In the aftermath of the 1974 democratic revolution, Portugal witnessed a massive wave of worker occupations and factory takeovers. Following this period of exponential growth, industrial self‐management entered a phase of stagnation, eventually slipping into an unstoppable path of decay. Drawing on historical institutional theory, this paper explores the causes of this evolutionary trend. The climate of political and economic uncertainty that followed the military coup is conceptualized as a critical juncture. For a relatively short period of time, long‐established institutional constraints on worker entrepreneurship relaxed, opening a window of opportunity for the development of a hitherto neglected form of organizing industrial production. At such a crucial moment, however, the Portuguese workers failed to form a political coalition with the power to bring about essential legal and policy reforms. In a rather hostile institutional environment, some factories were returned to their former owners, while others struggled to become economically self‐sufficient and eventually disappeared.

中文翻译：

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葡萄牙工业自我管理的兴衰：历史的制度主义视角

1974年民主革命后，葡萄牙目睹了大规模的工人占领和工厂收购浪潮。在这段指数式增长之后，工业自我管理进入了停滞阶段，最终滑入了不可阻挡的衰落之路。本文借鉴历史制度理论，探究了这种发展趋势的成因。军事政变后的政治和经济不确定性气氛被概念化为关键时刻。在相对较短的时间内，长期以来对工人企业家精神的制度约束放松了，为发展迄今为止被忽视的组织工业生产形式打开了机会之窗。然而，在如此关键的时刻，葡萄牙工人未能组建政治联盟，有权进行必要的法律和政策改革。在充满敌意的体制环境中，一些工厂被归还其先前的所有者，而另一些工厂则在努力实现经济上的自给自足，最终消失了。