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Characterizing the essence Salazar’s «New State» is a difficult, indeed almost an impossible, exercise. It is not too strong to say that there exists an ideological and historiographic tradition that characterizes the «New State» as a unique regime, different from all others normally classified as «fascist.» Must we, however, simply adopt this thesis without further discussion? This is precisely the problem posed in this article with a view, not to finding a definitive solution, but rather to encourage further reflection. Progress on this question, the article concludes, will depend less on theoretical reflection than on new and additional empirical research.