Social Economy and Corporatism: the Horticultural Cooperatives Network Formation in Portugal (1940s-1970s)

Abstract

This article provides a brief analysis on the historical process of the institutionalization of agricultural cooperatives during the Portuguese Estado Novo, based on the particular case of the horticultural sector. Defining corporatism as the official state ideology, the regime of Salazar showed a strong hostility towards the traditional institutions of collective action, where cooperatives were included. This situation changed in the late 1940s with the necessity to transform the agricultural sector into an active commercial part of the Portuguese economy, internally and externally. Recuperating the main reasons for that shift, the post-war corporative movement’s central meanings are interpreted historically, looking at the set of consequences and implications for the dynamics of rural communities.