chilcote The Portuguese Revolution: State and Class in the Transition to Democracy, Rowman & Littlefield: Boulder, CO, 2010; 313 pp: 978074256792, £49.95 (hbk)

Abstract

Ronald H. Chilcote The Portuguese Revolution: State and Class in the Transition to Democracy, Rowman & Littlefield: Boulder, CO, 2010; 313 pp: 978074256792, 49.95 [pounds sterling] (hbk) In 1974, Jorge de Mello, co-owner of the Grupo Companhia Uniao Fabril, stated, 'Our company is more than 100 years old and we have worked under regimes different from the previous one. I am confident that we can meet the challenge of adapting to new conditions'. (1) Founded in 1898, the Grupo Companhia Uniao Fabril was one of the central monopolistic nuclei in Portugal--alongside Espirito Santo Champalimaud, Portugues do Atlantico, Borges & Irmao, Nacional Ultramarino, and Fonseca & Burnay--that started out in soap manufacturing to later expand its enterprise with interests in chemicals, textiles, shipping, naval construction and other industries closely linked to foreign capital, and with ties to the African colonies. The new conditions mentioned were those of the 25 April 1974 revolution that led Portugal to abandon its African colonies in Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Angola and turn toward formal democratisation and integration with Western Europe. The engine of the revolution was the Movimento das Forcas Armadas (MFA), a group of disaffected officers that transformed the military into a revolutionary force supported by a popular movement of class forces aimed at democracy, decolonisation, and development. As a symbol of capital, the Grupo Companhia Uniao Fabril was indeed well placed to survive and adapt to these new conditions, having previously emerged and evolved through a multitude of state forms characterising Portuguese development. These notably included monarchical and republican rule in the early 20th century, encompassing a period of parliamentarism between 1910 and 1926; fascist corporatism during the period of dictatorship under Antonio Salazar from 1926 to 1974; and the eventual consolidation of a bourgeois state marked by the privatisation of state enterprises and concessions to transnational capital following the countercoup of 25 November 1975. Ronald Chilcote's The Portuguese Revolution is an outstanding analysis of the political economy, state formation and emergence of capitalism in Portugal that examines the historical sociology of state forms throughout the 20th century, focusing on the revolutionary rupture of 1974-75, the counterrevolutionary offensive, and the rollback of reforms leading to the consolidation of bourgeois hegemony. The book embraces a strong historical overview of the origins of capitalism, wedded to the outlook that capitalism advanced in a mercantile form alongside feudal remnants from the 14th century through to the 19th century, and then developed through commercial, industrial, and financial forms into the 20th century. Despite the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910 and the 'ruptural condition' of the 25 April 1974 coup, patterns of continuity have prevailed throughout the consolidation of 'a state that continues on with old forms and adapts to new forms, in particular casting off the remnants of socialism and legitimising a neoliberal state in concert with domestic and foreign private capital' (p. xvi). This line of argument is addressed by structuring the analysis around two main parts to the book, the first of which comprises three chapters focusing on the origins and evolution of state forms and the consolidation of capitalism. The second comprises five chapters tracing the class struggle of the 25 April coup to bring about a socialist transition, the institutional conflict revolving around the MFA, the rise of popular social movements, and the legacies of the revolution. These main parts are bookended by excellent introductory and concluding chapters that deliver a lucid and exemplary assessment of the principal threads weaved throughout the volume, namely the conditions of state and class formation during and after the Portuguese revolution. This book is therefore a wonderful statement on class theory and the origins and evolution of the Portuguese capitalist state. …