The Council of State, which in the 1982 constitutional reform replaced the Council of the Revolution, functions as a high-level advisory body to the president. Its members consist of the president of the Assembly of the Republic, the prime minister, the president of the Constitutional Court, the ombudÍÍÍÍsman, the chairpersons of the regional governments, former presidents, five citizens appointed by the president, and five persons elected by the Assembly of the Republic.

The council was a broadly consultative group with deep roots in Portuguese history. It was a kind of throwback to an earlier Portuguese concept of corporative, regional, or functional representation. However, it had no executive power and in recent times had been called into its advisory capacity only rarely. As a result, membership on it had come to be mainly honorary.

Data as of January 1993