Walter C Opello Jr – författare

Two basic processes—industrialization and the emergence of the nation-state—have marked the evolution of many modern societies, particularly in Western Europe. Industrialization broadened the class structure of societies. With the new classes came demands for political power and influence, demands that were vigorously resisted by the ruling monarchies and landowning aristocracies. And with these demands came upheaval and, eventually, new forms of democratic social and political organization. In Portugal’s transition from absolutist monarchy to pluralist democracy can be found an example of these transformative processes at work. Yet the experience of this nation has been largely neglected in discussions of Western European politics. With Portugal: From Monarchy to Pluralist Democracy, Walter C. Opello, Jr., brings the transformation of Portugal into sharp focus and, in doing so, offers interesting insights into the problems of forming a democratic regime. This profile traces Portugal’s transition to democracy within the broader context of its historical development as a nation-state, documenting the effects of absolutism, imperialism, centralization, class and regional cleavages, and late industrialization on the Portuguese people, their polity, economy, and society. Exploring the themes that have shaped the development of Portugal’s democratic structures, Professor Opello also assesses the future viability of these structures in light of the country’s nondemocratic legacies.

Portugal's early developmental experience created a highly centralized administrative state that continues to have a powerful influence on the nature and style of the country's government and politics. Emphasizing this theme, Dr. Opello shows that, contrary to the conclusions of scholars who have analyzed Portugal from Latin American or Third World perspectives, Portuguese political development is more comparable to the pattern of development of West European countries, especially France. He compares Portugal's political experience with that of other West European countries and concludes by speculating about the future of Portugal's fledgling democracy.

Two basic processes—industrialization and the emergence of the nation-state—have marked the evolution of many modern societies, particularly in Western Europe. Industrialization broadened the class structure of societies. With the new classes came demands for political power and influence, demands that were vigorously resisted by the ruling monarchies and landowning aristocracies. And with these demands came upheaval and, eventually, new forms of democratic social and political organization. In Portugal’s transition from absolutist monarchy to pluralist democracy can be found an example of these transformative processes at work. Yet the experience of this nation has been largely neglected in discussions of Western European politics. With Portugal: From Monarchy to Pluralist Democracy, Walter C. Opello, Jr., brings the transformation of Portugal into sharp focus and, in doing so, offers interesting insights into the problems of forming a democratic regime. This profile traces Portugal’s transition to democracy within the broader context of its historical development as a nation-state, documenting the effects of absolutism, imperialism, centralization, class and regional cleavages, and late industrialization on the Portuguese people, their polity, economy, and society. Exploring the themes that have shaped the development of Portugal’s democratic structures, Professor Opello also assesses the future viability of these structures in light of the country’s nondemocratic legacies.

Portugal's early developmental experience created a highly centralized administrative state that continues to have a powerful influence on the nature and style of the country's government and politics. Emphasizing this theme, Dr. Opello shows that, contrary to the conclusions of scholars who have analyzed Portugal from Latin American or Third World perspectives, Portuguese political development is more comparable to the pattern of development of West European countries, especially France. He compares Portugal's political experience with that of other West European countries and concludes by speculating about the future of Portugal's fledgling democracy.

Portugal is a small Western European nation with a large, distinctive past replete with both triumph and tragedy. One of the continent's oldest nation-states, Portugal has frontiers that are essentially unchanged since the late 14th century. The country's unique character and 850-year history as an independent state present several curious paradoxes. As of 1974, when much of the remainder of the Portuguese overseas empire was decolonized, Portuguese society appeared to be the most ethnically homogeneous of the two Iberian states and of much of Europe. This, in spite of the fact that Portuguese society had received during 2,000 years of infusions of other ethnic groups in invasions and immigration: Phoenicians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Suevi, Visigoths, Muslims (Arab and Berber), Jews, Italians, Flemings, Burgundian French, black Africans, and Asians. Indeed, Portugal has been a crossroads, despite its relative isolation in the western corner of the Iberian Peninsula, between the West and North Africa, Tropical Africa, and Asia and America. Since 1974, Portugal's society has become less homogeneous as there has been significant immigration of former subjects from her erstwhile overseas empire.The third edition of Historical Dictionary of Portugal greatly expands on the second edition through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, and institutions, as well as on significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects.

Throughout history, innovations in military technology have transformed warfare, which, in turn, affected state formation. This interplay between warfare, military technology, and state formation is the focus of this text. Theoretically grounded in the bellicist approach to the study of war and state, which posits that war is a normal part of human experience, the book argues that the threat of war by powerful, predatory neighbors has been, until relatively recently, the prime mover of state formation. Using a historical approach, it explains how advances in military technology have transformed war, and how new modes of war in turn have transformed forms of politico-military rule, especially with regard to the relationship between the state, armed force, and the people.