Project: From Representation to Legitimacy? Political Parties and Interest Groups in Southern Europe - RELEPAGI

Funding Source: FCT - PTDC/IVC-CPO/1864/2014

Participant Institutions: IPRI-NOVA

Timeframe: 2016-2019

Abstract: The project’s main goal is to analyze the relationship between parties and interest groups using a comparative and longitudinal approach. Third-wave Southern European democracies (Greece, Portugal and Spain) will be used to address the following questions: How have political parties interacted with interest groups? What is the evolution of this linkage over time, in particular after the emergence of the recent economic crisis? Which factors can explain party-group interactions? How can we explain variation across different parties and countries? The empirical research is based on extensive data collection which includes not only the organizational dimension, but also an examination of leadership profile, as well as new data collected through a questionnaire to interest groups and elite interviews. The final aim is to assess potential causes of party-group linkages, considering sociological, institutional and actors’ strategy as the main explanatory factors.

Members of the Team:

Ana Raquel Rego
António Dias
Costas Eleftheriou
Dimitrios Sotiropoulos
Ekaterina Gorbunova
Filipa Raimundo
Giorgos Charalambous
Isabella Razzuoli
Iván Iborra
João Loureiro
Jorge Miguel Fernandes
Juan Rodríguez Teruel
Oscar Barbera
Marco Lisi (Coordinator)
Pablo Cosano
Rui Oliveira
Santiago Montiel
Sebastian Royo
Spyridoula Nezi