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This article argues that differences in sociopolitical reputation can explain why interest groups fail or succeed in influencing policymakers and that therefore sociopolitical reputation is a useful addition to the conceptual toolbox of interest groups scholars. Focusing on pharmacies and their associations in Greece and Portugal between 2005 and 2021, this article uses the concept of sociopolitical reputation to explain why reform attempts to reduce pharmaceutical spending and increase competition in the pharmacy sector were successful in Portugal but not in Greece, even though pharmacists are a much stronger interest group in Portugal than in Greece and even though both countries were under significant exogenous pressure to introduce structural reforms in the wake of the Eurozone crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In 2000, the Portuguese minority socialist government decriminalized the possession and consumption of drugs. This law made Portugal unique in having a formal system that directs the person using drugs to a panel under the purview of the Ministry of Health, as opposed to the Ministry of Justice, and hence constitutes an 'original innovation'. In this article, we ask under which conditions such kinds of reforms are introduced and successfully implemented. Aims and design: After discussing the limitations of the existing literature, we present a new theoretical framework: the 'six‐stars' framework. We argue that successful policy innovation in democracies will only occur and persist when six institutional and individual 'stars' are aligned: attention, motivation to innovate, a new solution, political strategies, quality and legitimacy of the decision‐making process and guarantees for full implementation. We then apply this framework to the Portuguese Drug Policy Case through theory‐testing/process‐tracing. Relying upon a qualitative analysis of three different types of data—primary and secondary sources, official documents emitted by key actors and interviews—we identify the presence of the six aligned 'stars'. Conclusions: The proposed 'six‐stars' framework of successful drug policy innovation shows the importance of electoral mandates, communication, inclusion, transparency, deliberation and evaluation when designing innovative drug policies. It also illustrates the importance of ensuring the support of implementing agents and quickly creating visible, positive policy feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines various reasons for the rise in European Parliament's power to invest and appoint the Commission, which according to the author would no have been possible without the support of some member states, and the Commission.

To what extent Portuguese parties fulfil their electoral pledges? And does this fulfilment imply short- or long-term reforms? More: to what extent do veto players constrain the fulfilment of government mandates? This article focuses on these questions, analysing seven legislatures, from 1995 to 2919 and a total of 6367 pledges. The results show that the rate of fulfilment is consistently high, that short-term pledges, albeit the majority, hold a fulfilment rate equal to those of long-term, and that veto players can significatively constrain the executive's capacity to carry out its mandate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]