Reforms of State and Society laicization in Afonso Costa government action in the beginning of the portuguese first Republic (1911 and 1913)

Abstract

In two different governments that joined or chaired, Afonso Costa (1871-1937) introduced in the Portuguese society a set of structural reforms, with a view to secularization and the creation of a state and a modern nation. As justice minister of the Provisional Government of the Republic decreed in February compulsory civil registration, and in April 1911, the law of the Church’s State Separation. These decrees will be subsequently ratified by the Constituent Assembly of 1911. In July 1913 establishing the Ministry of Education, but now as President of the Government. Analyse programmatic policy and doctrine that underlies the content of these regulations in order to carry out these crucial reforms to a state and a modern nation in Portugal of the early twentieth century by also Professor of Judicial Organization, it is the main objective of this small essay.