You are on page 1of 7

Portuguese Comarcas in

1826

Comarcas were administrative


and judicial circumscriptions
ruled by lord officers
(ouvidores) or, in most part of
the cases, by crown officers
(corregedores)
Portuguese Concelhos in
1826

Concelhos (counties) were


lands endowed with
jurisdictional autonomy and
ruled by city councils
Portuguese Districts in
1842

Districts were the


regional circumscriptions
of the state peripheral
administration after the
liberal reforms
Portuguese
Concelhos in 1842

Concelhos
(counties) were the
local
circumscriptions of
state peripheral
administration after
the liberal reforms
Administrative division of territory during
the Ancien Régime (XV-XVIIIth centuries): a
“descriptive” model:

 Great irregularity/inaquality of
circumscriptions in what concerns its surface
and population

 Jurisdictional overlapping

Geographic discontinuity of the


circumscriptions

 Fluid character of administrative frontiers


Administrative division of
the liberal state territory:
the “normative” model:

 Uniformity in what concerns surface and


population of the circumscriptions

 Centrality of the administrative capitals

 Contiguity and legibility in what concerns


administrative frontiers
Resitence to reform in the
eighteenth century (1790):
• Insufficient knowledge about territory

• “Political reasons” of local powers

• Chorographical reasons: the “government of


judges” against the “government of (legal
reformist) law”.

You might also like