Sport Policy and Electoral Decision-Making: Evidence from Self-Reported Voting Intentions in Portugal

Sport management has increasingly adopted a multidisciplinary approach to understanding sport and its effects on contemporary societies. Yet the relationship between sport policy and electoral decision-making remains comparatively underexplored, particularly when sport is considered as a public policy domain rather than through sporting success or specific sport-related ballot questions. This study explores the self-reported salience of sport policy in electoral decision-making among Portuguese voters and examines public perceptions of the relationship between sport, politics, and public responsibility for sport development. An exploratory, descriptive quantitative design was used, based on primary data collected through a multidimensional online questionnaire. Data were collected between November 2024 and January 2025, yielding 937 valid responses. The largest single share of respondents (46.4%) reported considering local sport development when voting in local elections, while 45.7% stated that, in a hypothetical situation of indecision, they would vote for the candidate or political party presenting the greatest number of measures for local sport; the corresponding figure for national elections was 40.9%. At the same time, 79.4% agreed that sport and physical activity should be a political priority, whereas 44.3% perceived differences in public investment in sport across political parties and 44.0% did not perceive sport as sufficiently recognised by political elites. The findings suggest that sport policy has a notable degree of self-reported electoral salience in this sample, particularly in local contexts, while also revealing substantial uncertainty about political recognition and party differentiation. While stated intentions cannot be equated with observed voting behaviour and the voluntary online sample does not support population-level representativeness, the study provides exploratory evidence that sport policy can constitute a relevant consideration in electoral decision-making, particularly in local electoral contexts.