Caetano, Marcello José das Neves Alves

(19061980)

   Marcello Caetano, as the last prime minister of the Estado Novo, was both the heir and successor of Antônio de Oliveira Salazar. In a sense, Caetano was one of the founders and sustainers of this unusual regime and, at various crucial stages of its long life, Caetano's contribution was as important as Salazar's.

   Born in Lisbon in 1906 to a middle-class family, Caetano was a member of the student generation that rebelled against the unstable parliamentary First Republic and sought answers to Portugal's legion of troubles in conservative ideologies such as integralism, Catholic reformism, and the Italian Fascist model. One of the most brilliant students at the University of Lisbon's Law School, Caetano soon became directly involved in government service in various ministries, including Salazar's Ministry of Finance. When Caetano was not teaching full-time at the law school in Lisbon and influencing new generations of students who became critical of the regime he helped construct, Caetano was in important government posts and working on challenging assignments. In the 1930s, he participated in reforms in the Ministry of Finance, in the writing of the 1933 Constitution, in the formation of the new civil code, of which he was in part the author, and in the construction of corporativism, which sought to control labor-management relations and other aspects of social engineering. In a regime largely directed by academics from the law faculties of Coimbra University and the University of Lisbon, Caetano was the leading expert on constitutional law, administrative law, political science, and colonial law. A prolific writer as both a political scientist and historian, Caetano was the author of the standard political science, administrative law, and history of law textbooks, works that remained in print and in use among students long after his exile and death.

   After his apprenticeship service in a number of ministries, Caetano rose steadily in the system. At age 38, he was named minister for the colonies (1944 47), and unlike many predecessors, he "went to see for himself" and made important research visits to Portugal's African territories. In 1955-58, Caetano served in the number-three position in the regime in the Ministry of the Presidency of the Council (premier's office); he left office for full-time academic work in part because of his disagreements with Salazar and others on regime policy and failures to reform at the desired pace. In 1956 and 1957, Caetano briefly served as interim minister of communications and of foreign affairs.

   Caetano's opportunity to take Salazar's place and to challenge even more conservative forces in the system came in the 1960s. Portugal's most prominent law professor had a public falling out with the regime in March 1962, when he resigned as rector of Lisbon University following a clash between rebellious students and the PIDE, the political police. When students opposing the regime organized strikes on the University of Lisbon campus, Caetano resigned his rectorship after the police invaded the campus and beat and arrested some students, without asking permission to enter university premises from university authorities.

   When Salazar became incapacitated in September 1968, President Américo Tomás named Caetano prime minister. His tasks were formidable: in the midst of remarkable economic growth in Portugal, continued heavy immigration of Portuguese to France and other countries, and the costly colonial wars in three African colonies, namely Angola, Guinea- Bissau, and Mozambique, the regime struggled to engineer essential social and political reforms, win the wars in Africa, and move toward meaningful political reforms. Caetano supported moderately important reforms in his first two years in office (1968-70), as well as the drafting of constitutional revisions in 1971 that allowed a slight liberalization of the Dictatorship, gave the opposition more room for activity, and decentrali zed authority in the overseas provinces (colonies). Always aware of the complexity of Portugal's colonial problems and of the ongoing wars, Caetano made several visits to Africa as premier, and he sought to implement reforms in social and economic affairs while maintaining the expensive, divisive military effort, Portugal's largest armed forces mobilization in her history.

   Opposed by intransigent right-wing forces in various sectors in both Portugal and Africa, Caetano's modest "opening" of 1968-70 soon narrowed. Conservative forces in the military, police, civil service, and private sectors opposed key political reforms, including greater democratization, while pursuing the military solution to the African crisis and personal wealth. A significant perspective on Caetano's failed program of reforms, which could not prevent the advent of a creeping revolution in society, is a key development in the 1961-74 era of colonial wars: despite Lisbon's efforts, the greater part of Portuguese emigration and capital investment during this period were directed not to the African colonies but to Europe, North America, and Brazil.

   Prime Minister Caetano, discouraged by events and by opposition to his reforms from the so-called "Rheumatic Brigade" of superannuated regime loyalists, attempted to resign his office, but President Américo Tomás convinced him to remain. The publication and public reception of African hero General Antônio Spinola's best-selling book Portugal e Futuro (Portugal and the Future) in February 1974 convinced the surprised Caetano that a coup and revolution were imminent. When the virtually bloodless, smoothly operating military coup was successful in what became known as the Revolution of 25 April 1974, Caetano surrendered to the Armed Forces Movement in Lisbon and was flown to Madeira Island and later to exile in Brazil, where he remained for the rest of his life. In his Brazilian exile, Caetano was active writing important memoirs and histories of the Estado Novo from his vantage point, teaching law at a private university in Rio de Janeiro, and carrying on a lively correspondence with persons in Portugal. He died at age 74, in 1980, in Brazil.

   See also Empire, Portuguese overseas.