Democracy and Intelligence Culture in Portugal (1974-2019): A Complex Relationship

ABSTRACT

This article addresses intelligence in the aftermath of the Portuguese so-called Carnation Revolution of 1974, which would end up in the birth of a new democratic state in April 1976. It maps all the legal transformations of intelligence in democratic Portugal and analyses the main ones, putting into evidence its historical evolution, organization, and democratic control, arguing that there are three critical moments. The birth of civilian intelligence only in 1984, the 2004 reform that led to a modern and effective intelligence system, and the recent attempts to access to metadata in 2017, which show that the authoritarian legacy of PIDE-DGS is finally fading away among the political decision-makers. The double legacy of the authoritarian regime and the revolutionary process of transition to democracy influenced until very recently the Portuguese intelligence culture, being its democratic structure, a political outcome conducted by the politics of memory.

RESUMEN

Este artículo aborda la inteligencia tras la llamada Revolución de los Claveles portuguesa de 1974, que terminaría en el nacimiento de un nuevo estado democrático en abril de 1976. Traza todas las transformaciones legales de la inteligencia en el Portugal democrático y analiza las principales, evidenciando su evolución histórica, organización y control democrático, argumentando que hay tres momentos críticos. El nacimiento de la inteligencia civil solo en 1984, la reforma de 2004 que condujo a un sistema de inteligencia moderno y efectivo, y los recientes intentos de acceder a metadatos en 2017, que muestran que el legado autoritario de PIDE-DGS finalmente se está desvaneciendo entre los tomadores de decisiones políticos. El doble legado del régimen autoritario y el proceso revolucionario de transición a la democracia influyeron hasta hace muy poco en la cultura de inteligencia portuguesa, siendo su estructura democrática, un resultado político conducido por la política de la memoria.

KEYWORDS:

• Democracy
• intelligence culture
• national security
• politics of memory

Palabras clave:

• democracia
• cultura de inteligencia
• seguridad nacional
• políticas de la memoria

Notes

1.  Intelligence culture is a concept derived from the notion of strategic culture and is presented heterogeneously around the world because cultures are also different among countries, relating to national security on their own way and within dissimilar legal contexts. Additionally, intelligence cultures change with time since the security environments and the democratic demands also evolve. So, intelligence cultures are far from immutable as they depend on institutionalized norms, political environments, and societal core values that will define how intelligence agencies operate (Aldrich & Kasuku, 2012). Existing intelligence cultures are fundamental to assess failures in intelligence systems as noted by Davies (2004) when comparing failures in Britain and the United States according to dissimilar models of national intelligence cultures in the two countries.

2.  The New State (1933–1974) is a period of Portuguese political history that followed the military dictatorship of 1926 to 1933. In 1933 a new constitution was elaborated, and the New State was institutionalized. The New State focused on Government’s power to legislate and is a political regime that presented an authoritarian nature. On April 25, 1974 a coup d’état by the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) put an end to 48 years of dictatorship, starting what would become known as the Carnation Revolution. In April 1976 the first democratic constitution was approved, and a democratic political regime was introduced in the country.

3. PIDE (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado) is the Portuguese acronym for the International and State Defense Police created in 1945, known as the Portuguese political police. Officially PIDE from 1945 to 1968 and General Board of Security (Direção Geral de Segurança – DGS) from 1969 to 1974.

4.  The demands for the incrimination of people working in PIDE-DGS became more poignant after the approval of Law No. 8/75, from July 25. This was a criminal law with retroactive scope made to incriminate the directing and technical boards of PIDE-DGS. It foresaw two to twelve years in prison for such individuals, according to their previous functions and the amount of responsibility they had. With the end of PREC (the revolutionary period), the incriminating characteristics of this law would be smoothed (see Pimentel, 2007), even though it was enshrined in the Constitution under Article 292 in April 1976.

5.  This case was deeply covered by the Portuguese media. A synthesis can be found here: https://www.publico.pt/1999/05/29/jornal/enfim-a-demissao-134138.

6.  There are two principles relating the access to information, namely the need-to-know and the right-to-know. Since global security has an uncertain and interdependent nature, the commitment with the need-to-share is fundamental for analysts to produce intelligence, especially considering how global security was shaped after 9/11. This protocol values the importance of sharing information among different agencies and institutions including the government, the military sector, and the third sector because sometimes the only way to know is by sharing information (Prunckun, 2019, p. 139). The need-to-know and the need-to-share have a complementary nature, and so the idea of having to choose one within an intelligence community can be viewed as a false choice (Best, 2011, p. 13).

7.  There were a couple of news about those issues, of course mostly covered by the Portuguese media and press: http://observer.com/2016/05/natos-big-new-russian-spy-scandal/; https://observador.pt/2016/09/21/documentos-confidenciais-das-secretas-portuguesas-aparecem-em-africa/; https://www.publico.pt/2017/09/26/sociedade/noticia/antonio-costa-impediu-investigacao-as-secretas-acusa-dciap-1786805; http://visao.sapo.pt/actualidade/portugal/2016-11-18-Ex-espiao-condenado-a-pena-suspensa-no-caso-das-Secretas.

8. SIRP website in Portuguese language can be found here: https://www.sirp.pt/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

João Estevens

João Estevens is a researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations and the Institute of Social Sciences. PhD candidate in Global Studies at Nova University of Lisbon. MA in Political Science and International. BA in Economics and in Political Science and International Relations. Completed postgraduate studies in Cultural Management and Programming and in Intelligence Management and Security. His more recent work has focused on security studies, intelligence, migration and state punitiveness.

Teresa Ferreira Rodrigues

Teresa Ferreira Rodrigues is a teacher at the Department of Political Studies at NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities and Invited Teacher at NOVA Information Management School both from NOVA University of Lisbon. Associated Professor with tenure in International Relations. Coordinator of three Post-graduations: Strategic and security studies (a partnership between NOVA and IDN-MDN); Globalization, diplomacy and security (a partnership between NOVA, IDI-MNE and IESM- Estado Maior General das Forças Armadas-MDN); Information management and security (a partnership between NOVA, IDN-MDN and SIRP- PCM). She is a member of the Board of IPRI-NOVA and coordinates the research group of Foresight and Strategic Planning. She belongs to several national and international associations in the fields of demographic studies and international relations. Responsible and member of national and international projects, financed, namely by the Ministry of National Defense, the Foundation for Science and Technology and European Community funds. Author of more than a hundred articles and twelve published books.