Portugal

Portugal's economy illustrates the long-term consequences of imperial overextension followed by abrupt contraction. The 1974 Carnation Revolution ended both dictatorship and empire simultaneously, producing a democratic transition and the rapid decolonisation of Angola, Mozambique, East Timor, and other territories that triggered a refugee influx of roughly 800,000 retornados — equivalent to 10% of the population. EU accession in 1986 provided structural funds that modernised infrastructure, but Portugal's productivity gap with Northern Europe persists. The golden visa programme attracted foreign investment in real estate, inflating property prices in Lisbon and Porto while doing little for productive capacity — a pattern of attracting capital without directing it toward growth-generating sectors. Portugal's governance has been notably stable since democratisation, alternating between the Socialist Party and Social Democrats without the institutional crises that characterised Spanish or Greek politics during the same period.