ABSTRACT
Portugal is a unitary State with two autonomous regions: the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores, with a total area of 92,141.5 km and a population of 10.2 million. The main level of territorial organisation, which dates from the Romans, is the municipal system of local governance (Matoso, 1993). It is by definition a small and peripheral European state, and one that has been characterised as economically backward.
