O Estado oculto - Repositorio Institucional da USC - Universidade ...

sociopolítica 781 esencialmente articulada en dúas clases, estratificada,
xerarquizada, burocratizada, elitista, corporativista, patrimonialista, autoritaria,
tradicionalista e católica:
It should be made clear at the outset that when we use the term corporatism,
we are using it in two distinct, but often interrelated, senses. The first refers to the
manifestly corporatist experiments and regimes of the 1930’s and 1940’s and may be
defined as a system of authority and interest representation, derived chiefly (though not
exclusively) from Catholic social thought, stressing functional representation, the
integration of labor and capital into a vast web of hierarchically ordered, “harmonious”,
monopolistic, and functionally determined units (or corporations), and guided and
directed by the state. The second sense in which we use the term corporatism is
broader, encompassing a far longer cultural-historic tradition stretching back to the
origins of the Iberic-Latin systems and embodying a dominant form of sociopolitical
organization that is similarly hierarchical, elitist, authoritarian, bureaucratic, Catholic,
patrimonialist, and corporatist to its core. (Wiarda, 1974, 6. 782 )
Malia non perder nunca a súa esencia, esta tradición ideolóxica non foi
tan ríxida como para non acomodarse á industrialización, á sociedade de
masas e aos acelerados cambios sociais. Fronte aos desafíos da modernidade,
o modo especificamente latino de abordar o proceso de cambio consistiu en
absorber todo aquilo que resultaba útil das novas correntes mentres o resto era
rexeitado para preservar as tradicións e as institucións consideradas valiosas.
Como vimos nos capítulos 13 e 14, o nacionalcatolicismo foi a ideoloxía que lle
deu cobertura a este tipo de modernización en España. Precisamente no caso
de España, Portugal e as súas colonias, a sociedade e o Estado concibíronse
como orgánico-corporativos:
government is natural, necessary, and ordained by God for achieving harmony among
men. [...] organic theory subordinates human law to natural and divine law, is more
tolerant of authority, slights the individual in favor of group “rights” or a superior “general
will”, accepts and justifies the status quo, reserves extensive powers for traditional
vested interests, and leads inherently toward a corporate system which subordinates
man to some allegedly higher end and unity. (Wiarda, 1973, 212.)
480