Poder Político e Caciquismo na 1ª República Portuguesa by Fernando Farelo Lopes

By focusing on a scandal that affected one of the great press baron dynasties in Barcelona, the article will uncover the historical transformation of moral values concerning the values of legitimacy and authority, and at the same time examine how the growing importance of public opinion and the press profoundly transformed routine liberal politics. political parties and networks of affinity), our intention is to examine the function that public image played in the survival (and decline) of political elites. clientelism and patronage), and to their adscription to broader spaces of sociability (e.g. While the literature has traditionally assumed that the social preeminence of liberal elites relied on their control of the “mechanisms of influence” (e.g. This article analyses the importance that prestige and reputation played in the social legitimacy of liberal elites. Indeed, the outcome of these events proved its fragile foundations, dashed hopes for a reformist and negotiated solution and constituted a dress rehearsal for the military coup of 1923, a clear example of the reactionary backlash which swept across Europe in the interwar years. This article conveys the thesis that these crucial months crystalized the organic crisis of the ruling liberal regime. The upsurge of labour agitation and the hopes of the proletariat generated by the Bolshevik Revolution combined with bourgeois fear resulted in the question of national identity being superseded by bitter class conflict. However, the political tussle between the centre and the Catalan elites ended a few months later with their mutual defeat. In the aftermath of WW1 and spurred on by the Allied victory, demands by Catalonia’s political elites for greater autonomy seized the country’s agenda. Drawing upon a vast array of primary sources, this article focuses on a key period of modern Spanish history: November 1918-April 1919.

Poder Político e Caciquismo na 1ª República Portuguesa by Fernando Farelo Lopes