Legislative Studies: Challenges, Opportunities, and Prospects

November 6, 2024

Patterns of Legislative Effectiveness (POLE) Final Conference

The Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-Iscte) at Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa hosted an in-depth two-day conference on October 28-29, titled “Legislative Studies: Challenges, Opportunities, and Prospects.” The event marked the final conference for the Patterns of Legislative Effectiveness (POLE) project, a comprehensive research initiative exploring legislators’ activity and performance across Portuguese and Irish parliamentary systems. Supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the POLE project represents a significant contribution to the field of legislative studies.

The conference brought together prominent figures in political science, including members of the POLE research team Patrícia Calca, Sebastian Koehler, Shota Kakabadze, João Miguel de Carvalho, Francisco Pereira Coutinho, Célia Felícia Belim Rodrigues, Teresa Ruel and its advisory board – distinguished professors such as Alan Wiseman, Simon Hix, Simon Hug, and Jonathan Slapin.

One of the conference’s highlights was a public presentation of the Legislative Effectiveness Score (LES) by its co-author Prof. Wiseman. The event concluded with a roundtable discussion where panelists debated the challenges, opportunities, and future directions for legislative studies, setting the stage for new research initiatives and methodologies in this evolving field.