The paper contributes to the discussion on defining, measuring, and assessing the quality of democracy, by presenting the results of the “Portuguese Barometer of the Quality of Democracy”. The project, aimed at auditing the state of affairs in Portugal, incorporates relevant international academic experience in the field, at the same time trying to elaborate an innovative research programme for assessing the quality of democracy. The methodology involves both subjective and objective analysis of the quality of democracy. On the one hand, the project studied perceptions and assessments of Portuguese citizens and political elites in relation to the key quality dimensions, incl. rule of law, participation, competition, representation, vertical accountability, horizontal accountability, freedom, equality, responsiveness, state autonomy and economic governance. On the other hand, the paper presents the results of an expert survey, designed using a multidimensional matrix for analysis of such issues as the format of representative institutions on local, regional and national level, as well as their compliance with commitments made.
