Long way to nationalization. Foreign and domestic actors in the early electrification of Portugal (1922-1944)

Abstract

Economic nationalism underpinned the Second Postwar Era of nationalizations of electrical sectors. Then, peripheral countries enjoyed an industrial surge along with electrification progress. This paper examines what had happened in the Portuguese electrification before the first step to “domestication” and nationalization in 1944. Then, cooperation between foreign and domestic operators with the Government made a great leap forward to the country’s electrification. This intervention was based on the assumption that foreign companies had not been willing to fully foster the electrification of this poor country during the interwar period. The Portuguese case confirms that international holding-groups eventually determined the pace of adoption of this public intervention, but also claims that the responsibility for this state of affairs partly rested with the nationalistic policies on behalf of the Government.