Intra-party delegation in the Portuguese legislature: assigning committee chairs and party coordination positions

Who Gets What? The Interactive Effect of MPs’ Sex in Committee Assignments in Portugal

“…More specifically, even though committee appointments are not gender neutral, there are signs of change (Baekgaard and Kjaer, 2012;O'Brien, 2012;Kerevel and Atkeson, 2013;Barnes, 2014) and neither the growing percentage of women in the legislature nor the implementation of gender quotas have had negative consequences (Kerevel and Atkeson, 2013). Moreover, this study confirms that although the emphasis on party control over the electoral mandate typically given in CLPR systems is also found in Portugal, MPs' preferences are taken into consideration; it thus supports prior research highlighting the fact that individual MPs are increasingly relevant in Portugal (Leston-Bandeira, 2004;Fernandes, 2016;Fernandes et al, 2018).…”

“…Since the transition to democracy, the Portuguese National Parliament has been elected through a closed-list proportional representation (CLPR) system. Under this system, the parties are the key organisational units both outside and within the legislature (Braga da Cruz, 1988;Leston-Bandeira, 2004;Leston-Bandeira, 2009;Fernandes, 2016). Parties determine the lists of candidates, albeit with varying degrees of inclusiveness (Sanches and Razzuoli, 2017), and voters can only choose one list over the others.…”

“…Parties determine the lists of candidates, albeit with varying degrees of inclusiveness (Sanches and Razzuoli, 2017), and voters can only choose one list over the others. Whether a candidate is elected largely depends on the party's performance and on her/his position on the list, thus making intraparty competition crucial (Braga da Cruz, 1988;Fernandes, 2016). If elected, most candidates stay within their party's parliamentary group (PG); however, they can sit as independents if they abandon their original PG (Leston-Bandeira, 2004, p. 40).…”

“…Despite their lack of autonomy in this framework (Opello, 1986; Braga da Cruz 1988), individual MPs find ways of expressing 'disagreement with the party' (Leston-Bandeira, 2009), and they sometimes represent their constituency's interests in parliament (Leston-Bandeira, 2004, pp. 130-133;Fernandes, 2016;Fernandes et al, 2018). Moreover, the 2007 Reform of Parliament has enhanced the role, visibility and working conditions of individual MPs in parliamentary activity (Leston-Bandeira and Tibú rcio, 2012).…”

Election proximity and representation focus in party-constrained environments

“…hierarchy (Fernandes, 2016). In return, parties expect members to specialize in policy areas and to deliver information to party's median legislator to curb uncertainty in policy outcomes (Gilligan and Krehbiel, 1987), acquiring and disseminating information at the intra-party level with minimum agency loss (Kiewet and McCubbins, 1991).…”