Francisca Tejedo-Romero

Gender quota policies have the ability to alleviate the scarcity of women in politics. However, opponents of quotas argue that such policies may constitute, in the long term, a “glass ceiling.” In Portugal, although there is still a long way to go in terms of gender equality, some municipalities have been successful in electing many women. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate, through the lenses of historical institutionalism and contagion theory, the factors that help women break out of the glass ceiling trap at local level. The study is based on a dataset from the last local elections and uses a panel data regression to calculate the probabilities of electing more women to municipal councils. The results underline that left‐wing parties that have adopted voluntary quotas, municipal experience with women mayors, and competitive environments increase the likelihood of electing more women. Gender equality.

Purpose: This manuscript studies municipal transparency in Iberian countries, Spain and Portugal, to analyse similarities and differences in both countries. Despite some political-administrative similarities, the way Spain and Portugal, deal with the issue of transparency may vary.Design/methodology/approach: Based on the levels of municipal transparency, this work aims to analyse how legal and institutional context and political factors framed the way municipalities are managing the “naming and shaming” approach resulting from the creation of the Municipal Transparency Index. A descriptive analysis of the levels of municipal transparency will be carried out and a multivariate analysis to study the characteristics that may be determining differences and similarities between the two countries.Findings: The study shows similarities in municipal transparency in Iberian countries, the positive effect of the “naming and shaming” approach on transparency and the influence of legal and institutional factors in transparency.Originality/value: While there is extensive attention to municipal transparency at the country level, less research focuses on comparing municipal transparency in countries that have similar political-administrative characteristics. This study addresses this research gap by investigating two neighbouring countries.

This article provides an analysis of the moderating role played by political ideology in transparency, thereby contributing to the growing body of literature on the topic of local government transparency. Although previous research has indicated that transparency in local governments depends on a variety of political factors, the influence of political ideology on transparency shows some inconsistencies. This paper argues that, among various political issues that affect the disclosure of information, political ideology acts as a moderator of active information disclosure. The empirical analysis is based on unbalanced panel data from 308 Portuguese municipalities. The results of this study confirm that political ideology moderates the relationship between political factors and active information disclosure. Specifically, they indicate that political ideology plays an important role in improving levels of transparency in municipalities governed by left-wing politicians.

Este trabajo analiza, desde una perspectiva comparada, la evolución de las políticas sobre transparencia en los municipios Ibéricos (españoles y portugueses). A pesar de la aparente similitud político-administrativa de España y Portugal, la forma en que cada país implementa y gestiona la transparencia puede variar. Ante este escenario, se pretende responder a la pregunta de investigación sobre la existencia de similitudes y diferencias identificadas en la política de transparencia de estos municipios. Se sigue una metodología descriptiva y comparativa enfocada a proporcionar una visión sobre el desarrollo y alcance de la información que es revelada en los sitios web de los municipios españoles y portugueses, identificando las semejanzas y discrepancias existentes. Así, la política de transparencia se desarrolló de forma similar en ambos países y la elaboración de índices de transparencia tuvo un impacto positivo en la revelación de información, a pesar de que los niveles revelados en los municipios españoles son superiores.