The goal of this chapter is to examine the involvement of social work academics in social policy in Portugal. In the first part, we present an overview of the development and main features of the Portuguese welfare state and of social work education and the profession, to outline the context in which policy practice takes place. In the second part, the method, results and findings of the empirical research are presented.

Development of the Portuguese welfare state

The institutionalisation of social work in Portugal as academic training and a profession took place in the socio-political context of the ‘Estado Novo’ (Second Republic), a system of corporatist and authoritarian nature, which was averse to public intervention in the social sphere and thus contradicted the notion of a welfare state. Social work as a profession emerged during a period strongly influenced either by a corporatist orientation in the domain of social insurance as well as a subsidiarity philosophy of the role of the state facing private initiatives in the social assistance realm. Another important characteristic of the Estado Novo was its familistic policy orientation.

No relevant changes occurred in Portuguese social policy until the 1960s. Nevertheless, the post-World War II period was a very important milestone in the socio-political context of Portugal. Following the adoption of the Marshall Plan by the United States Congress, and despite ideological resistance, Portugal integrated into the European Organisation for Economic Cooperation and established a bilateral agreement with the United States during 1949-52. In 1953, Portugal implemented its first Development Plan. These political and economic events preceded the 1960s, a decade of economic openness and economic growth in Portugal and the context within which new ideas about social issues and social policy emerged (Coutinho, 1999; Pereirinha and Branco, 2013).

With Oliveira Salazar's resignation, Marcelo Caetano became the new prime minister from the late 1960s to April 1974, a period that became known as ‘Marcelo's Spring’ due to its characteristics of political openness, economic liberalisation and social policy improvement. This period saw the 1971 health services reform, guided by an orientation toward universal access to health care and an emphasis on primary care; the extension of social insurance (especially to rural workers); the promotion of public housing; and early studies aimed at creating a national minimum wage.