A study coordinated by Marcelo Camerlo and António Costa Pinto, released by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, analyzed the profiles of Portuguese ministers over 50 years of democracy. The study "Who Governs Portugal? Ministerial Profiles in Comparative Perspective" concludes that Portugal developed a hybrid model of ministerial recruitment, combining political capital with technical competence.
The Portuguese ministerial elite is highly qualified, with 98.4% of ministers holding higher education degrees and 78% having professional experience related to the portfolio they assume. Over 38% combine relevant political experience with technical knowledge. Portugal has the highest percentage of experts (31%) among southern European countries, surpassing Spain, Italy, and Greece in valuing technical specialization.
Approximately 36% of ministers are formally independent, but 40% of these are considered "semi-independent"—that is, without party affiliation but with informal links to parties. Examples mentioned include Mariano Gago, a pure independent invited by António Guterres to become Minister of Science and Technology, and Pedro Adão e Silva, a semi-independent who had previously been affiliated with the PS before being appointed by António Costa to the Culture portfolio.
The study reveals that PS governments tend to integrate more experts, while PSD governments favor political-specialist profiles. Among female ministers, political-specialist and expert profiles predominate, representing over three quarters of cases (78%), compared to 62% among male ministers. The comparison with other countries shows that Portugal managed to institutionalize a model combining party continuity and technical specialization more consistently than Spain, Italy, and Greece.
