A ascensão política de António de Oliveira Salazar (1928-1933): a instrumentalização do medo na gênese do Estado Novo em Portugal.

Abstract

The present investigation aims to analyze the instrumentalization of fear in the genesis of the Portuguese Estado Novo during the political rise of António de Oliveira Salazar. The research starts from the general assumption that the instrumentalization of fear in Portuguese society between the years 1928 and 1933 allowed Salazar to obtain the necessary political capitalization to establish the Estado Novo in Portugal. Fear was operationalized, in its politically usable character, and directly related to the analysis of events historically documented and perceived as foremost in the process of ascension of the former Minister of Finance to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The analysis of the Portuguese and European conjuncture of the early twentieth century also allowed us to draw comparative parallels between the Portuguese regime and other similar authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, subtracting superficial comparisons and corroborating the precise perception of the experienced scenario. The results of this comparison indicate that the instrumentalization of fear present in the conjuncture, despite not being a unique determining factor, played an important role in the crafting of the figure of Salazar as an essential ruler for the recovery of the financial, economic, social and political order of Portugal, making possible the promulgation of the 1933 Constitution and, consequently, the establishment of the Estado Novo.