the corporative system

The free market system is not, and has never been, an economic system appropriate for Portugal or any other Catholic country. As such, it has never worked in any of such countries. A free market requires people of independent thinking and people who play by the same rules. It is independent thinking that makes a free market a process of discovery and innovation. And it is strict law enforcement (lawfulness) that makes for the market process to be perceived as a fair game.

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As I tried to argue earlier, independence of thought and lawfulness are the distinguishing characteristics of a Protestant society, not those of a Catholic society. It is not surprising that the great modern advocates of the free market, starting with Adam Smith, the first economist, all came from or lived in Protestant countries. Actually, Adam Smith came from the most radical of Protestant or anti-Catholic countries, Scotland. The free market is the natural system of economic organization of a Protestant society.

It is different in a Catholic society. The two distinguishing features of a Catholic society are dependency of thought and an ample freedom of action which, if unchecked, rapidly turns into unlawfulness. The economy of this society thus requires in the first place authority to tell people what to think and what to do. Second, given the tendency of Catholic peoples to break the rules, this authority must be very close to the economic agents under her supervision so as to be able to enforce the rules effectively.

The economic system based on authority, and authority which is sufficiently close to the economic players so as to make effective rule enforcement (and enactment), thus checking the natural propensity of Catholic peoples to break the rules, is the corporative system. This is the natural economic system of a Catholic society.