Institutional capacity and reluctant decentralization in Portugal: the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region

Abstract

This article focuses on the transformation of the centre–periphery relations and the governance structures in regional policy in Portugal, as a consequence of the country's accession into the EU in 1986 and its engagement with the EU policy-making structures. In particular, the article emphasizes Portugal's reluctance to decentralize its political and administrative structures, while at the same time it underscores learning and adaptive patterns on the part of the country's centralized institutions as well as its civil society. The Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region, encompassing the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, has been chosen for in-depth fieldwork to illustrate the modalities of change.