Abstract
Under the Salazar regime many Portuguese citizens wrote spontaneous letters of denunciation to the authorities. The phenomenon has been overlooked by historians of the Estado Novo. This article discusses a particular set of denunciation letters written during the final decade of the regime, held in a single file at the pide Archives (antt). It establishes a typology of denunciations and evaluates the role of social self-policing in the Estado Novo. It argues that society's relationship with the secret police was multi-faceted and not reducible to the status of "passive victim" commonly ascribed to it.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 6-27 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Análise Social |
Volume | 53 |
Issue number | 226 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |
Keywords
- Accusatory practices
- Letters of denunciation
- Secret police
- Self-policing