Manuel António Garcia Braga da Cruz was born in Tadim, Braga, in 1946. He graduated in Philosophy (UCP, Braga) and Sociology (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome). He gained his PhD and achieved the rank of 'agregado' in Political Sociology (ISCTE, Lisbon). He was a researcher for the Social Sciences Institute of Universidade de Lisboa (1977-2000) and director of its magazine Análise Social (1987-1998). He has been Dean of the Portuguese Universidade Católica since 2000, where he has been Full Professor since 1992. He was the founder and president of the Associação Portuguesa de Ciência Política, the Academia Portuguesa da História, the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, the Real Academia de la Historia de España and the Real Academia de Ciencias Politicas y Morales de Madrid. He has written As Origens da Democracia Cristã e o Salazarismo (1980), Monárquicos e Republicanos no Estado Novo (1986), O Partido e o Estado no Salazarismo (1988), Teorias Sociológicas. Os Fundadores e os Clássicos (1989). Instituições Políticas e Processos Sociais (1995), O Estado Novo e a Igreja Católica (1998), Transições Históricas e Reformas Políticas em Portugal (1999), Castelo Rodrigo e SªMªde Aguiar (2006), Universidade Católica Portuguesa. 40 Anos ao Serviço da Igreja e de Portugal (2009).