The Other Modernization: Technocracy and “Development Mentality” in the Iberian Peninsula (1959-1974)

Abstract

The economic policies applied by the technocrats as mechanism to ensure the continuity of Iberian dictatorships and to facilitate the return of Spain and Portugal to the bosom of the civilized and modern European nations, conferred the businessmen an unknown importance as essential actors in charge of its implementation. That leading role, however, had an inevitable counterpart. The «desarrollismo» demanded the appearance of a new model of company and an unusual type of businessman, a schumpeterian professional manager, and, in agreement with it, the eradication of practices and traditional methods of management. In summary, the modernization of these businessmen required the promotion of values and learning of skills scantily appreciated and hardly historically cultivated: a new mentality of development that compelled the businessmen but also the whole society and to the own Administration.