The 'New State'

The political speculation of the Fourth of August was summarized in the theoretical construction of the 'New State'. According to this concept, the institutional incorporation of all the factors of social life into the state mechanisn was targetted, in order to check and absorb the social body as a whole, in all its manifestations. Therefore, dictatorship proceeded to replace all free-thinking individuals and neutralize any political vehicles which doubted its fundamental choices. This was the case not only with trade unions, agricultural corporations and other similar organizations, but also local government. In this way, the institutions of political and social management or intervention in the level of authority were transformed into instruments of promoting state policy to their members or their area. This declared and avowed objective of the virtual abolition of politics entailed its appropriation by the state at the expense of, and naturally contrary to, the will of society.