The "sad grandmother", the "simple but honest Portuguese" and the "good son of the Fatherland": Letters of denunciation in the final decade of the Salazar regime

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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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6-27
Number of pages22
JournalAnálise Social
Volume53
Issue number226
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2018

Keywords

  • Accusatory practices
  • Letters of denunciation
  • Secret police
  • Self-policing

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