Luís Salgado de Matos was born in Lisbon (Portugal), in 1946. His research subjects are the State, the Church and the Armed Forces. For him, these institutions are triangular and form the contemporary political organization; with varied shapes they form the permanent structure of any political organization. This thesis was developed in his book O Estado de Ordens, 2004.
He submits each one of these triangular institutions to a systematic empirical research.
* Concerning the State, the institution of reproduction: he started with the semipresidential regime; he was a member of the pioneering Seminar led by Maurice Duverger, in 1978-79, in the Sorbonne,  and published «L'Expérience Portugaise», in Les Régimes Semi-Présidentiels, a book edited by Duverger; in 2005, he published  «Um Quartel Depois – o Semipresidencialismo em Portugal», in Crise e Reforma da Democracia.  In 2008, he applied the methodology of the triangular institutions to the State in the Great Middle East; an introduction to this research will be published later this year by the Instituto de Defesa Nacional (National Defence Institute).
* Concerning the Armed Forces, the institution of security: his latest book is As Forças Armadas em Tempo de Mudança Uma Sondagem à Opinião Pública em Vésperas do Século XXI, 2001 (a comment of an attitudes and opinion survey; with Mário Bacalhau); he wrote the chapters on military organization in the XXth century of the Nova História Militar Portuguesa, edited by Prof. Nuno Severiano Teixeira and General Themudo Barata, Vol. IV, Círculo de Leitores, 2004; another book will be published shortly: Como Evitar Golpes Militares  O Presidente, o Governo e a Assembleia Eleita face à Instituição Castrense no Estado Parlamentar, no Presidencial e no Semipresidencial («How to Avoid Military Coups»). 
* Concerning the Church, the institution of the symbolical, he wrote among others: «Cardeal Cerejeira: Universitário, Militante, Místico», Análise Social, nº 160, 2001, e «A Igreja na Revolução em Portugal (1974-1975)», em O País em Revolução (about the Roman Catholic Church in the Portuguese revolution of 1974-75). With Maria Lúcia de Brito Moura and António Matos Ferreira, he leads the Permanent Seminary on State and Churches, at the Ics.
He has read Law and has a PhD at the Lisbon University; he also has a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in Analyse Comparative des Systèmes Politiques, by the Université de Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne. He has the «agregação» (similar to the French aggrégation) of the Lisbon New University, in Political Institutions. 
He always tries to articulate academic research with participant observation; he was a member of the Transitional Government of Mozambique; in more recent times, he was a consultant to the minister of National Defence, Júlio Castro Caldas, and the President of the Portuguese Republic, Jorge Sampaio.
His electronic address is salgado.matos@netcabo.pt.