Portugal Unitary state
| PORTUGAL | / HISTORY |
History and trends
Portugal is a semi-presidential Republic. Its Constitution was adopted on 25 April 1976 and amended in 1982 and 1989. Portugal gained independence from the Kingdom of Castile (modern-day Spain) in the 13th century.
Portugal became a republic in 1911 but the unstable regime was unable to withstand the May 1926 coup d’état. The country spent 48 years under the dictatorship of Salazar until the “Carnation Revolution” of 1974 led by young colonial officers. As Portugal relinquished its colonial empire, the country established a system of pluralistic democracy, leading to its accession to the EU in 1986.
Local level:
The local level comprises 3,092 parishes (frequesias) and 308 municipalities (municipios), each representing a city (cidade), town (vila), village (aldeia), or district.
The parishes exist to ensure that Portuguese citizens enjoy equal representation in the system of local government. According to Portugal’s National Institute of Statistics, there were 4,261 parishes in 2006. The number has now fallen to 3,092 (2016).
The parishes are the legacy of Portugal’s parish system. Many are still named after their patron saint, but they no longer have any connection with the Church. Some people refer to them as “civil parishes”.
Note: some people translate the word freguesia as “municipality”, while others use the word “municipality” exclusively to refer to the higher-tier authorities. This situation presents the potential for confusion.
Portugal’s main administrative divisions are the 18 districts of the mainland plus the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira. The 18 mainland districts are devolved central government districts.
They are the largest administrative division and serve as the basis for various subdivisions, such as electoral constituencies.
According to the 1976 constitution, the current districts (see below) are only temporary and are intended to be replaced by eight “administrative regions” with legal personality and specific tax-levying powers.
Despite this, the temporary arrangement remains to this date, notably because constitutional reforms around regionalisation were rejected at a referendum in November 1998.
Inter-municipal cooperation: municipalities may group together to form associations – legal entities governed by public law but without tax-levying powers. These associations receive most of their funding from the municipalities, in addition to income raised from public service delivery.
The 1976 constitution provided for the creation of special forms of local government in the country’s big cities and islands, thereby allowing for the implementation of strong inter-municipal cooperation policies.
A 1991 law assigned the cities of Lisbon and Porto special status as “metropolitan areas” – legal entities governed by public law with assemblies whose members are not elected by direct suffrage but who represent the interests of the municipalities. The metropolitan areas are not local governments.
Although they manage their own services, the main role of the metropolitan areas (a system that was designed to be extended to other cities in the country) is to coordinate investments and some municipal services of a supra-municipal nature. They do not levy taxes directly, but can collect fees and income from public service delivery. The majority of their budget comes from the municipalities and from central government. Their constituent bodies are not directly elected by citizens.
Regional level:
The Azores and Madeira became autonomous regions in 1976, with a political-administrative status and their own government agencies (article 6, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic). They were created by the constitution.
Prior to 1976, both archipelagos were part of Portugal’s general district structure, but had special status as independent districts of the adjacent islands pursuant to decree-law no. 36453 of 4 August 1947, which created three independent districts in the Azores and one in Madeira:
- Azores: the district of Angra do Heroísmo, the district of Horta and the district of Ponta Delgada
- Madeira: the district of Funchal
Despite having extensive legislative powers since 1976, both autonomous regions are subnational entities. In this sense, they differ from the “autonomous regions” of neighbouring Spain.
Their legislative powers present a mixed picture. They are fully autonomous in some policy areas but subject to national legislation in others. In certain clearly defined “local domains”, pre-existing regional laws take precedence over national legislation.
The autonomous regions have supervisory power over the local governments within their remit and the ability to create or abolish local governments. They have the power to sign treaties and levy taxes, but they are largely financially dependent on the central state.
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Key reforms: Since 2012:
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