Carnation Revolution And Dictatorship

The Carnation Revolution and dictatorship became, in the end, mutually exclusive. Under Salazars’ reforms, the country did indeed begin to flourish. This was a huge positive, not least for the people of Portugal. It gave them a sense of new-found security and in return Salazar – and his innovative leadership - gained popularity. Many things were to change for the better under his rule. As an example, all Portuguese citizens were given the right to an elementary education and Salazar invested huge sums of money into the educational system.

Unfortunately, there was a downside to living under Salazars’ control. Salazar was a dictatorial leader. His beliefs were based upon Portugal living under a Catholic social dogma. This would suggest a collective oneness – social Catholicism is fundamentally related to the wellbeing and security of humanity. However, Salazar was discriminatory in his use of social Catholicism and chose instead to implement a suppressive version.

Salazars’ statutes closely resembled the ones used to govern Italy and Germany. He was supported by the military and had his own security police force; combined with his principles, he maintain his control of Portugal for over 35 years. Due to his reforms, the oligarchy grew wealthy and the nation continued to grow economically – yet due to taxes introduced by Salazar to pay off national debt, the Portuguese became among the most impoverished people in Europe.