The study of electoral behavior and political culture in Portugal received an impulse in recent years, the result of the research project ?Portuguese Electoral Behavior and Political Attitudes in a Comparative Perspective?, conducted at the Instituto de Ci&ecirc;ncias Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS). From the point of view of data collection, this project aimed not only at gathering the scarce relevant survey data available on elections and political attitudes in Portugal since 1975, but also at elaborating the first academic post-electoral survey specifically intended to integrate Portugal in the scientific tradition of &quot;national election studies&quot; initiated by the American National Election Studies (ANES). From a social-scientific and theoretical point of view, the project?s goal was to determine whether and to what extent did the Portuguese case fit today two overall patterns found in most industrialized democracies: one of increased relevance of short-term explanations of voting choices in detriment of other (long-term) factors such as social class, religiosity, unionization, or party identification; and one of rising ?political malaise?, manifesting itself in feelings of political distrust, disaffection, and discontent in relation to politics, political institutions, and officeholders. <br /><br />Several relevant substantive findings have emerged. Portugal is a case where the social roots of partisanship are especially weak, even when compared to other Southern European democracies. Furthermore, arguably more than in any other previous elections on which we have data available, affect towards party leaders has become the most crucial element in voters? considerations when it came to decide in which party to vote. However, comparative analysis also suggests that factors related to the ?political supply? ? types of parties in the party system and its level of ideological polarization ? add important nuances to this general conclusion about the relative fickleness of the Portuguese electorate in 2002. On the one hand, not all parties seem to be chosen by voters equally on the basis of leadership and economic evaluations, with clear variations emerging in terms of parties? ideological program and electoral strategies and goals. On the other hand, across countries and time, voters? level of anchoring in stable and cogent ideological orientations also varies according to the extent to which parties tend to present clear policy alternatives to voters. <br /><br />Important findings were also obtained in what concerns the symptoms and manifestations of ?political malaise? in contemporary Portugal. Such malaise does not seem to involve any kind of delegitimization of the democratic regime or of its institutions. Instead, it seems to be formed by feelings of strong political ?disaffection? ? understood as a feeling of distance and mutual disinterest between the realm of politics and citizens ? both prevailing among large majorities of the electorate, particularly among women. This, in turn, seems to be related to the particularly low levels of political and civic activism among the Portuguese citizenry. However, again, this general conclusion coexists with preliminary findings pointing out how levels of disaffection seem to be decreasing, a phenomenon linked to the continuing experience under democratic rule and the rising educational resources.