ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Portugal. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Portugal. Portuguese can change their government democratically. Indirect, competitive elections, voters, including a large number of Portuguese living abroad, select both the president and members of parliament. Portuguese courts are autonomous and operate only under the restraints of established law and the constitution. They include a constitutional court, a supreme court of justice, and judicial courts of the first and second instance. Portugal's bloated bureaucracy is said to breed inefficiencies in the judicial, health, and educational systems. Portuguese courts are autonomous and operate only under the restraints of established law and the constitution.
