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Housing and Citizenship: Building Social Rights in Twentieth-Century Portugal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

PEDRO RAMOS PINTO
PEDRO RAMOS PINTO*
Affiliation:
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL; [email protected].
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Abstract

This article investigates the origins of modern citizenship in Portugal through the example of the historical construction of housing as a social right. It argues this process owes much to the centralisation and strengthening of the state undertaken by Salazar's ‘New State’ (1933–74), whose transformative project changed the nature of the relationship between the governing and the governed, making political claims based on social rights plausible. The ensuing political dynamic changed the nature of the social contract in Portugal, tying the legitimacy of the state to the provision of social rights, a factor which eventually contributed to the dictatorship's demise.

Logement et citoyenneté: la construction de droits sociaux au portugal du viengtième siècle

Cet article analyse les origines de la citoyenneté moderne au Portugal à travers l'exemple de la construction historique du logement comme droit social. L'auteur argumente que ce processus est dû en grande partie à la centralisation et au renforcement de l'état sous l’‘état nouveau’ de Salazar (1933–1974). Son projet transformateur a changé la nature de la relation entre gouvernants et gouvernés, et a rendu plausible des revendications politiques basées sur des droits sociaux. La dynamique politique qui en suivait a changé la nature du contrat social au Portugal. L’état tenait sa légitimité du fait qu'il garantissait des droits sociaux, un facteur qui a finalement contribué à la fin de la dictature.

Wohnungsbaupolitik und staatsbürgerschaft: der aufbau sozialer rechte im portugal des 20. jahrhunderts

Dieser Artikel untersucht die Ursprünge der modernen Staatsbürgerschaft in Portugal am Beispiel der historischen Konstruktion des Wohnens als soziales Recht. Der Autor argumentiert, daβ dieser Prozess zu einem groβen Teil von der Zentralisierung und Stärkung des Staates unter Salazars ‘neuem Staat’ abhing. Dieses Projekt änderte die Beziehung zwischen Regierenden und Regierten und ermöglichte dadurch auf sozialen Rechten basierte politische Forderungen. Die daraus folgende politische Dynamik änderte die Natur des Sozialvertrages in Portugal, indem die Legitimität des Staates an soziale Rechte geknüpft wurde. Dieser Faktor trug letztlich zum Ende der Diktatur bei.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 199 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

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35 Ibid., 544–6. ‘Lei de Solos’, Decree-Law 576/70, 24 Nov. 1970.

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37 Cited in Gros, ‘“Pequena” história do alojamento social em Portugal’, 85; Silva, Política Urbana, 171–6.

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57 Segmented since they were aimed at certain categories of the population and excluded others, and fragmented because even within those covered there were differences in types of benefits accessible. See García, Marisol and Karakatsanis, Neovi, ‘Social Policy, Democracy, and Citizenship in Southern Europe’, in Gunther, Richard, Diamandouros, P. N. and Sotiropoulos, D. A., eds., Democracy and the State in the New Southern Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 93–103Google Scholar.

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60 de Oliveira Salazar, António, ‘Discurso de 30 de Julho de 1930’, in Henriques, Mendo Castro and de Sampaio e Melo, Gonçalo, eds., Salazar: Pensamento e Doutrina Poltítica – Textos Antológicos (Lisbon: Verbo, 1989)Google Scholar.

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66 Assembleia Nacional, Diário das Sessões, 160, 8 March 1972, 3306.

67 Arquivo Histórico Municipal de Lisboa/Arquivo do Arco do Cego (AHM/AAC) Correspondência Eleitoral 1976: Comissão de Moradores (CM) da Quinta da Calçada to Secretário de Estado da Habitação e Urbanismo, 9 May 1974; CM do Bairro de Pedralvas to Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (CML), 4 July 1974; CM da Zona de Barracas de Campolide to CML, 15 July 1974.

68 Américo Tomás was president of the republic between 1958 and 1974. Luta Popular, 25 March 1975, 10.

69 Francisco Martins Rodrigues, ed., O Futuro Era Agora. O Movimento Popular de 25 de Abril (Lisbon: Ed. Dinossauro, 1994), 106.

70 Diário de Notícias, 15 May 1974, 11. There were also counter-mobilisations defending the role of social services, although even supporters protested against ‘a society who allows people to live in shacks’. Diário de Notícias, 16 May 1974, 12.

71 A Capital, 13 May 1974, 13; Républica, 24 May 1974, 21, 27.

72 AHM/AAC, CE 1976, J. F. do Beato to CML, 6 Nov. 1974.

73 Diário de Lisboa, 21 June 1974, 11. See also AHM/AAC CE 1976, CM da Quinta do Narigão e Quinta do Alto letter to CML, 3 Jul. 1974.

74 Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, trans. Stuart Gilbert (New York: Anchor Books, 1983 [1851]), 181.

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