The State, Religious Institutions and Welfare Delivery: The Case of Portugal

Through institutions such as the Misericordia, whose origins lie in the Middle Ages, the Portuguese Church has long played an important role in the delivery of welfare. While it continues to have autonomous sources of funding, it is also heavily reliant on funding from the state. In the wake of democratization in 1974, the Portuguese state enacted several laws recognizing and promoting the development of non-profit social service actors which could contract with the state. A reformulation of the relationship with the Misericordias was a distinct element of this attempt to place the relationship between the state and civil society actors – including the church -- on a new footing. More recently, the Eurozone crisis has resulted in markedly higher social need while placing significant budgetary pressure on the Portuguese state. Nonprofits have been asked to do more with less, and to diversify their funding streams. This paper examines the areas of welfare services where the church has been particularly active, the changing finances of these activities, and the evolving ecology of social service delivery, as new civil society organizations and market-oriented business have entered the field.