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The year 2021 was the first full year for the De Croo I Cabinet, which had been installed in October 2020 after difficult and lengthy negotiations. The oversized and ideologically diverse ?Vivaldi? coalition government struggled as it was confronted with the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst frequent tensions between the coalition partners, with the two largest Flemish parties (Flemish Interest/Vlaams Belang and New Flemish Alliance/Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie) shooting from the opposition. Further, usual disagreements continued to prevail between Flemish and Francophone parties and their respective executives at the subnational level. Hence, discussions on the contours of a ? still very tentative ? seventh state reform did not make much progress. Wallonia, the country's southern region, was hit by catastrophic floods in July. The whole public response to these floods added up to the massive costs of handling COVID-19, which resulted in a structurally large budget deficit., L'année 2021 fut la première année complète pour le gouvernement De Croo I entré en fonction en octobre 2020 au terme de longues et difficiles négociations. La coalition ?Vivaldi?, très large et idéologiquement diversifiée, rencontra bien des difficultés dans sa gestion de la pandémie COVID-19; cette dernière suscita de fréquentes tensions entre les partenaires de la coalition alors que les deux plus grands partis flamands (le VB et la N-VA) menaient une opposition active. Par ailleurs, les désaccords habituels se prolongèrent entre les partis flamands et francophones et leurs exécutifs respectifs à l?échelon subnational. Dans ces conditions, les discussions autour d'une septième réforme de l'Etat aux contours encore très vagues ne progressèrent guère. La Wallonie, la région du Sud du pays, fut frappée par des inondations catastrophiques en juillet. La réponse des autorités publiques à ces inondations, conjuguée aux coûts très élevés de la gestion COVID-19, se traduisit par un déficit budgétaire structurellement élevé.

The framing impact of political discourses has long been attested for. Metaphors in particular are known to ease the understanding of complex concepts and processes. Yet, the question remains to what extent metaphors do work the same on different recipients? Based on an experimental design, we test a potentially key moderating variable in the study of political metaphors: political knowledge. Our experiment aims at determining the extent to which the confrontation of individuals to arguments and metaphors impacts their preferences regarding the implementation of a basic income in Belgium. In particular, we hypothesize that the marginal effect of metaphors as cognitive shortcuts decreases when political knowledge increases. Our findings suggest that some metaphorical frames are more successful than others, hereby supporting the idea that the aptness of the metaphorical frame is a key factor when conducting experiments. We conclude that political knowledge is an important variable when analyzing the framing effect of metaphors, especially when it goes about very low or very high levels of political knowledge. The insertion of metaphors in political discourses may easily succeed in rallying individuals behind a given cause, but this would only work if participants have a lower knowledge of politics., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Many Western parties have opened up the process of leadership selection to party members under the noble premises to democratize the party. Yet, this might just be window-dressing as party leadership selection is often a coronation rather than an open contest. We argue that the preparation phase preceding the actual election phase is crucial in understanding the balance between the impact of party members and the steering of the party elite. This study compares the preparation phase of two leadership contests after losing elections in one party, the Flemish Christian-democratic party in Belgium: one with a single candidate and one with an exceptionally high number of candidates. Our analysis, based on 22 in-depth elite interviews, demonstrates that leadership elections are influenced by a cluster of different influencing actors, but in particular by what we label the “last person standing” whose candidacy is identified as the most effective mechanism to influence the nomination process. Other (slightly less effective) influencing mechanisms include encouragements, discouragements and the diffusion of an ideal profile for the future party leader., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The literature on candidate selection has focussed extensively on the degree of inclusiveness and decentralization of the selectorate, as part of the debate on intra-party democracy. However, much less attention has been paid to the degree of openness of candidacies, or selection criteria within parties. Yet parties have a lot of leeway in how they design selection criteria internally. Which guidelines do parties follow when making the crucial choice on which candidates to select for elections? This paper investigates selection criteria from two perspectives: the formal rules set by parties that restrict the candidate’s pool and the (informal) preferences of selectors that shape who gets selected. We aim first at contrasting the degree of party institutionalization and parties’ formal rules in candidate selection and so, we shed light on whether parties formalise their candidacy requirements and candidate selection processes to the same extent as other party activities. Second, the paper investigates the role of the selectorates, and how selectorate’s characteristics matter for the kind of (informal) selection criteria, be they intended at maximizing offices, votes or policies. Drawing on party statutes coded in the Political Party Database (PPDB) and 23 in-depth interviews with selectors, we study three francophone Belgian parties that differ both in terms of inclusiveness of the selectorate who has the final say on candidate selection and in terms of degree of centralisation, and in terms of party institutionalisation: the green party (Ecolo), the socialist party (PS), and the liberal party (MR). Our comparative analysis of parties, selection criteria provides new insights into the secret garden of politics and highlights in particular the major impact of parties, degree of centralization., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This book focuses on the triadic relationship between electoral candidates and the two other poles of the delegation and accountability triangle—political parties and voters. The chapters rely mostly on the Belgian Candidate Survey (CCS project), gathering about 2000 candidates belonging to 15 parties represented in Parliament and running for the 2014 federal and regional elections, and the authors’ conclusions serve at answering broad political science questions linked with elite recruitment, party and candidate electoral strategies, personalisation, party cohesion, and descriptive and substantive representation. Its multilevel semi-open electoral system, atypical federal structure, extreme party system fragmentation and volatility make Belgium an exceptionally rich but complex case that offers findings highly relevant to research on candidates in other democracies.

For the last twenty years, political scientists in French-speaking Belgium have been federated under the French-speaking Belgium Political Science Association (ABSP) which is the IPSA representative for Belgium and heir of the once unitary Belgian Institute for Political Science. ABSP just celebrated its 20th anniversary and published a book in French that offers the state of the discipline in terms of teaching, research, and service: L’ABSP: 20 ans de science politique en Belgique francophone (Reuchamps et al. 2017). No fewer than 43 political scientists from all Belgian French-speaking universities and from the different fields in the discipline contributed to this edited volume. In this chapter, we build on these insights to present the state of political science in French-speaking Belgium in regards to the digital (r)evolution. Based on longitudinal data and perspectives about teaching, research, and service, we seek to assess how political science evolves in our – small – part of the world, with a special focus on how it has embraced (or not) the digitalization trend in the discipline., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

A revised version of this paper has been published in: "Basic Income Studies : an international journal of basic income research" - Vol. 13, no. 2, p. 1-16 https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal:206958 Many studies in cognitive linguistics have highlighted the important role of metaphors in political discourse, and more specifically their ability to frame complex concepts (Lakoff 1996). The key question is however under which conditions different framings lead to different representations of such complex political issues. Using an experimental design, this paper tackles the question of the framing impact of metaphors by focusing on the opportunity to implement a basic income (BI) system in a given polity. We take advantage of the preliminary stage of the BI debate in Belgium to study the influence of discursive strategies on the opinion formation process of individuals. As De Wispelaere and Noguera (2012) highlighted, the framing of the BI proposal may significantly increase its psychological feasibility. Carefully choosing the arguments employed to address this question can help avoid triggering negative perceptions and ensure positive attitudes toward this policy. While most studies on the BI so far have been either normative or descriptive, our experiment aims at determining to what extent the confrontation of individuals to metaphors illustrating the BI system impact the way they apprehend its implementation in Belgium. We show that very light variations in an informative text can induce major differences in the opinion formation process of the participants. This suggests that, when a debate is controversial and ambiguous, citizens’ opinions are sensitive to framing effects. BI proponents or opponents should thus pay particular attention to which arguments and metaphors are put forward in the public debate, as this could modify its outcome.

There is an on-going attention among scholars on the analysis of conflicts in divided societies. They highlight an interesting paradox at the heart of linguistically divided democracies and especially of federal countries. Federalism is often seen as a solution to reduce tensions and reach compromises, yet it also fosters additional tensions (e.g. demands for self-rule). While studies of federalism have discussed the institutional and political nature of federalising reforms, one main question remains: how do elites sell these reforms to the public? Belgium provides a case in point to study such dynamics, with a long-started opposition between two linguistic groups (Flemish and Francophones) that led to six State reforms in forty-five years. Building on an interdisciplinary approach bringing together political science and linguistics, this paper investigates the discourses of Belgian politicians on federalism through the six Belgian State reforms. We analyse discourses of Belgian politicians during television debates from the time of the first State reforms in the 1970’s until present time. We rely on an original longitudinal corpus of 81 television debates covering 50 years from the francophone public broadcaster, RTBF, in Belgium featuring French-speaking and Dutch-speaking politicians as well as representatives from the civil society and experts. The selected television debates relate to the progressive – albeit not without political tensions – transformation of Belgium’s federal system. Our corpus is thus a solid indicator of this political transformation and allows identifying, for the different State reforms, how Belgian political elites framed their standpoints on this critical issue. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis will be used to identify the selling points used by elites to defend or criticise the State reforms. As a State reform is quite complex and technical, it is crucial to identify how elites present this to the public to make it more

The paradox of federalism lies at the heart of linguistically divided democracies: it is both a solution to reach compromises and yet it can foster additional tensions. With a long-started opposition between Flemings and Francophones that led to six State reforms in fifty years, Belgium provides a case in point to study how discourse and political change interact. Building on an interdisciplinary political science and linguistics approach, this paper draws on discursive institutionalism and investigates discourses on Belgian federalism, relying on 81 television debates from the 1970's until 2016 (22 hours of video data) from the francophone public broadcaster in Belgium, RTBF. Our corpus is a solid indicator of the progressive - albeit not without political tensions - transformation of the Belgian system. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis helps identify the selling points used to defend/criticize the complex and technical State reforms, and present them to the public to make it more or less desirable. Our analysis (1) considers the evolution of discourses on Belgian federalism longitudinally and thus allows questioning if and how elite discourses evolved alongside State reforms and also, if and how discourses vary depending on the kinds of actors (journalists, politicians, representatives from the civil society) and across actors (Flemish vs. French-speaking politicians and between political parties). (2) It compares the discourses before and after the main reform phases and discusses how discourse may influence change (and vice versa). The paper offers an original approach to analyze how political elites communicate on and perceive evolutions of federalism.

Using an experimental design, this paper tackles the question of the framing impact of metaphors by focusing on the opportunity to implement a basic income (BI) system in a given polity. We take advantage of the preliminary stage of the BI debate in Belgium to study the influence of discursive strategies on the opinion formation process of individuals, since carefully choosing the arguments employed to address this question can help increase its psychological feasibility. Our experiment aims at determining to what extent the confrontation of individuals to metaphors illustrating the BI system impacts the way they apprehend its implementation. We show that very light variations in an informative text can induce major differences in the opinion formation process of the participants. BI proponents should thus pay attention to which metaphors are put forward in the public debate, as this could modify its outcome., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

La sélection des candidats est une fonction majeure exercée par les partis politiques. Or, il ressort que les acteurs responsables de la sélection des candidats sont assez différents d’un parti à l’autre. Cette contribution propose une exploration au-delà de ce qui est appelé « le jardin secret de la politique » en classant les sélecteurs dans les partis en fonction de deux dimensions : l’inclusivité et la centralisation. Au regard des variations importantes constatées, la question se pose de savoir si celles-ci peuvent avoir un impact sur le type de candidats sélectionnés. La relation entre les modes de sélection des candidats et le degré de congruence idéologique entre masses et élites est testée empiriquement, en utilisant les positions des candidats d’une part, et des électeurs d’autre part, sur l’échelle gauche–droite et sur un enjeu lié à l’échelle autoritaire-libertaire. Le cas d’étude couvre dix partis politiques belges, pour deux élections fédérales – une élection normale (2007) et une élection anticipée (2010). Le caractère urgent des élections anticipées de 2010 a contraint certains partis à rendre plus exclusifs leurs modes de sélection. La variation entre les cas n’en est donc que plus grande. Nos résultats suggèrent que le mode de sélection serait lié au degré de congruence. Des sélectorats plus exclusifs auraient davantage tendance à sélectionner des candidats idéologiquement plus proches de leurs électeurs. Ceci pourrait s’expliquer par le plus haut taux d’information qui existerait entre les hautes sphères des partis et les électeurs, et par le plus grand pragmatisme en termes de vote seeking d’un sélectorat plus restreint.

De l’Association belge de science politique – Communauté française (ABSP-CF) à l’Association belge francophone de science politique (ABSP), l’association qui fédère les politologues en Bel- gique francophone a, au cours de ses 20 premières années d’exis- tence, à la fois fortement évolué et pro té d’une solide stabilité. Le paysage dans lequel l’ABSP évolue, que ce soit sur le plan de l’enseignement et de la recherche ou du service à la société, a connu des transformations assez remarquables – en 20 ans, par exemple, trois décrets réformant l’enseignement supérieur et universitaire se sont succédé. Ces transformations de contexte, couplées à l’évolution de la vie politique et de l’architecture insti- tutionnelle de la Belgique, n’ont pas manqué d’initier ou d’accé- lérer certains changements pour l’association, dont le plus visible est certainement la modi cation de son nom. Mais l’ABSP a éga- lement béné cié d’une forte stabilité : en interne, d’une part, avec une gouvernance et une gestion de l’association assurées dans une grande sérénité collective, en externe, d’autre part, avec un soutien répété de ses membres et de leurs institutions univer- sitaires ou de recherche ainsi que de la Communauté française de Belgique sous la forme d’un subside annuel devenu récurrent (même s’il tend à diminuer, nous y reviendrons). Plus fondamen- talement, les chapitres transversaux ainsi que les chapitres dédiés aux groupes de travail (GT) constitués au sein de l’ABSP l’ont richement illustré, la logique interuniversitaire et d’ouverture qui a présidé à la création de l’association a constamment animé l’ABSP pendant ces deux décennies.

Depuis 1996, l’Association belge francophone de science politique fédère les chercheur·e·s en science politique dans les différents champs qui l’animent en Belgique francophone et au-delà. Cet ouvrage, 20e volume de la collection « Science politique », marque le 20e anniversaire de l’ABSP. Ces deux décennies ont vu de véritables métamorphoses au niveau politique et de la science politique. Ce livre collectif, mobilisant de nombreuses personnalités de l’enseignement, de la recherche et du service à la société, offre un regard rétrospectif et prospectif sur l’état de la science politique en Belgique francophone. Cet ouvrage collectif est coordonné par les membres du Bureau de l’ABSP, élu au sein du Conseil d’administration.

In flexible list systems, two parallel competitions take place: parties compete for the greatest share of seats while candidates run against their co-partisans to obtain their own seat. This paper investigates the intraparty competition pattern by building a four-category typology of electoral candidates according to both their electoral success and their popularity. The aim is to identify the profile of the “unlucky winners”, i.e. those who gathered more preference votes than some of their elected co-partisans but who did not obtain a seat because of a too low list position. These candidates reveal a tricky feature of the representative democracy and of flexible list systems where personalisation is encouraged but does not really pay off. The paper studies Sweden and Belgium, two countries whose electoral systems provide that the electoral popularity does not automatically lead to the election. On the basis of a database of Swedish and Belgian candidates running for the last legislative elections held in their respective countries (i.e. in 2014 for both), the paper quantitatively assesses the profile of these candidates swimming against the tide and who would benefit from a more personalised system.

A revised version of this paper has been published in: "Basic Income Studies : an international journal of basic income research" - Vol. 13, no. 2, p. 1-16 https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal:206958 This paper focuses on a timely political issue by addressing the debate of the opportunity to implement a basic income system in a given polity. Basic income (BI) can be defined as “an income paid by a political community to all its members, on an individual basis, without means-test or compensation requirement” (Vanderborght and Van Parijs, 2005). This is an ongoing debate in Belgium, both in academia and in the public sphere. However, this debate has not yet entered the legislative process as such. This is still much more a societal issue that has not been translated into concrete policy proposals. We take advantage of this preliminary stage of the BI debate to study the influence of discursive strategies on the opinion formation process of individuals. For doing so, we ran an experiment in which some participants were stimulated with some arguments that could be used in the BI debate while others did receive either a neutral text or no text at all. We even added three groups who received a text containing one argument and a metaphor underlying this argument. Metaphors are indeed said to impact political preferences in a much more powerful way than arguments alone. The goal of our experiment is to assess the influence of arguments and metaphors on the opinion formation process. We asked participants to take position in the debate about the controversial issue of BI and analysed their written outputs to uncover whether their content was influence by the text they read right before.

Place would matter in politics. This would hold particularly true for the relationship between voters and politicians. According to the friends and neighbours voting hypothesis (Key 1949), psychological connections between voters and candidates involve that voters would favour local candidates because ‘hometown candidates’ may better know what they want, but more pragmatically, since they may also directly help the voters by engaging in pork-barrel politics. This paper focuses on geographical representation on electoral lists and takes the political parties’ perspective. Parties are expected to value the geographical origin of candidates primarily because voters do so. But when drafting the lists, would all types of selectorates assess the importance of localness similarly? This research tests whether the selection mode impacts the extent of territorial coverage of the constituency by all candidates from a same list. It takes Belgium as a case in point for studies on territorial representation given its multimember constituency and preferential voting systems. The processes of candidate selection in eleven Belgian political parties are investigated in the run-up to the May 2014 ‘mother of all elections’ where European, federal and regional elections were organised on the same day. 4319 individual candidates and 189 selection processes are quantitatively examined. Preliminary results indicate that centralised selectorates prioritise friends and neighbours politics less than decentralised selectorates do.

Le débat relatif à l’allocation universelle concerne la question de l’avenir des systèmes de sécurité sociale, point central qui favorise l’émergence de véritables clivages idéologiques, mais aussi plus généralement la définition et l’organisation de la communauté politique. Il est frappant d’observer dans ce débat que divers éléments de langage sont utilisés afin d’illustrer le concept d’allocation universelle, tels que le socle, le filet de sécurité ou encore le tremplin. Or, il a été montré que les métaphores jouent un rôle clé dans la représentation que se font les individus d’un concept – politique – abstrait. Dans cet article, nous étudions dans quelle mesure la confrontation d’individus à des métaphores peut influencer la manière dont ils se positionnent face à l’idée d’allocation universelle. Nos résultats indiquent que la stratégie d’utiliser délibérément une métaphore dans un discours politique peut être payante, car celle-ci peut influencer l’opinion des individus qui y sont soumis. Il convient cependant de rester attentif, car une même métaphore peut influencer les opinions dans des directions opposées.

The political impact of metaphors has often been taken for granted from metaphor analysis in political discourse. Indeed, the framing function of metaphors, known as their ability to “select some aspects of a perceived reality and make it more salient in a communicating context” (Entman, 1993: 52) has often been established on the basis of the production of metaphors in particular kind of political discourse, but has not been directly studied from the perspective of their impact on citizens’ representations and political preferences until recently (Perrez & Reuchamps 2015). Recent research on the subject however points to contradicting results. Whereas Thibodeau and Boroditsky (2011, 2013, 2015) observed that different metaphorical frames related to the target domain of crime led the citizens to opt for different policies, Steen and colleagues (2014, 2015) could not find similar evidence in a series of replication studies. This led them to suggest that the impact of metaphors on (political) reasoning was not automatic, but could be influenced by other parameters, such as extendedness, aptness or deliberateness (Steen et al 2015). A more recent study conducted by Author (2016) on the impact of a Tetris metaphor on the perception of Belgian federalism also suggested that the potential impact of metaphors on reasoning could interact with the level of political knowledge of the citizens. More specifically, the citizens with a lower level of political knowledge appeared to be more likely to be influenced by the metaphor, than the citizens with a higher level of political knowledge. Bearing on these different insights, this paper aims at studying under which circumstances metaphors can influence citizens’ political reasoning, by more specifically looking into the exact role played by the level of political knowledge. To do so, we conducted two experiments among approx. 1200 first year bachelor students focusing on their perception of and preferences towards the concept of

The political impact of metaphors has often been taken for granted from metaphor analysis in political discourse. Indeed, the framing function of metaphors, known as their ability to “select some aspects of a perceived reality and make it more salient in a communicating context” (Entman, 1993: 52) has often been established on the basis of the production of metaphors in particular kind of political discourse, but has not been directly studied from the perspective of their impact on citizens’ representations and political preferences until recently Perrez & Reuchamps (2015). Recent research on the subject however points to contradicting results. Whereas Thibodeau and Boroditsky (2011, 2013, 2015) observed that different metaphorical frames related to the target domain of crime led the citizens to opt for different policies, Steen and colleagues (2014, 2015) could not find similar evidence in a series of replication studies. This led them to suggest that the impact of metaphors on (political) reasoning was not automatic, but could be influenced by other parameters, such as extendedness, aptness or deliberateness (Steen et al 2015). A more recent study conducted by Dodeigne, Perrez & Reuchamps (2016) on the impact of a Tetris metaphor on the perception of Belgian federalism also suggested that the potential impact of metaphors on reasoning could interact with the level of political knowledge of the citizens. More specifically, the citizens with a lower level of political knowledge appeared to be more likely to be influenced by the metaphor, than the citizens with a higher level of political knowledge. Bearing on these different insights, this paper aims at studying under which circumstances metaphors can influence citizens’ political reasoning, by more specifically looking into the exact role played by the level of political knowledge. To do so, we conducted two experiments among approx. 1200 first year bachelor students focusing on their perception of and preferences

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Le débat relatif à l’allocation universelle concerne la question de l’avenir des systèmes de sécurité sociale, point central qui favorise l’émergence de véritables clivages idéologiques, mais aussi plus généralement la définition et l’organisation de la communauté politique. Il est frappant d’observer dans ce débat que divers éléments de langage sont utilisés afin d’illustrer le concept d’allocation universelle, tels que le socle, le filet de sécurité ou encore le tremplin. Or, il a été montré que les métaphores jouent un rôle clé dans la représentation que se font les individus d’un concept – politique – abstrait. Dans cet article, nous étudions dans quelle mesure la confrontation d’individus à des métaphores peut influencer la manière dont ils se positionnent face à l’idée d’allocation universelle. Nos résultats indiquent que la stratégie d’utiliser délibérément une métaphore dans un discours politique peut être payante, car celle-ci peut influencer l’opinion des individus qui y sont soumis. Il convient cependant de rester attentif, car une même métaphore peut influencer les opinions dans des directions opposées., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Le débat relatif à l’allocation universelle concerne la question de l’avenir des systèmes de sécurité sociale, point central qui favorise l’émergence de véritables clivages idéologiques, mais aussi plus généralement la définition et l’organisation de la communauté politique. Il est frappant d’observer dans ce débat que divers éléments de langage sont utilisés afin d’illustrer le concept d’allocation universelle, tels que le socle, le filet de sécurité ou encore le tremplin. Or, il a été montré que les métaphores jouent un rôle clé dans la représentation que se font les individus d’un concept — politique — abstrait. Dans quelle mesure la confrontation d’individus à des métaphores peut influencer la manière dont ils se positionnent face à l’idée d’allocation universelle ?Nos résultats indiquent que la stratégie d’utiliser délibérément une métaphore dans un discours politique peut être payante, car elle peut influer sur l’opinion des individus qui y sont soumis. Il convient cependant de rester attentif, car une même métaphore peut influencer les opinions dans des directions opposées., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Depuis 1996, l’Association belge francophone de science politique fédère les chercheur·e·s en science politique dans les différents champs qui l’animent en Belgique francophone et au-delà. Cet ouvrage, 20e volume de la collection « Science politique », marque le 20e anniversaire de l’ABSP. Ces deux décennies ont vu de véritables métamorphoses au niveau politique et de la science politique. Ce livre collectif, mobilisant de nombreuses personnalités de l’enseignement, de la recherche et du service à la société, offre un regard rétrospectif et prospectif sur l’état de la science politique en Belgique francophone., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The 2014 ‘mother of all elections’ in Belgium offers a unique opportunity to test whether candidate selection for regional and federal elections work alike or differently. The fact that Belgian ‘state-wide’ parties do not exist anymore and that Belgium is a quasi-closed list system, giving parties almost unlimited control over candidate selection enhances the uniqueness of the Belgian case. This article verifies whether these ‘regional’ parties select candidates according to different methods for both elections and whether candidates for both elections display different attributes. Our exploratory analysis draws on in-depth interviews with party actors, on the 2014 Belgian Candidate Survey and on an extensive database of regional and federal parliamentary/executive careers since 1991. Our results show that selection procedures strongly differ across parties but hardly within parties regarding regional and federal elections. Besides, only few differences were found between levels regarding candidates’ attributes. Hence, both levels seem to work alike.

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Political parties in Belgium are free to decide on their methods of candidate selection. Hence, one could wonder whether the way parties draft their electoral lists may impact the kind of candidates running for office under the party banner. This paper aims at uncovering to what extent intraparty features may be relevant to features of the political elite at large, and in particular to the extent to which candidates are experienced in politics (both in campaign and in elected office). For doing so, this research analyses the mechanisms of candidate selection in eleven Belgian political parties. These parties selected no less than 4319 candidates who were rank-ordered on 189 electoral lists submitted for the triple regional, federal and European election of May 2014. Witht the aim of running a quantitative analysis of candidates’ characteristics substantiated by a qualitative analysis of party selection processes, the paper draws on party statutes, interviews with selectors in parties and descriptive and career data on all electoral candidates. This paper demonstrates the significance of candidate selection mechanisms not only for themselves but also for the entire political process. When political parties determine their type of selection procedures, they may also indirectly determine the type of candidates who will run for office – more or less experienced in politics, and accordingly the kind of representatives who will pass the laws – outsiders or insiders to our representative democracies’ systems.

A revised version of this paper has been published in: "Basic Income Studies : an international journal of basic income research" - Vol. 13, no. 2, p. 1-16 https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal:206958 This research draws on two parallel considerations. On the one hand, we notice that the topic of the basic income yields tremendous debates. Opposing arguments run against each other in the academic literature but also in the society in general (Tobin, 1965 ; Belorgey, 2000 ; Maniquet et Neumann, 2016). Would it be relevant to implement such a mechanism in our societies? And if so, under which conditions? Given the controversial character of the debate, we expect citizens to be easily influenced in their position in favour or in disfavour of the implementation of this project. On the other hand, as highlighted, research has demonstrated that discourses and metaphors in particular may play a key role in the representation that individuals have of an abstract (political) concept (Lakoff et Johnson, 1980 ; Lakoff, 1996 ; Charteris-Black, 2011 ; Perrez et Reuchamps, 2015). On this basis, this article aims at determining to what extent the confrontation of individuals to metaphors illustrating the abstract idea of the basic income does have an impact on the way these people apprehend the basic income. More specifically, we tackle the way respondents consider the opportunity to implement or not the basic income in their country. The goal of this survey conducted among students was experimental.

Political parties in Belgium are free to decide on their methods of candidate selection. Hence, one could wonder whether the way parties draft their electoral lists may impact the kind of candidates running for office under the party banner. This paper aims at uncovering to what extent intraparty features may be relevant to features of the political elite at large, and in particular to the extent to which candidates are experienced in politics (both in campaign and in elected office). For doing so, this research analyses the mechanisms of candidate selection in eleven Belgian political parties. These parties selected no less than 4319 candidates who were rank-ordered on 189 electoral lists submitted for the triple regional, federal and European election of May 2014. Witht the aim of running a quantitative analysis of candidates’ characteristics substantiated by a qualitative analysis of party selection processes, the paper draws on party statutes, interviews with selectors in parties and descriptive and career data on all electoral candidates. This paper demonstrates the significance of candidate selection mechanisms not only for themselves but also for the entire political process. When political parties determine their type of selection procedures, they may also indirectly determine the type of candidates who will run for office – more or less experienced in politics, and accordingly the kind of representatives who will pass the laws – outsiders or insiders to our representative democracies’ systems.

A revised version of this paper has been published in: "Basic Income Studies : an international journal of basic income research" - Vol. 13, no. 2, p. 1-16 https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal:206958 This research draws on two parallel considerations. On the one hand, we notice that the topic of the basic income yields tremendous debates. Opposing arguments run against each other in the academic literature but also in the society in general (Tobin, 1965 ; Belorgey, 2000 ; Maniquet et Neumann, 2016). Would it be relevant to implement such a mechanism in our societies? And if so, under which conditions? Given the controversial character of the debate, we expect citizens to be easily influenced in their position in favour or in disfavour of the implementation of this project. On the other hand, as highlighted, research has demonstrated that discourses and metaphors in particular may play a key role in the representation that individuals have of an abstract (political) concept (Lakoff et Johnson, 1980 ; Lakoff, 1996 ; Charteris-Black, 2011 ; Perrez et Reuchamps, 2015). On this basis, this article aims at determining to what extent the confrontation of individuals to metaphors illustrating the abstract idea of the basic income does have an impact on the way these people apprehend the basic income. More specifically, we tackle the way respondents consider the opportunity to implement or not the basic income in their country. The goal of this survey conducted among students was experimental.

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

To date, research on gender and political representation has predominantly centered on women. The assumption that men as a privileged group automatically gain representation is nevertheless problematic. Not only are some (dominant) groups of men better represented than others, we simply do not know what men’s interests are. Up until today, however, no study has actually explored the nature of men’s interests in an empirical way. This paper offers a first attempt to conceptualize and operationalize the notion of men’s interests in empirical research. Based on new and original data from the 2014 PARTIREP voter survey organized in Belgium on the occasion of the 2014 federal and regional elections, we study men and women along political themes, their political visions and their voting behavior. The main question that guides our research is the following: What do gender differences in political themes and visions tell us about male (and female) interests in politics? Next to offering empirical insights into women and men’s political interests, this paper also provides a theoretical contribution to broader debates on group interests. We reflect on our observation that men and women attach importance to the same political themes but have different visions about them, and what this teaches us about “male interests” and “female interests”. We also launch a call for new empirical and theoretical research into men and their interests in politics.

In May 2014 Belgium experienced an uncommon vertical simultaneity of the regional, federal and European elections. They took place in a context of strong electoral volatility, high intra-party competition, enhanced regionalization and electoral reforms. Multilevel electoral candidacies have been banned at joint elections, forcing a choice between regional and federal lists. These elections were thus a conundrum to achieve an equilibrium between candidates’ offer and selectorates’ demand. Based on an original dataset, mixing the Belgian Candidate Survey (BCS) and biographical data about regional and federal MPs/Cabinet members, our models test five hypotheses to explain candidates’ dissatisfaction with the regional/federal list they were running on. Our findings stress that candidates’ attitudes (preferences in terms of regional autonomy) and candidates’ attributes (experience at another level of government) significantly impact candidates’ dissatisfaction. Moreover, we suggest that the enhanced regional empowerment explicates the larger impact of attitudes and attributes on the dissatisfaction of federal candidates (19.1%) in comparison to regional candidates (6.3%).

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The 2012–14 reform of the Belgian state has deeeply transformed its Senate. Not only does the reform reduce the legislative powers of the Belgian upper chamber, but it also alters its composition. The former appointment of Senators based on a system of direct and community-based election is replaced by a system of indirect and mixed regional and community-based designation. This article presents this important reform. On the basis of a comprehensive dataset of federal and regional political careers, it also comparatively analyses the profile of the Senators, before and after the reform. Overall, although rules regarding seats allocation have been thoroughly remodelled, we conclude that the reform had neither dramatically affected the subtle balances upon which the Belgian federal state relies nor altered the patterns of Senators' profiles., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

On 25 May 2014 European citizens are called to vote to renew the European Parliament. In Belgium this day is ‘the mother of all elections’ since all legislative assemblies are renewed simultaneously. The 2014 Belgian general elections give the opportunity to study European parliamentary elections in a context of co-occurrence of elections. Starting from the assumption that EP elections are said to be ‘second-order’ elections, the paper empirically tests a hypothetical definition of a ‘second-order’ candidate selection process. By doing so, it attempts to bridge the existing gap in the literature between research on candidate selection and the ‘second-order’ elections model. 11 Belgian political parties are analysed thanks to a comprehensive comparative analysis of party statutes, in-depth interviews with key party figures as well as media analysis. In the run-up to this triple election, the paper takes advantage of co-occurrence of both first- and second-order elections to launch the reflection on the conceptualisation of a second-order selection process.

Even though there is a growing body of work documenting trends towards a professionalization of gender in political organisations and institutions in which parties are indirectly involved (such as women’s movements, parliaments, equality bodies and policy machineries), we know very little about whether and how parties as extra-parliamentary organisations have become more professionalized in their efforts to integrate a gender dimension in their workings. This paper therefore asks ‘to what extent and how a professionalization of gender has taken/is taking place in the Belgian parties’. This question is largely explorative and includes three sub-questions: (1) Who are the key gender experts and professionals in the Belgian parties, (2) What are the main tasks or daily assignments of these gender experts/professionals?, and (3) What is the (institutional) position of gender experts in the party? In order to answer these questions, the paper explores the ‘gendered’ aspects of party professionalization in 11 Belgian parties and map the different actors and tasks involved based on new and original data gathered by the authors in 2006 and 2014. The results show that a professionalization of gender is overall limited. Although parties have included gender experts in their organization (for instance in study centres or through the establishment of intra-party women’s groups), this gender expertise is often not structurally embedded, and thus not professionalized.

Le 25 mai 2014, les citoyens européens sont appelés à voter pour renouveler le Parlement européen. En Belgique, ce jour est appelé « la mère de toutes les élections », car toutes les assemblées législatives sont renouvelées simultanément. Les élections générales de 2014 en Belgique offrent l’opportunité d’étudier les élections parlementaires européennes dans un contexte de cooccurrence d’élections. Prenant pour point de départ l’hypothèse que les élections européennes sont dites « de second ordre », le papier teste empiriquement une définition hypothétique d’un processus de sélection des candidats « de second ordre ». Ce faisant, la recherche ambitionne de combler le vide dans la littérature entre les recherches sur la sélection des candidats et le modèle qualifiant certaines élections d’élections de « second ordre ». Onze partis politiques belges sont analysés grâce à une analyse comparative détaillée des statuts des partis, des entretiens avec des acteurs clef des partis ainsi qu’une analyse de la presse. A l’approche de cette triple élection, le papier saisi l’opportunité de la cooccurrence d’élections tant de premier que de second ordre pour lancer la réflexion sur la conceptualisation d’un processus de sélection de second ordre.