To the barracks: the President, the military and democratic consolidation in Portugal (1976–1980)

Abstract

After two turbulent years in which different pathways for the future of the political and institutional framework of Portugal clashed, the country began a process of consolidation of the democratic institutions delineated between 1975/6. However, the role played by the military in the fall of the previous dictatorial regime and the fragility of the new democratic institutions did not allow their immediate withdrawal from political life. The President of the Republic was a military man and the political parties had agreed to maintain an unelected sovereign body, the Council of the Revolution, which only dissolved in 1982. Based on primary sources that only recently became available, this article presents some elements that help to understand the success of democratic consolidation in Portugal. This long process should not be interpreted as a confrontation between civilians, desirous to put an end to military tutelage, and the military, who at all costs sought to keep their privileges. The dividing line should be placed between those who defended the maintenance of the status quo, and the supporters of military subordination to the civil power.

Keywords:

• Democratic consolidation
• armed forces
• civil-military relations
• Portugal
• introduction

Notes

1. On the military’s role in this process and its antecedents see, for example: Schmitter, “Liberation by Golpe,” 5–33; Graham, “The Military in Politics,” 221–56.

2. We follow the periodisation proposed by António Costa Pinto, who divided the Portuguese Democratisation process into three phases: overthrow of the authoritarian regime (April 1974 to March 1975); revolutionary crisis (March 1975 to July 1976); democratic consolidation (July 1976 to 1982). Pinto, “Settling Accounts with the Past,” 65–90.

3. Felipe Aguero argues that despite “the roles of the military [being] often crucial in the Southern Europe and South American transitions” the “nature of the roles played by the military elites in these processes has gone unnoticed, or has been simply taken for granted”. Aguero, “Democratic Consolidation and the Military in Southern Europe and South America,” 164.

4. Linz et al., “Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Southern Europe,” 77–123.

5. Pridham, The Dynamics of Democratization, 169.

6. Bruneau, “From Revolution to Democracy in Portugal,” 151–5.

7. Schmitter, “An Introduction to Southern Europe Transitions from Authoritarian Rule,” 3–10.

8. Huntington, The Third Wave.

9. Carrilho, Forças Armadas e mudança política em Portugal no século XX; Carrilho, Democracia e Defesa; Ferreira, “Um corpo perante o Estado,” 217–57; Ferreira, O Comportamento Político dos Militares.

10. Maria Inácia Rezola made a depth work on the military’s role during the revolutionary process: Rezola, Os militares na Revolução de Abril.

11. Bacevich, “Absent History,” 447–54.

12. “Plataforma de Acordo,” 26-2-1976, IAN/TT, Arquivo do Conselho da Revolução, MFA/Partidos, box 84, folder “MFA-Parties Pact”, part II, doc. 14.

13. About the pacts between the parties and the MFA see: Gaspar, “O processo constitucional e a estabilidade do regime,” 11–16; Opello, Portugal´s Political Development, 147–51.

14. The Portuguese Constitution. Available at: www.tribunalconstitucional.pt/tc/content/files/crp1976.pdf (Accessed 20 August 2015).

15. The regime took the semi-presidential model, according to the typology proposed by Maurice Duverger. Duverger, Les Regimes semi-présidentiels.

16. This combination of three types of legitimacy was identified by Bruneau and Macleod, Politics in Contemporary Portugal, 120.

17. Aguiar, “A história múltipla,” 1247–8.

18. Diário de Lisboa, 5-7-1976, p. 1.

19. Idem.

20. Diário de Lisboa, 12-7-1976, p. 5.

21. Appointed by the Council of the Revolution. Minutes of Meeting, 14-7-1976, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 3, box 3, IAN/TT.

22. Rocha Vieira was also one of the military men responsible for the success of 25 November.

23. Diário de Lisboa, 19-7-1976, pp. 1, 20.

24. Minutes of Meeting, 11-8-1976, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 3, box 3, IAN/TT.

25. Minutes of Meeting, 23/27-7-1976, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 3, box 3, IAN/TT.

26. Rezola, Melo Antunes, 536.

27. Minutes of Meeting, 23/27-7-1976, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 3, box 3, IAN/TT.

28. Minutes of Meeting, 22-9-1976, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 3, box 3, IAN/TT.

29. Minutes of Meeting, 25-8-1976, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 3, box 3, IAN/TT.

30. Diário de Lisboa, 3-11-1976, pp. 1–2.

31. Diário de Lisboa, 25-4-1977, p. 15.

32. Minutes of Meeting, 25-4-1977, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 4, box 5, IAN/TT.

33. Diário de Lisboa, 7-4-1977, p. 2.

34. Rezola, Melo Antunes, 581.

35. Rules of Military Discipline. Decree-Law nº 142/77. Diário da República, 1^st series, nº 83, 9 April 1977.

36. Minutes of Meeting, 11-1-1978, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 5, box 6, IAN/TT.

37. Minutes of Meeting, 20-9-1978, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 6, box 7, IAN/TT.

38. Minutes of Meeting, 29-11-1978, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 6, box 7, IAN/TT.

39. Diário de Lisboa, 9-12-1978, p. 10.

40. Sá Carneiro’s interview to the program “Dito e feito,” from Portuguese Radio Broadcasting, 22-1-1979. Carneiro, Textos, 7, available at www.institutosacarneiro.pt/wp-content/manup/docs/obra/vol_6.pdf (Accessed 22 August 2015). This proposal was later published under the title, Uma Constituição para os anos 80.

41. Minutes of Meeting, 25-1-1979, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 7, box 8, IAN/TT.

42. Minutes of Meeting, 31-1-1979, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 7, box 8, IAN/TT.

43. Minutes of Meeting, 12-3-1980, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 8, box 9, IAN/TT.

44. Minutes of Meeting, 1-4-1980, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 8, box 9, IAN/TT.

45. The previous CEME was removed by the President after a dispute between the army chief and the commander of the Lisbon Military Region (LMR) who was also removed from this post. This controversy had its origin in the question of the promotion of the commander of the LMR and is an example of the tension between the heads of the armed forces and the captains of April 25. Bruneau and Macleod, Politics in Contemporary Portugal, 13.

46. Diário de Lisboa, 26-7-1989, p. 7.

47. Minutes of Meeting, 30-7-1980, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 8, box 9, IAN/TT.

48. The existence of division in the military had already been noted by Thomas Bruneau and Alex Macleod in the book Politics in Contemporary Portugal, 13. However, The Council of the Revolution archives reveal that this division had reached the CR itself and had conditioned its action.

49. Aguiar, “A história múltipla,” 1247.

50. For example, statements of the Air Force Chief of Staff at the meeting of 30 July 1980. Minutes of Meeting, 30-7-1980, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 8, box 9, IAN/TT.

51. Rezola, 25 de Abril. Mitos de uma revolução, 366.

52. Antunes, “A fiscalização da constitucionalidade das leis no primeiro período constitucional,” 324–9.

53. See, for example, Bruneau and Macleod, Politics in Contemporary Portugal, 14.

54. Minutes of Meeting, 11-8-1976, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 3, box 3, IAN/TT.

55. Decree-law nº 668/76 and Decree-law nº 669/76. Diário da República, 1^st series, nº 187, 11 August 1976.

56. Minutes of Meeting, 29-9-1978, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 6, box 7, IAN/TT.

57. For example at the meeting on 28 December 1977 one of the counselors submitted to the Council a draft communiqué with strong warnings to the political parties. During the discussion, the author of the statement withdrew his proposal because he found that the PR “didn’t find that release convenient for his strategy.” Minutes of Meeting, 28-12-1977, The Council of the Revolution Archives, Reuniões, Actas, vol. 5, box 6, IAN/TT.

58. Ferreira, “Um corpo perante o Estado,” 234–7

59. Eanes would be very critical of the process of appointment and dismissal of the military chiefs that in accordance with the constitutional review would from then on be made by the government. Opello, Portugal’s Political Development, 151–6.

60. Aguero, “A transição democrática e os militares em Espanha,” 67.

61. Aguero, “Democratic Consolidation and the Military in Southern Europe and South America,” 144.

62. Bland, “A Unified Theory of Civil-Military Relations,” 14.