Dissent in a party-based parliament: The Portuguese case

Leston-Bandeira, Cristina

Abstract

With a focus on the Portuguese case, this article shows how MPs express disagreement with their parties in a highly cohesive and party-dominated parliament. We review the features that explain why the Portuguese institutional framework reinforces party control over the parliamentary mandate and discuss the different ways Portuguese MPs express party dissent. In the last section of the article, we analyse data on voting for a period of just over 30 years. Contrary to what the literature tells us, Portuguese MPs have been breaching voting discipline regularly since 1976.

Citation

Leston-Bandeira, C. (2009). Dissent in a party-based parliament: The Portuguese case. Party Politics, 15(6), 695-713. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068809334556

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Oct 23, 2009
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Party Politics
• Print ISSN: 1354-0688
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 695-713
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068809334556
• Keywords: Measure of voting dissent; Party dissent; Portuguese parliament; Voting dissent
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/462093
• Publisher URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1354068809334556
• Contract Date: Nov 13, 2014