Este artigo aborda a criação do Sistema Nacional de Informações sobre Irrigação (SisNIR), resultado de parceria entre o Ministério da Integração e do Desenvolvimento Regional (MIDR) e a Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA), com o objetivo de subsidiar o planejamento e as ações da Política Nacional de Irrigação. O método consistiu na realização de jornadas de inovação, estruturação de dados, projeto e desenvolvimento de componentes de software para o SisNIR. Entre os principais resultados, destaca-se a modelagem de um novo indicador para análise de infraestrutura para irrigação no território brasileiro, seguindo uma estratégia de análise multicritério.

The literature on electoral system change has focused on the motivations of the political actors who initiate these legislative processes. However, less is known about how contextual factors impact electoral reform approval. The Portuguese case is especially interesting for investigating this question. In the 38-year period studied in this article, only one reduction in the number of MPs and two amendments to the rules governing changes in the electoral system occurred, despite the 11 episodes in which political parties attempted to reform the electoral system. Using a strategy that prioritizes the contextualized analysis of a long period, the goal is to explore the mechanisms-barriers and catalysts-that underlie reform and non-reform. We conclude that the maintenance of the status quo is the result of the combined effectiveness of the barriers-high constitutional and legal barriers, as well as inter and intra-party veto players-and the ineffectiveness of the catalysts-the electoral system ensured political and electoral stability, while simultaneously lowering the risks faced by the main political parties-during the analysed period. We also conclude that the extreme results obtained in the intra-party dimension of the electoral system, which has been the driving force behind the country's debate on electoral reform, are the only exception to this trend.

Major changes took place during the most recent regional elections in Madeira (2019) and the Azores (2020). In Madeira, the PSD took office, but only in a coalition with the CDS-PP. After 43 years of regional elections, a pattern of non-alternation was suddenly changed to one of partial alternation. In the Azores, despite being the largest single party after the election, 24-years of PS rule came to an end with the victory of a broad PSD-led coalition that included CDS-PP and the PPM and which received parliamentary support from IL and Chega. The latter two, together with PAN, were new parties that won votes in the election.In this report, we discuss two-way spill overs between national and regional politics in both regions: that is, the influence from national to regional politics and vice-versa.

Abstract This chapter offers an overview of the evolution of the Portuguese left (centre-left and radical left) since the democratic transition (1974–1982) until the present time. By analysing the centre-left and the radical left parties’ strategies and agenda from 25 April 1974 to the revolutionary period we present the genetic underpinnings of the existing governmental schism within the Portuguese left. In the first section of the chapter, we analyse the cleavage structures and the dimensions of policy competition in Portuguese society and in the Portuguese political system, to locate the different left-wing parties within them. In the second section, we analyse how the Great Recession contributed to overcoming the governmental schism among the Portuguese left. In the third and final section, we offer a sort of epilogue with up-to-date information, namely in terms of coalition politics on the left, considering current developments.

Although public discussion about the economic crisis of the late 2000s to mid-2010s in Southern Europe often refers to its impact on the region's younger citizens, not enough attention has been given to the political consequences of the crisis on the young. Focusing on the cases of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, this introduction to the special issue on age-related rifts in post-crisis Southern Europe offers an overview of the contributions and an initial answer to the question: to what extent and in what areas can one talk about an emergent generational divide in the region? Findings point to some tangible but uneven effects of the crisis across the four countries, mostly in the sense of accentuating pre-existing contrasts.

ABSTRACT This article looks at how well different age groups are represented in the parliaments of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. We focus on three periods – before, during and after the ‘Great Recession’ – assuming the economic turmoil has generated new demands channelled by new parties that have recently entered parliament or have had a surge during the crisis. Data comes from mass surveys carried out in each country and from MP biographies. The findings reveal relevant changes in Spain and Italy, with more young people in the parties that appeared or had a surge during the crisis, whereas in Greece and Portugal no relevant changes are observed.

The 2015-2019 left-wing government alliance in Portugal merits attention for several reasons, of which four stand out.First, because, if it worked well, it may offer a solution to the crisis affecting socialdemocratic parties by pushing them back to the left.Second, because it may offer the radical left greater influence.Third, because existing studies offering comprehensive overviews of the Portuguese case tend to be descriptive in nature.Fourth, because existing studies that are more analytical and explanatory in nature tend to be rather limited in their scope.This study offers an original contribution in that it uses empirical data and takes a comprehensive, analytical and explanatory approach.We argue that the crisis was an important factor in changing old patterns of coalition politics on the Left in Portugal, both because it brought the socialists and radical left parties together in government, and because these changes were very important in guiding the socialists to shift in their policy orientations.Broadly, we argue that the new patterns of coalition politics on the Left and an increased influence of the radical left on domestic politics offer a means of renewing and rejuvenating social democratic parties in Portugal and elsewhere.

This article explores trends in overall levels of democratic support in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Additionally, the article examines the extent to which the experience of the steep economic downturn in Southern Europe had specific effects on democratic support across different generations and ideological groups by examining survey data that span three decades. The evidence is mixed concerning the resilience of democratic values in the four South European countries, ranging from stability in Portugal to noticeable decline in Italy. Members of the 'millennial' generation appear to be more susceptible to the period effect of the crisis, whereas left-wing and centrist citizens are more likely to select democracy as the best form of government compared to right-wing citizens.

: This article asks whether and why, in a system lacking electoral incentives to cultivate personal votes, MPs might choose to signal to geographic constituents. It explores this question by analysing the number of written parliamentary questions submitted to the Portuguese parliament on two issues – unemployment and crime – between 2009 and 2015, and asking if MPs are more inclined to table questions on specific issues when their districts suffer particularly from related problems. The article finds evidence that constituency-level problem pressure does matter for the signalling activities of MPs, although policy specialization remains the main driver of their issue emphasis. This finding contributes new knowledge to the ongoing debate on the factors accounting for the representative relationship between MPs and constituents, by drawing attention to the importance of district-level problem pressure as one of the drivers of issue sponsorship in parliament.

Political representation studies have contributed to the analysis of the quality of contemporary democracies. MPs (and prospective MPs) and mass surveys developed from a comparative perspective have expanded the scope and focus of research, particularly the link between the masses and political elite. This chapter has a twofold purpose. First, there is a brief review of the latest developments in terms of the data produced and methodologies used in political representation studies conducted in Portugal, like the Comparative Candidates Survey. Second, we examine findings on three substantive themes: descriptive parliamentary representation (age, sex, education, social capital and political experience); citizens' political attitudes and behaviour towards the political system (political legitimacy, political trust and political engagement or satisfaction with democracy, trust in institutions, political interest and political participation); and voter–MP congruence on socio-economic issues (policy representation along the usual issues associated with left–right ideology). Finally, we seek to pinpoint the changes between the periods before and after the Great Recession in terms of descriptive representation, system legitimation and policy – ideological linkage functions between voters and their representatives.

Although the presence of women has been increasing in several parliaments around the world, we still do not know much about the consequences that their presence has for policy representation. Relying on a rich comparative dataset on prospective MPs' policy preferences in 12 countries and 87 political parties collected between 2006 and 2012 within the Comparative Candidates Survey, this article aims to understand how political parties interplay with prospective MPs' sex to affect the latter's policy preferences. Our results show that the descriptive representation of women makes a difference for policy representation, (i) mainly (though not only) when issues that particularly affect women are at stake and (ii) only concerning issues around which political parties do not yet have settled positions (i.e. uncrystallized issues). There are therefore empirical grounds to support an imposed representation of minority groups to deal with issues that are new on the political agenda.

Segundo o site do Boletim este numero especial e a edicao numero 127 publicada no dia 21/11/2020.

This chapter examines descriptive and substantive representation in the Iberian Legislatures from two perspectives: historic and territorial. We ground our comparative analysis in two historical periods—before and after the Great Recession. Focusing on two of Pitkin's four dimensions of representation, we explore whether the level of ideological congruence or social resemblance between parliamentarians and citizens has increased. Using mass and elite surveys, census data and parliamentarians' biographies, we find that the level of congruence and resemblance has increased. This may be the result of the Great Recession or the intensification of a historical trend that other studies have previously identified.

Economic crises and foreign interventions cause political actors to face a dilemma between responsiveness towards their electorate and responsibility vis-a-vis international institutions. In this article, we analyse how a seldom studied political actor in international affairs (the Head of State in a semi-presidential regime) dealt with this dilemma. We focus on Anibal Cavaco Silva's (former president of the Portuguese Republic) discourse, and use of veto and constitutionality examination request powers in the 2011-16 mandate, and on his attitudes regarding the access to power of pro- and anti-austerity political forces in the aftermath of the 2015 legislative elections. We conclude that the Head of State was more concerned with international responsibility than with domestic responsibility and responsiveness, especially at the behavioural level, although he occasionally acted in ways that toned down this feature of his presidential mandate. We therefore suggest that in times of severe crisis the political conditions that usually partly explain variations in the use of the presidential powers in semi-presidential regimes interact with short-term factors related to the crisis that can reduce or even cancel out their effects.

In non-preferential electoral systems, where the chances for an MP to get re-elected strongly depend on party elites, we generally assume that political parties have a strong say on the individual agendas of MPs. On the other hand, this assumption has ever hardly been tested empirically, leaving a lot of unexplained variation in the way individual legislators within the same party select the topics they devote attention to. This paper aims to contribute to current studies on political representation by examining the importance of a range of determinants of individual topic selection in Portugal. In particular, it tests the relevance of the characteristics of the electoral district where the MP was elected, his/her links with distinct social groups and his/her committee membership. The institutional characteristics of the Portuguese political system make for a suitable case study to evaluate these hypotheses, as well as a rather conservative one, since the odds of observing MPs catering to their constituency or advancing personal agendas lower in comparison with preferential electoral systems. The paper tackles this question by drawing on a dataset comprising the population of written parliamentary questions (more than 10,000) tabled by Portuguese MPs in the period from 2009 until 2015. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of political representation and the role of individual legislators as one of linkage mechanisms in European democracies.