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Publication Detailed Description
Portugal's quota-parity law: an analysis of its adoption
Journal Title
West European Politics
Year (definitive publication)
2012
Language
English
Country
United Kingdom
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Abstract
In August 2006, Portugal approved a new quota law, called the parity law. According tothis, all candidate lists presented for local, parliamentary, and European elections must guarantee a minimum representation of 33 per cent for each sex. This article analysesthe proximate causes that led to the adoption of gender quotas by the PortugueseParliament. The simple answer is that the law’s passage was a direct consequence of adraft piece of legislation presented by the Socialist Party (PS), which enjoyed amajority. However, the reasons that led the PS to push through a quota law remainunclear. Using open-ended interviews with key women deputies from all the mainPortuguese political parties, and national public opinion data, among other sources, therole of four actors/factors that were involved in the law’s adoption are criticallyexamined: notably, civil society actors, state actors, international and transnational actors, and the Portuguese political context.
Acknowledgements
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Keywords
Fields of Science and Technology Classification
- Political Science - Social Sciences
