ABSTRACT
This chapter was almost completed in the Spring Term of 2001 when I was the Fowler Hamilton Research Fellow at Christ Church College, Oxford, whose hospitality I gratefully acknowledge.
Elections 173 Political parties 180 Parliament 186 Government 189 Intergovernmental relations 195 Two-party democracies 201 References 203
Except for the brief and distant period of union of Portugal with the Spanish Crown in 1581-1640, the peoples and rulers of the two countries of the Iberian peninsula have followed a long tradition of ignoring each other. After the loss of the greater part of their colonial possessions, and during a large part of contemporary history, Spain and Portugal endured authoritarian regimes and remained cut off from the outside world. Even in their comparatively few commercial, cultural and media external relations, Spain was more in touch with other countries of continental Europe, and Portugal with Great Britain, than the two countries with each other.
