“The Portuguese Candidate Survey to the 2019 Legislative Elections (elected and non-elected)” was conducted by the Observatory for Democracy and Political Representation of the Center for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-Iscte), directed by André Freire and Guya Accornero and had the research fellows Viriato Queiroga and Livino Neto and the research interns Beatriz Esteves and José Lourenço.

The project was coordinated by André Freire with the aim of studying the process of political representation in Portugal. In particular, this study has two main objectives. First, to describe how patterns of political representation have changed over time, analyzing how the links between citizens and their representatives have evolved since the 2008 crisis and the implementation of the austerity policies that followed especially in Portugal and in other Southern European countries, also including the context of the COVID19 pandemic. Second, to analyze the processes of party misalignment (or realignment) according to several dimensions, especially in the electoral arena.

This project is part of the Comparative Candidate Survey research network: PELA – Parliamentary Elites of Latin America (http://americo.usal.es/oir/elites/); the European Election Study (EES) & European Candidate Survey (ECS) (http://europeanelectionstudies.net/) and the Individualized Representation and its Prerequisites (http://www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de/50561971/Research- projects).

The Portuguese study was funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), with institutional support from the National Elections Commission (CNE) and the Assembly of the Republic.

This survey’s application ended in 2021, having collected 383 valid responses (of which 158 were from MPs), in a universe of 1383 candidates. The data is currently under embargo and will be made available to the public by the end of 2022.

Coordinator:
Professor Doutor André Freire

Researcher:
Sofia Serra-Silva

Research Assistants:
Viriato Queiroga
Livino Neto

Research Interns:
Beatriz Esteves Duarte
José Lourenço

Colaborators:
Vasco Wilton
Filipe Lima
Carolina Augusta
Guilherme Novo Soares
Jéssica Chaínho-Pereira