ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the 1976 constitution is similar to those written in other West European countries after World War II and that revisions recently made to it fit a historical pattern also found among West European states. Portugal's regime change in 1974 from authoritarianism to pluralist democracy produced a new constitution. The 1976 constitution, like those before it, was a reaction to things past. In many respects, the rationale behind the latest of Portuguese constitutions was similar to that which was applied to other constitutions written immediately after World War II in Western Europe, especially in West Germany, Italy, and France. The problem in the Portuguese case is that there has been little accumulation of democratic procedures for the resolution of conflict and decisionmaking. Portuguese constitutions have been in the main more a reflection not of procedural consensus but, rather, of temporary substantive agreements among various elite factions and, therefore, highly transitory.
