Portugal

Portugal: Integrity Assessment

Anti-Corruption Mechanisms and Rule of Law

The Portuguese response to public and political corruption has been paradigmatic: law has regularly been perceived as a substitute for ethics. On the one hand, legislators have devoted a great deal of time and effort to review and adopt repressive instruments. In practice, these laws have become "lions without teeth"; that is, they display solid and clear provisions, but are deprived of adequate mechanisms to guarantee their effective enforcement. On the other hand, legislators have often engaged in cosmetic legislative reforms, characterized by norms with fictitious applicability unable to curtail the improper/illicit conducts or practices at stake. While giving the impression that something has changed or will change with the implementation of new laws, the political class remains locked in the symbolism of its legislative action while being simultaneously permissive of the opportunity structures for corruption.

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