Abstract

This article aims to provide an account of the evolution of liberalism in Portugal, focusing its analysis on the historical opposition between two conceptions of the society structure. A conflict between two ideal models of liberalism – the ‘French’/rationalist variant and the ‘English’/classical one – that, though it runs through European history, has a particular echo in Portugal.From this contrast, antecipated by Alexandre Herculano, this article seeks to understand why, for almost two centuries, liberalism in Portugal became an easy prey to the struggle between two authoritarian and centralising poles, since – despite the differences between reactionaries and progressives, conservatives and socialists – almost everyone agreed that using the power of the State was central to their policies. As such, this article also considers whether there was ever a ‘liberal thought’ or even a ‘liberal revolution’ in Portugal.