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The integration of the residential function beyond the limits of the urban and developable land in the legislative frameworks has had a distinct and incomplete character. Faced with an identical phenomenon in general, called urban sprawl, the competent governments in this matter within the Iberian Peninsula have opted for a dissimilar assimilation of it, materialized in different legal and instrumental mechanisms. The objective of this paper is to present the different ways of understanding and regulating this new urban model by the Portuguese state government and the regional autonomous governments in Spain. To do this, a comparative analysis is carried out on the criteria for the classification of undeveloped land and a review of the most paradigmatic tools for the management of periurban and rurban development. The works indicate a position that is still indeterminate and, sometimes, contradictory. In spite of this, there is a tendency towards the regulated inclusion of the residential function outside the geographical contexts that have traditionally supported it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses and compares two kinds of logic that explain electoral behaviour: the performance vote and the ideological vote. To be exact, this paper puts one of the main hypotheses of both theories to the test: that the rules guiding citizens' voting decisions are the same, regardless of their level of interest, knowledge and information about political matters. In order to do this, empirical material taken from post-electoral surveys in four democracies —Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Poland— is analysed. The data belongs to the second module of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES 2005) programme which contains information on citizens' electoral conduct and knowledge of politics. The results indicate that while the influence of political knowledge on the logic of the performance vote is clear and conclusive, it is much less conclusive in the case of the ideological vote. All this suggests that democratic control of governments through sanctioning their performance requires citizens to have minimum levels of knowledge and information about politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on analysis of public opinion towards European integration in Greece, Portugal and Spain, countries known for their positive attitudes toward integration. In particular, the article analyses how public attitudes towards Europe have been formed in these countries. Secondly, it examines the determining factors of citizens' positive attitudes toward integration and shows the types of variables that are essential to understanding the differences between Greeks, Spaniards and the Portuguese. It also examines traditional euro-optimism in these southern countries. The findings show the relevance of identity and the various impacts of party platforms and ideology in attitudes of support for European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]