Governing science in Europe's semi-periphery: technocracy, innovation, and science policy in Portugal

This paper examines the historical and institutional evolution of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policies in Portugal, focusing on their continuities, ruptures, and especially their transition into the 21st century. It analyses the current characteristics of these policies —priorities, goals, instruments, and investments— in light of their historical trajectories. The central hypothesis is that technocratic management logics continue to shape public STI policies, expressed through the consolidation of a technocratic bureaucracy and the growing dominance of the innovation agenda as the main organizing principle of the system. Using a qualitative methodology, the paper combines historiographical review, documentary analysis (laws, programmes, and national plans), and statistical data on science and technology. Through a rigorous political-institutional reconstruction, it aims to understand the consolidation process of the Portuguese STI system in a country located on the periphery of the EU and the semi-periphery of the world system. The paper argues that the technocratic hegemony and the pro-innovation orientation are key to understanding both the advances and the structural limitations of the Portuguese case.