Search

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This article studies the nationalisation of local party systems in Belgian regions across eight electoral cycles (1976–2018). Our research design assesses the relevance of Rokkan’s structural approach of nationalisation while testing the effect of conjunctural electoral factors. Our empirical results highlight the positive effect of a municipality’s size on local party system nationalisation. Moreover, the analysis uncovers the impact of the electoral dominance of national parties in the local districts at previous national elections: where parliamentary parties have performed weakly at the previous national elections, nationalisation of local party systems increases.Interestingly, the analysis demonstrates that this relationship is stronger in the biggest municipalities, showing an interaction effect between conjunctural and structural factors. Finally, our findings indicate that significant variation remains across Belgian regions. This opens up avenues for future research regarding the potential effects of institutional factors and the ‘freezing’ of local political offer across subnational party systems. ., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This article studies the nationalisation of local party systems in Belgian regions across eight electoral cycles (1976–2018). Our research design assesses the relevance of Rokkan’s structural approach of nationalisation while testing the effect of conjunctural electoral factors. Our empirical results highlight the positive effect of a municipality’s size on local party system nationalisation. Moreover, the analysis uncovers the impact of the electoral dominance of national parties in the local districts at previous national elections: where parliamentary parties have performed weakly at the previous national elections, nationalisation of local party systems increases.Interestingly, the analysis demonstrates that this relationship is stronger in the biggest municipalities, showing an interaction effect between conjunctural and structural factors. Finally, our findings indicate that significant variation remains across Belgian regions. This opens up avenues for future research regarding the potential effects of institutional factors and the ‘freezing’ of local political offer across subnational party systems.

Politiek vertrouwen is cruciaal voor de slagkracht van overheden op alle niveaus (Mariën & Hooghe, 2011). Algemeen stellen burgers meer vertrouwen in lokale dan in centrale machthebbers en instellingen. Een vaststelling die regelmatig in verband wordt gebracht met de nabijheid van het lokale bestuursniveau (Jennings, 1997; Van Roosbroek, 2006). De doelstelling van dit hoofdstuk is om de factoren te begrijpen die een invloed hebben op het vertrouwen van burgers in lokale politici en instellingen, in vergelij- king met andere bestuursniveaus. De gemeenteraadsverkiezingen van 2018 vor- men daarbij het uitgangspunt. Deze vonden plaats in een specifieke context van zogenoemde lokale schandalen: tijdens de gemeentelijke zittingsperiode 2013- 2018 kwamen, zowel in Brussel, Vlaanderen als Wallonië, een aantal (grootscha- lige) schandalen aan het licht waarin lokale politieke instellingen en actoren een hoofdrol speelden. Uitgaande van deze context rijst de specifieke vraag in welke mate deze schandalen het politiek vertrouwen hebben beïnvloed bij de gemeente- raadsverkiezingen van 2018.

La confiance politique est une dimension essentielle de la politique à tous les ni- veaux du gouvernement (Marien & Hooghe, 2011). Étant donné la proximité natu- relle de la politique locale, il est souvent affirmé que la confiance politique est plus grande à ce niveau qui est proche des citoyens. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de ce chapitre sera de comprendre les facteurs sous-jacents qui définissent la confiance politique au niveau local par rapport aux autres niveaux de gouvernement. Cette recherche s’inscrit dans un contexte politique particulier, à savoir, dans le contexte de ce que l’on a appelé les scandales locaux. Pendant la législature locale de 2012 à 2018, des nombreux scandales de grande ampleur ont frappé les institutions poli- tiques et leurs acteurs à Bruxelles, en Flandre et en Wallonie. Dans un tel contexte, la question qui se pose est de savoir si ces scandales ont eu un impact sur la confiance politique des électeurs dans le cadre des élections locales de 2018. Afin d’éclairer cette question, ce chapitre poursuit un triple objectif. En premier lieu, il apporte une analyse descriptive sur le niveau de confiance des électeurs dans les diffé- rents niveaux du gouvernement : local, régional et fédéral. En deuxième lieu et dans la continuité des recherches existantes (Henry et al., 2015 ; Hooghe et al., 2011 ; Hen- nau & Ackaert, 2013), ce chapitre examine la variation des niveaux de confiance entre les régions et les individus (profil socio-démographique, attitudes politiques et com- portement électoral). En troisième lieu, nous apportons dans ce chapitre un aspect no- vateur par rapport aux études antérieures qui se traduit dans la question suivante : dans quelle mesure l’apparition des scandales politiques pendant la période qui a pré- cédé les élections de 2018 a pu avoir un impact sur la confiance politique des électeurs et, in fine, sur leur comportement politique. Pour ce faire, nous avons identifié les communes de l’échantillon de l’enquête fra

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

0, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Even though the study of local elections suffers from a relative underdevelopment in the literature, a better understanding of local-level political dynamics seems crucial. Local political institutions are the closest to citizens, have a specific role in interconnecting different tiers of government, while the local level often serves as the primary laboratory to experiment democratic innovations (Deschouwer 2003, Ladner et al. 2016). In this wake, this paper examines the way state-wide parties present lists and compete at the local level, by analysing the local party offer in Belgium. Firstly, the paper aims at uncovering the degree of “politicisation” (Rokkan 1966), i.e. the local versus nationalized nature of the local party offer. The latter is examined through classification tools, then through an index of local party system nationalization (Kjaer and Elklit 2010; Steyvers and Heyerick 2017). For that first research goal, we study the local party offer of 5.591 lists across three Belgian regions (589 Flemish, Walloon and Brussels municipalities) as well as across time (2012 and 2018 local elections). Using Wallonia as an exploratory case-study, we develop a second set of indexes to complementary investigate the organic nature of the “politicisation” of local party offer in terms of list composition (e.g. party members or independent candidates; candidates from various parties, alliances of parliamentary parties, etc.). Secondly, the paper assesses distinct determinants of the variance observed across municipalities (e.g. size of the municipality, urban vs rural, socio-economic diversity, presence of a national political leader, etc.). In this way, the paper intends to contribute to the on-going debate about the second-order or second-tier nature of local elections. More broadly, this paper aims at opening up discussion about how local level data on electoral offer could be collected on a larger scale and in a systematic way for every local electoral cycle.

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This book investigates how liberal parties have evolved over time as a party family, in a comparative perspective. Through a discussion of the applicability of the concept of party family to liberal parties, it gives a better picture of the development, challenges, and opportunities for liberal parties in Europe.The history of liberal parties in Europe is peculiar and the origins of the liberal family are not clearly defined. Liberal parties are still quite heterogeneous given the various meanings embraced in the idea of liberalism, including economic liberalism, cultural liberalism, progressivism, social-liberalism. Bringing together the best specialists engaged in the study of liberal parties, and with a two-levels perspective (comparative and case study), this book renews and expands our knowledge on the liberal party family in Europe. Four major themes are developed, linked to the four approaches of the concept of party family: electoral performances, participation to power, ideology and political program, and party organization. These themes are systematically developed in case studies, and in comparative chapters.Primarily aimed at scholars and students in comparative politics, this book should especially appeal to scholars in the fields of political parties and party systems, representation and elections, voting behavior, and public opinion., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The literature on morality politics is well-documented, but has mostly taken place at the national level. Yet, morality politics increasingly appears on the European Parliament’s agenda. Abortion has been tackled through parliamentary reports on sexual and reproductive health and rights; while human embryonic stem cell research has been dealt with through the successive European research framework programmes. Using semi-structured interviews with (former) MEPs, this research examines how the central actors involved in these parliamentary debates perceive and explain their vote on these issues. The analysis particularly focuses on the role of religion and values, and uncovers its effects at several levels: national culture, political affiliation and personal believing. In that regard, respondents emphasise the great degree of freedom that the European parliamentary arena offers to its members to express their personal values and convictions–and not exclusively on morality issues., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Existing research on intra-party unity and conflict has mostly focused on (dis)unity within the legislative branch of the party at the national level, while neglecting conflict between the different faces or at different levels of the party. Intra-party unity and conflict have also been routinely defined and operationalized through ideological homogeneity or distance, although intra-party conflicts are multidimensional and dynamic phenomena. The articles included in this special issue seek to address these shortcomings in the literature. Their contributions are threefold: (1) they theorize intra-party conflict as a dynamic and multifaceted concept; (2) they explore conflicts across and between several party faces, and among different intra-party actors; (3) they investigate the determinants and management of conflict at several party levels., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Intra-party cohesion (IPC) is a concept extensively used to assess institutional change and behaviour in legislative and party politics. In spite of its popularity, there is confusion about its meaning mostly derived from its multidimensional nature. This article aims to clarify the understanding of this term across three different fields of research (legislative studies, party factionalism and Hirschman’s theory applied to intra-party dynamics) and to build a conceptual framework that integrates several analytical dimensions. It uses quantitative network-based analysis of bibliographic data to provide a descriptive account of connections between these fields of the literature. Based on this, it identifies major challenges in the study of IPC and reveals the necessity to investigate it beyond ideology and legislative arena. To this end, we argue and illustrate how Hirschman’s theory applied to three levels of analysis allows us to formulate a framework suitable for the study of IPC., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Existing research often suggests that a greater degree of internal democracy within parties could weaken party unity. This article tests this assumption and analyses the relationship between degrees of intra-party democracy (IPD) and legislators' attitudes towards party unity. The article uses data collected in the framework of the PartiRep Comparative MP Survey; and of the Political Party Database (PPDB). The study includes 796 parliamentarians in 45 parties, elected in 14 European national assemblies. The findings indicate that the legislators from more democratic party organizations tend to report more frequent disagreement and to assert their own opinions against the one of their parties., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The study of parliamentary party unity has followed several lines of enquiry: describing the variation across political actors, contexts and time; comparing the multidimensional and dynamic aspects of parliamentary party unity; explaining it from a rational-institutional perspective with emphasis on macro-level arrangements and individual rational motivations. However, we know relatively little about how party organizations shape parliamentary party unity and this special section seeks to address this gap in the literature. This introductory article explains how the special section makes theoretical contributions to the concept of unity, provides alternative measurements and investigates several alternative determinants of unity., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Party cohesion is a crucial aspect of parliamentary systems, and it varies across time, parties and systems. To explain these variations, scholars have set forth the influence of macro-level and individual-level factors. Although party-level factors have also been considered, the role of party family has been overlooked. This research seeks to fill this gap. To this end, I focus on one dimension of cohesion: the extent to which legislators have internalized the norm of party loyalty. The concept of party family permits to investigate the effect of party origin and party ideology beyond a policy-based approach and left-right dimension. Using attitudinal data of 829 parliamentarians elected in 14 European national assemblies, the analysis uncovers a party family effect, particularly in the green and radical right parties. The results suggest that a greater attention should be directed towards party family as a determinant factor of legislative cohesion., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

In terms of electoral performances and electoral sociology, liberal parties display diverging configurations across Europe. To get a better overview of their fate, this chapter first examines the electoral dynamics of liberal parties across specific spatial ‘blocs’. It examines the individual-level determinants of the liberal party vote, and questions the distinctiveness of the liberal electorate across Europe. Historically, the liberal parties of the Benelux countries competed primarily on the church-state cleavage against the Catholic parties. The 2014 European election was disastrous. In the follow-up, the Free Democratic Party lost representation in the Landers of Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia. At its first election, Neue Osterreich attracted around 5% of the vote and subsequently captured 8.1% of the vote and one seat at the 2014 European elections. For this new party, the most difficult task lies ahead: To confirm these results and to impose itself in the long run against the Freedom Party of Austria., SCOPUS: ch.b, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This book investigates how liberal parties have evolved over time as a party family, in a comparative perspective. Through a discussion of the applicability of the concept of party family to liberal parties, it gives a better picture of the development, challenges, and opportunities for liberal parties in Europe. The history of liberal parties in Europe is peculiar and the origins of the liberal family are not clearly defined. Liberal parties are still quite heterogeneous given the various meanings embraced in the idea of liberalism, including economic liberalism, cultural liberalism, progressivism, social-liberalism. Bringing together the best specialists engaged in the study of liberal parties, and with a two-levels perspective (comparative and case study), this book renews and expands our knowledge on the liberal party family in Europe. Four major themes are developed, linked to the four approaches of the concept of party family: Electoral performances, participation to power, ideology and political program, and party organization. These themes are systematically developed in case studies, and in comparative chapters. Primarily aimed at scholars and students in comparative politics, this book should especially appeal to scholars in the fields of political parties and party systems, representation and elections, voting behavior, and public opinion., SCOPUS: bk.b, info:eu-repo/semantics/published