Longtime Chestnut Hill resident Diamantino (“Tino”) Machado, 84, is allergic to power. The sociology professor’s just-published book, “The Making of a People by Systemic Autocracy,” offers a contrarian’s study of the effects of the economic, political and social structure of the United States on the American people.

“The main task of my book,” Machado told the Local, “is to inform readers about a U.S. that most Americans do not know about. The American mentality is to pay attention to the individual trees rather than to the forest. 

“This has never been a democratic nation. The Constitution has never been a democratic document. We had a democracy only from 1776 to 1781. Then came to Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution, which was written for and by big property owners. Thirty-nine white men, many of them slave owners, signed it.” 

Machado taught sociology for decades at Drexel, La Salle and Widener universities, but he was shaped by his childhood in Lisbon, Portugal, then under the boot of the authoritarian Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, whose dictatorship lasted from 1932 to 1968.

Machado was raised by his mother, a fishmonger who could not read. His father left when Machado was 3 and died when he was 9. At age 11 he worked 10-hour days so he could pay for tuition at night school.

“We were so poor, I went with my mother to pawnshops so we could get money to eat,” recalled Machado. “We might not eat for a few days. And there was all-encompassing censorship with secret police. It was illegal for people to organize. Critics of Salazar's fascist regime were literally disappearing. So I left Portugal in 1965 when I was 24.”

Machado moved to Paris, where he met Virginia Knox, an Irish-American from Chestnut Hill. They were married in a 500-year-old Irish-Dominican Catholic church in Lisbon, where they returned briefly so Knox could meet his family.  

“I could not afford the standard of living she was used to,” said Machado. “I came from a poor country and did not have a college education, although I had learned English, which took me many years.”

The couple came to the U.S. in December 1965 and lived with Knox's family in the Chestnut Hill area, where they continued to live for a half-century. Knox died six years ago of breast cancer. “She was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Machado said.

The couple had a daughter, Cammilla, in 1967 and a son, Joao, in 1969. Machado worked for the First Pennsylvania Bank, Philadelphia National Bank, and then the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. This enabled him to attend school at night, and eventually he earned an associate's degree from Philadelphia Community College, followed by a B.A. in sociology (cum laude) from La Salle University in 1977, a masters degree in sociology from Temple University in 1980 and a Ph.D. in sociology from Temple in 1989.

His doctoral dissertation, “The Structure of Portuguese Society; the Failure of Fascism,” was published in book form by Praeger Press. 

Machado takes issue with early proponents of capitalism such as Adam Smith and Thomas Hobbes, who argued that because of human nature and inherent self-interest, capitalism was the most logical and rational economic system. He much prefers the systems of Scandinavian countries — Norway, Denmark, and Sweden — which combine elements of capitalism and socialism.

“As long as the American people believe they have a real democracy, there will be no real opposition,” he said. “Our system gives the appearance of a democracy, which is why it is so successful. But who finances political campaigns? The ultra-wealthy. The Supreme Court has said that free speech is money and vice-versa. Federal judges and Supreme Court justices are in their jobs for life, and they are not elected. Very undemocratic; wouldn't you say?”

“The Making of a People by Systemic Autocracy,” is available at booked, 8511 Germantown Ave.

Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com .