Administrative divisions of Portugal

Administratively, Portugal is ''de jure'' unitary and decentralized state. Nonetheless, operationally, it is a highly centralized system with administrative divisions organized into three tiers.Carlos Nuno Silva (2002), p.5 The State is organized under the principles of subsidiarity, local government autonomy, and democratic decentralization of the public service.

The government structure is based on the 1976 Constitution, adopted after the 1974 Carnation Revolution. In addition to defining the status of the autonomous regions ( pt, regiões autónomas) Azores and Madeira (Articles 225-234), the Constitution specifically identifies the three tiers of government (Article 235-262): civil parishes (''freguesias''), municipalities (''municípios'') and administrative regions ().

In addition, the Portuguese territory was redefined during European integration, under a system of statistical regions and subregions known as Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. These NUTS definitions, used for collecting statistical information, follow many of the country's border definitions. Although utilized by the Portuguese government, they do not have a legal status in law.

The current administrative divisions of Portugal, are the 18 Districts and the 2 Autonomous Regions.

Districts

There are 18 districts in continental Portugal:

The distribution of Portuguese districts is nominally homogeneous, although there are outliers (Beja for example is 4.6 times larger than the smallest district, Viana do Castelo). But these divisions bely the inadequacies and disparities that exist within the country: the distribution of population and gross domestic product between territorial units is markedly different. The district of Beja, for example, represents approximately 11.5% of the area of Portugal, while Viana do Castelo is less than 2.5%. But, in comparison, Beja represents only 1.6% of the population of Portugal.

Portugal is primarily a seafaring nation, and traditionally human settlement has congregated along the coastline, so much so that the coastal districts, while being relatively small, were disproportionately larger by population. The six largest districts (with the exception of Santarém) are the six districts with the smallest populations and common character: a frontier with Spain. Of these interior districts, which represent 63.8% of the nation and have a population that is less than two million residents, is only marginally less than the population of the district of Lisbon.

The district system dates back to 25 April 1835, a creation of the Liberal government, and inspired by the French ''départements'', with the objective to facilitate the action of government and permit access to the authorities.

The district is the most relevant and historically significant subdivision of the nation's territory; it serves as the basis for a series of administrative divisions, such as electoral constituencies or district football associations, as well as being a socially recognizable territorial division of the country.
In 1976, Portugal was divided into 18 districts and two autonomous regions (the Azores and Madeira), consisting of 308 municipalities (), which in turn were divided into 4257 local government authorities ().

Article 291 of the 1976 Constitution defined the districts as a transitional level of administration, awaiting the formation of the administrative regions. In the period between 2003 and 2013 the whole continental territory of Portugal was subdivided into metropolitan areas and intermunicipal communities, which rendered the districts obsolete. As a consequence of these constitutional revisions the ''"district"'' has been removed from the legal framework, but remains an important and relevant division for other entities. Similarly, it is still recognized by the general public.

Autonomous regions

Since 1976, Portugal conceded political autonomy to its North Atlantic archipelagos ( Madeira and Azores) due to their distance, isolation, geographical context and socio-economic circumstances. The regional autonomies have their own organic laws, regional governments and administration, overseen by a Regional Government (), that constitutes a Regional Cabinet, comprising a President () and several Regional Secretaries ().

The Azores () is an archipelago of nine islands and several islets that were discovered and settled by the Portuguese in the late 15th century. The Azores lies a third of the distance between Europe and North America, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The government and administration of the archipelago is distributed between the three capitals of the former districts of the Azores: the regional parliament is located in the city of Horta (on Faial Island); Ponta Delgada (on São Miguel Island) is the most populous city and home to the Regional Presidency and administration; while Angra do Heroísmo (on Terceira Island), the historical and cultural capital, is the home of the Azorean judiciary and seat of the Diocese of the Azores.

Madeira is an archipelago that includes two principal islands, Madeira and Porto Santo, plus two uninhabited natural group of islands, the Desertas and Savage Islands (). The archipelago is located closer to Africa than Europe, is highly commercial and urbanized; its regional capital (Funchal) is developmentally comparable to urban centers in the Canary or Balearic Islands.

Subdivisions

The division of the Portuguese territory is established in title eight (Título VIII) of the Portuguese constitution: granting local authority to territorial collectivities with representative organs to affect the interests of the local populations. These collectivities are defined as autonomous regions, administrative regions, municipalities and civil parishes, but reserves the right of urban areas and islands to establish other forms of local authority. In defining the rights and privileges of these entities, the constitution also defines sources of income, that includes local heritage, budgets and equalization transfers from the State, in addition to defining the basic role of local government at each level.

Autonomous regions

Since 1976, Portugal conceded political autonomy to its North Atlantic archipelagos (the Azores and Madeira) due to their distance, isolation, geographical context and socio-economic circumstances. The regional autonomies have their own organic laws, regional governments and administration, overseen by a Regional Government (), that constitutes a Regional Cabinet, comprising a President () and several Regional Secretaries (). Their legislatures are designated Legislative Assembly.

Administrative regions

A plan to divide mainland Portugal in eight regions was defeated in a referendum in 1998. The metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto were created in 1991.Fernanda Paula Oliveira (2009), A law passed in 2003 supported the creation of more metropolitan areas, urban communities and other associations of municipalities, but a law passed in 2008 abolished these, converting them into intermunicipal communities. Finally in law 75/2013 September 2013 the current two types of administrative regions were defined:
*metropolitan areas (''áreas metropolitanas'') and
* intermunicipal communities (''comunidades intermunicipais'').

Metropolitan areas

The Metropolitan Areas are territorial units formed by grouping municipalities, in order to economize on municipal investments and services. As of 2014, there are two metropolitan areas that correspond to Level III NUTS regions:
* The Lisbon metropolitan area (''Área Metropolitana de Lisboa''), consisting of 18 municipalities with a total population (2011 census) of 2,821,876
* The Porto metropolitan area (''Área Metropolitana do Porto''), consisting of 17 municipalities with a total population (2011 census) of 1,759,524

Intermunicipal communities

The intermunicipal communities replaced the urban communities, the intermunicipal communities for general purposes and some metropolitan areas that were created in 2003, and abolished in 2008. The territories of the intermunicipal communities are (roughly) based on the NUTS III statistical regions. As of 2014, there are 21 intermunicipal communities:

* Alentejo Central
* Alentejo Litoral
* Algarve
* Alto Alentejo
* Alto Minho
* Alto Tâmega
* Ave
* Baixo Alentejo
* Beira Baixa
* Beiras e Serra da Estrela
* Cávado
* Douro
* Lezíria do Tejo
* Médio Tejo
* Oeste
* Região de Aveiro
* Região de Coimbra
* Região de Leiria
* Tâmega e Sousa
* Terras de Trás-os-Montes
* Viseu Dão Lafões

Municipalities

Apart from the national territory, that includes mainland Portugal and the two archipelagos, the municipalities (''municípios'', colloquially known as ''concelhos'') have been the most constant territorial subdivision in the past 900 years. While a term for ''municipality'' () appeared in the 13th century, to ''"express a community constituted in a territory of varying extensions, whose residents – the neighbours of the municipality – are granted major or minor administrative autonomy"'', the territorial division predates its use. Preceding the nation's independence, the oldest of the larger municipalities still in existence Coimbra and Santarém were founded in 1085 e 1095, respectively. São João da Pesqueira (in the district of Viseu) is the oldest Portuguese municipality, founded in 1055.

Since the creation of a democratic local administration, in 1976, the Portuguese municipalities have been ruled by a system composed by an executive body (the municipal chamber) and a deliberative body (the municipal assembly). The municipal chamber () is the executive body, and is composed of a ''president'' of the municipality and a number of councillors whose number depends on the municipality's population. The municipal assembly () is composed of the presidents of all the civil parishes plus a number of directly elected representatives that has to be at least equal to the number of civil parish presidents plus one, and which otherwise depends on the municipal population.

There are 308 municipalities in Portugal. They are usually named for their biggest city, or at least, their historically most important city or town. However, the municipality is usually much larger than the city or town after which it is named. The largest in area is Odemira with 1720.60 km², the smallest is São João da Madeira with an area of 7.94 km².

Nearly all municipalities are subdivided into civil parishes. Barcelos is the municipality with the largest number of civil parishes (61). There are six municipalities that have only one civil parish: São João da Madeira, Alpiarça, Barrancos, Castanheira de Pera

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases