The President's Waning Powers in the Portugal New State through the Amendments to the 1933 Constitution
The President's Waning Powers in the Portugal New State through the Amendments to the 1933 Constitution

Summary/Abstract: After the Portuguese army had overthrown the republican government, their leaders realized that they were sans any coherent economical and ideological visions. Were they to maintain stability and conserve their power, they needed to find somebody who can lay down a solid program. Eventually, they managed to find Salazar, a university professor, who, after stabilizing the country economically, strove to set up a corporative state. To carry out his aim, he kept on needing the army's support, so, in the new Constitution of 1933, he ostensibly created a semi-presidential system, granting enough power to the chief military statesman, Oscar Carmona, then president of Portugal. Salazar remained the Head od Government, and within a few years his informal power dwarfed that Carmona. Lest this status quo could be changed when opposition became more active after WWII, he started to take countermeasures and gradually change the Constitution in order to maintain his power.

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