Interest Groups And Political Representation In Portugal And Beyond

"An indispensable addition to the literature on interest group and political representation. This book provides a unique perspective on the role of interest groups in Portugal and their implications for political representation, and it does so from a rich comparative perspective that illuminates the challenges and prospects for the study of Portuguese interest groups and beyond. A must read for anyone interested in political representation." -Sebastián Royo, Provost and Professor of Political Science, Clark University, USA "Based on considerable collective research, Marco Lisi and his research team can provide new theoretical insights into the relationship between interest intermediation and political representation. Furthermore, the book is the most comprehensive empirical study of the field in Portugal from a comparative perspective to date. The work also highlights Portuguese interest groups' changing logic of action in an increasingly integrated European Union multilevel arena. This new book is an indispensable, comprehensive addition to the still under-researched field of interest groups and lobbying in southern Europe." -José M. Magone, Professor in Regional and Global Governance, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany This book examines the characteristics and evolution of interest groups in Portugal. Drawing from a wide array of sources - including surveys, parliamentary activities, media coverage and interviews with MPs and lobbyists - it systematically assesses interest group politics. The book analyses the main features of group population, the strategies utilised by organised interests, their interactions with key decision-makers, and citizens' opinions regarding their role in the political system. The original data provided in this book frames the Portuguese case in a broader European context, and will be extremely useful for international comparisons. It will appeal to scholars and students of European politics, interest groups, democratic theories, and public policy. Marco Lisi is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies, Nova University of Lisbon, and researcher at IPRI-NOVA, Portugal. His research interests include political parties, interest groups, electoral behavior, party systems, political representation and election campaigns. .

This book examines the characteristics and evolution of interest groups in Portugal. Drawing from a wide array of sources - including surveys, parliamentary activities, media coverage and interviews with MPs and lobbyists – it systematically assesses interest group politics. The book analyses the main features of group population, the strategies utilised by organised interests, their interactions with key decision-makers, and citizens’ opinions regarding their role in the political system. The original data provided in this book frames the Portuguese case in a broader European context, and will be extremely useful for international comparisons. It will appeal to scholars and students of European politics, interest groups, democratic theories, and public policy.

This book analyses the coverage of elections that occurred between September 2015 and February 2016 in six European countries (Greece, Portugal, Poland, Croatia, Spain and Ireland). The sample examined includes all news stories published during the official electoral campaign in different types of media outlets: three newspapers per country covering centre-left and centre-right wing political leaning, as well as reference and tabloid papers; three main television news broadcasts covering commercial/private and public broadcast television channels; and three papers that are published only online, taking into account their levels of audience and importance within each national media and political system. The book also examines different connections to the EU and to the Euro Crisis. Questions such as the following guide the overall analysis: In what ways is news election coverage similar and different in these countries? Which issues are mostly covered by the news media and how? Are there patterns of election news coverage in these six European countries? This book is indispensable reading for researchers and students in the field of the media coverage of election campaigns, political communication and populism. Chapters 4 and 8 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This updated edition of Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers Handbook covers the ground of women's access to the legislature in three steps: It looks into the obstacles women confront when entering Parliament be they political, socio-economic or ideological and psychological. It presents solutions to overcome these obstacles, such as changing electoral systems and introducing quotas, and it details strategies for women to influence politics once they are elected to parliament, an institution which is traditionally male dominated. The first Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers handbook was produced as part of IDEA's work on women and political participation in 1998. Since its release in English in 1998, there has been an ongoing interest and demand for the handbook, and responding to the request for the translation of the handbook, IDEA has produced Spanish, French and Indonesian language versions and a Russian overview of the handbook during 2002-2003. Since the first handbook was published, the picture regarding women's political participation has slowly changed. Overall the past decade has seen gradual progress with regard to women's presence in national parliaments. This second edition incorporates relevant global changes in the past years presenting new and updated case studies.--

This volume provides a comprehensive examination of lobbying by interest groups in contemporary Europe.

In any democracy, the central problem of governance is how to inform, organize, and represent the opinions of the public in order to advance three goals: popular control over leaders, equality among citizens, and competent governance. In most political analyses, voting is emphasized as the central and essential process in achieving these goals. Yet democratic representation encompasses a great deal more than voter beliefs and behavior and, indeed, involves much more than the machinery of elections. Democracy requires government agencies that respond to voter decisions, a civil society in which powerful organized interests do not dominate all others, and communication systems that permit divergent voices to be heard. Representation: Elections and Beyond brings together leading international scholars from a wide range of disciplines to explore the twenty-first-century innovations—in voting laws and practices, in electoral systems, in administrative, political, and civil organizations, and in communication processes and new technologies—that are altering how we understand democratic representation. Featuring twelve essays that engage with national, provincial, and municipal governments across three continents, this volume tackles traditional core elements of democratic representation, such as voting, electoral systems, and political parties, while also underscoring the ways in which beliefs and preferences of citizens are influenced, expressed, and aggregated and the effects of those methods and practices on political agendas and policy outcomes. In pinpointing deficiencies in contemporary democratic practices and possibilities for reform, Representation provides an invaluable roadmap to improve democratic representation in the twenty-first century. Contributors: André Blais, Pradeep Chhibber, Archon Fung, Jacob Hacker, Zoltan Hajnal, Matthew Hindman, David Karpf, Georgia Kernell, Alexander Keyssar, Anthony McGann, Susan Ostermann, Paul Pierson, Dennis Thompson, Jessica Trounstine, Mark E. Warren.

Draws from political science, history, political theory, economics, and anthropology to answer the most important questions about political representation.

At a time of growing concern over the fate of contemporary democracy this book shows how vast differences between countries in forms of political conduct, and taken for granted assumptions, determine what democracies actually accomplish. In Democratic Practice, Robert M. Fishman elucidates why some democracies include the economically underprivileged, and cultural others within the circles of political relevance that set policies and the political agenda, whereas others exclude them. On the basis of in-depth research on Portugal and Spain, Fishman develops a theoretically innovative explanation for the breadth of democratic inclusion and draws out large implications for democracies everywhere. Democratic Practice examines the record of two countries that began the worldwide turn to democracy in the 1970s, showing how and why basic assumptions about what democracy is, and how political actors should treat one another, diverged. The book offers detailed empirical evidence on how an inclusive approach to democratic politics provides major benefits not only for the poor and excluded but also for others, drawing large lessons for contemporary democracies.