Chloé Janssen | Vrije Universiteit Brussel (original) (raw)

Papers by Chloé Janssen

Research paper thumbnail of Het electorale success van ethnische minderheden in Brussel: de rol van de kiezers en partijen

European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Yet, ethnic minorities re... more European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Yet, ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in politics. Despite the theoretical argument as- serting that ethnic minorities should perform better in systems allowing voters to cast intra party preferences, empirical studies bring mixed results. In particular, scholars highlight the role of both parties and voters in explaining the electoral success or fai- lure of ethnic minority candidates. Using data on regional elections between 1995 and 2014 in Brussels, our study shows that even though parties have made gradual efforts to include ethnic minorities on their lists, voters appear to be an important force be- hind the election of ethnic minorities. We find variations according to party ideology, with socialist and – to a lesser extent – Christian democratic candidates benefiting the most from preferential voting. However, the positive impact of preference votes seems to decrease over time, as parties themse...

Research paper thumbnail of Gendered patterns of support for Maghrebian origin candidates in Belgium: empirical evidence and theoretical implications

Politics, Groups, and Identities

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity, Gender and the Intersectional (Dis)Advantage in the Brussels Preferential Voting System. Dynamic Process and Context Dependency

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicité, genre et intersectionnalité : les multiples facettes du vote ethnique en Belgique

Research paper thumbnail of Between Parties and Voters: Candidates’ Role Conception in the Belgian Partitocracy

Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy, 2018

This chapter makes a unique contribution to the study of representational roles by extending the ... more This chapter makes a unique contribution to the study of representational roles by extending the population of interest beyond elected legislators. It focuses on understanding how candidates conceive their role as representatives taking as vantage point the focus and the style of representation, the key dimensions in the classical literature on legislative roles. The authors show how candidates’ role conception is likely to be influenced by their own personal characteristics and ambitions for (re)selection and (re)election, as well as by their relationship with the party itself and voters. Ultimately, this chapter brings attention to candidates as individuals, in a context where parties are usually considered as the main actors in the representation process, and politicians mostly conceived as party agents.

Research paper thumbnail of Vote or Party Strategy ? Understanding the Electoral Success of Ethnic Minorities in Brussels

European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Still, ethnic minority gr... more European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Still, ethnic minority groups remain underrepresented in politics in general. Despite the theoretical argument asserting that ethnic minorities should perform better in systems allowing voters to cast intraparty preferences, empirical studies bring mixed results. In particular, scholars highlight the role of both parties and voters in explaining the electoral success or failure of ethnic minority candidates. Using data on regional elections between 1995 and 2014 in Brussels, our study shows that even though parties have made gradual efforts to include ethnic minorities on their lists, voters appear to be an important force behind the election of ethnic minorities in Brussels. We find variations according to party ideology, with socialist and –to a lesser extentChristian democratic party’s candidates benefiting the most from preferential voting. However, the positive impact of preference votes seems to decrease o...

Research paper thumbnail of Intersectional candidate nomination: how district and party factors shape the inclusion of ethnic minority men and women in Brussels

Acta Politica, 2020

While it is axiomatic to note how ethnic minorities and women are both politically underrepresent... more While it is axiomatic to note how ethnic minorities and women are both politically underrepresented in Western Europe, the interaction between ethnicity and gender in candidate nomination is seldom articulated. Some suggest that ethnic minority men fare better in the nomination process, while others indicate that ethnic minority women experience a ‘complementarity advantage’ over minority men. This article examines the experiences of Maghrebian-origin male and female candidates by exploring the conditionality of their respective advantages in Brussels local elections. More precisely, we show how contextual factors known to influence the nomination of ethnic minorities in particular parties and districts generate gendered outcomes. Our results show that the Maghrebian concentration in the district, shapes parties’ strategies, and influences the gender imbalance among Maghrebian-origin candidates. We find that men are numerically better represented on socialist, green, and liberal candidate lists in ethnically dense districts. However, Maghrebian-origin women are more likely than their male counterparts to receive visible list positions, regardless of the demographic context. Our findings confirm the conditionality of the so-called ‘complementarity’ advantage for minority women and highlight how contextual factors shape party nomination strategies and generate gendered outcomes for ethnic minority candidates.

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity, gender, and intersectionality: How context factors shape the intersectional (dis)advantage under proportional representation rules

Politics, 2021

This article aims to highlight the contextual impact of proportional representation (PR) rules on... more This article aims to highlight the contextual impact of proportional representation (PR) rules on the intersectional representation of gender and ethnic groups. We assert that the combination of the institutional and sociodemographic context generates barriers and opportunities for the inclusion of intersectional identity groups in politics. We analyse how the sociodemographic make up of the district electorate influences parties’ and voters’ behaviour within PR systems to shape electoral outcomes in Brussels local elections. We focus on parties’ list composition strategies and candidates’ personal score to determine parties’ and voters’ leverage on representational outcomes. Our research demonstrates that ethnic minority male and female candidates experience a similar advantage on their ethnic majority counterparts in the (s)election process, and that their advantage grows as districts get more diverse. We show that ethnic minority candidates’ advantage comes mainly at the expense ...

Research paper thumbnail of Shaping the (dis)advantage: the impact of partisan and demographic factors on ethnic minority candidates’ success in preferential voting systems. Evidence from the Brussels case

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 2020

This article asks whether Turkish and North African origin candidates experience an electoral (di... more This article asks whether Turkish and North African origin candidates experience an electoral (dis)advantage in the Brussels preferential voting system. We examine the impact of candidates' ethnicity on their intraparty share of preference votes, and whether and how the strength of this relationship is influenced by their partisan orientation and the district concentration of their own ethnic group. Our results indicate that Turkish and North African origin candidates receive higher shares of preference votes on average compared to their co-partisans. We find that North African origin candidates' advantage does not vary according to their ethnic group concentration in the district, but their share of preference votes is higher than their co-partisans when they compete on left and center-left lists. However, Turkish origin candidates get more successful than their co-partisans as their ethnic group concentration increases, especially when they compete on left and center-left lists. Our research overall highlights the importance of candidates' ethnicity as an information shortcut for voters in the context of intraparty competition. We conclude that strong preferential voting systems do generate more opportunities for the inclusion of ethnic minority groups, but that parties' strategies and voters' behavior are more determinant than the rules themselves.

Research paper thumbnail of Het electorale succes van etnische minderheden in Brussel: de rol van kiezers en partijen

Res Publica, 2017

Vote or Party Strategy? Understanding the Electoral Success of Ethnic Minorities in Brussels Euro... more Vote or Party Strategy? Understanding the Electoral Success of Ethnic Minorities in Brussels European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Yet, ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in politics. Despite the theoretical argument asserting that ethnic minorities should perform better in systems allowing voters to cast intra party preferences, empirical studies bring mixed results. In particular, scholars highlight the role of both parties and voters in explaining the electoral success or failure of ethnic minority candidates. Using data on regional elections between 1995 and 2014 in Brussels, our study shows that even though parties have made gradual efforts to include ethnic minorities on their lists, voters appear to be an important force behind the election of ethnic minorities. We find variations according to party ideology, with socialist and-to a lesser extent-Christian democratic candidates benefiting the most from preferential voting. However, the positive impact of preference votes seems to decrease over time, as parties themselves become more inclusive and tend to allocate more realistic positions to their ethnic minority candidates in recent elections.

Research paper thumbnail of Breaking Free from Partitocracy

Belgian Exceptionalism, 2021

Belgium is said to be a textbook example of a partitocracy, that is an extreme case of dominance ... more Belgium is said to be a textbook example of a partitocracy, that is an extreme case of dominance of political parties on all aspects of the social and political system (Dewachter 2002; De Winter, della Porta, and Deschouwer 1996a; Steyvers 2014). This happens through patronage in parliament, public administration, the judiciary, and even in civil society (de Visscher 2004; De Winter 2002; De Winter and Dumont 2000, 2006). Hence, one can assert that Belgian exceptionalism resides among others in her strong partitocratic nature. Belgian parties are powerful actors, if not the most powerful actors of the system (De Winter, della Porta, and Deschouwer 1996b). But is it exceptional compared to other partitocratic countries? Scholars point at the decreasing legitimacy of the partitocratic system, and of political parties in general (Mair 2013; Rahat and Kenig 2018), as attested by declining trends in party membership (van Haute et al. 2013), higher levels of electoral volatility (Dassonneville 2018), and the rise of parties with renewed organizational structures or ideology (Hobolt and Tilley 2016; Mazzoleni and Voerman 2016). One may then wonder whether these weakened party organizations still manage to hold a strong control on their representatives or if politicians are nowadays more often allowed to break with their party line. Building on the (contested) personalization thesis (Balmas et al. 2014; Karvonen 2010), this chapter proposes to disentangle parties' grip on a particular group of political elites, the candidates to elected office. Candidates are key political actors, first during the campaign, then as representatives once elected (André et al. 2017). Electoral candidates embody the party (Katz 2001) from the moment they have been officially selected by party selectorates (Hazan and Rahat 2010). Yet this is not to presume that candidates

Research paper thumbnail of Het electorale success van ethnische minderheden in Brussel: de rol van de kiezers en partijen

European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Yet, ethnic minorities re... more European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Yet, ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in politics. Despite the theoretical argument as- serting that ethnic minorities should perform better in systems allowing voters to cast intra party preferences, empirical studies bring mixed results. In particular, scholars highlight the role of both parties and voters in explaining the electoral success or fai- lure of ethnic minority candidates. Using data on regional elections between 1995 and 2014 in Brussels, our study shows that even though parties have made gradual efforts to include ethnic minorities on their lists, voters appear to be an important force be- hind the election of ethnic minorities. We find variations according to party ideology, with socialist and – to a lesser extent – Christian democratic candidates benefiting the most from preferential voting. However, the positive impact of preference votes seems to decrease over time, as parties themse...

Research paper thumbnail of Gendered patterns of support for Maghrebian origin candidates in Belgium: empirical evidence and theoretical implications

Politics, Groups, and Identities

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity, Gender and the Intersectional (Dis)Advantage in the Brussels Preferential Voting System. Dynamic Process and Context Dependency

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicité, genre et intersectionnalité : les multiples facettes du vote ethnique en Belgique

Research paper thumbnail of Between Parties and Voters: Candidates’ Role Conception in the Belgian Partitocracy

Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy, 2018

This chapter makes a unique contribution to the study of representational roles by extending the ... more This chapter makes a unique contribution to the study of representational roles by extending the population of interest beyond elected legislators. It focuses on understanding how candidates conceive their role as representatives taking as vantage point the focus and the style of representation, the key dimensions in the classical literature on legislative roles. The authors show how candidates’ role conception is likely to be influenced by their own personal characteristics and ambitions for (re)selection and (re)election, as well as by their relationship with the party itself and voters. Ultimately, this chapter brings attention to candidates as individuals, in a context where parties are usually considered as the main actors in the representation process, and politicians mostly conceived as party agents.

Research paper thumbnail of Vote or Party Strategy ? Understanding the Electoral Success of Ethnic Minorities in Brussels

European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Still, ethnic minority gr... more European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Still, ethnic minority groups remain underrepresented in politics in general. Despite the theoretical argument asserting that ethnic minorities should perform better in systems allowing voters to cast intraparty preferences, empirical studies bring mixed results. In particular, scholars highlight the role of both parties and voters in explaining the electoral success or failure of ethnic minority candidates. Using data on regional elections between 1995 and 2014 in Brussels, our study shows that even though parties have made gradual efforts to include ethnic minorities on their lists, voters appear to be an important force behind the election of ethnic minorities in Brussels. We find variations according to party ideology, with socialist and –to a lesser extentChristian democratic party’s candidates benefiting the most from preferential voting. However, the positive impact of preference votes seems to decrease o...

Research paper thumbnail of Intersectional candidate nomination: how district and party factors shape the inclusion of ethnic minority men and women in Brussels

Acta Politica, 2020

While it is axiomatic to note how ethnic minorities and women are both politically underrepresent... more While it is axiomatic to note how ethnic minorities and women are both politically underrepresented in Western Europe, the interaction between ethnicity and gender in candidate nomination is seldom articulated. Some suggest that ethnic minority men fare better in the nomination process, while others indicate that ethnic minority women experience a ‘complementarity advantage’ over minority men. This article examines the experiences of Maghrebian-origin male and female candidates by exploring the conditionality of their respective advantages in Brussels local elections. More precisely, we show how contextual factors known to influence the nomination of ethnic minorities in particular parties and districts generate gendered outcomes. Our results show that the Maghrebian concentration in the district, shapes parties’ strategies, and influences the gender imbalance among Maghrebian-origin candidates. We find that men are numerically better represented on socialist, green, and liberal candidate lists in ethnically dense districts. However, Maghrebian-origin women are more likely than their male counterparts to receive visible list positions, regardless of the demographic context. Our findings confirm the conditionality of the so-called ‘complementarity’ advantage for minority women and highlight how contextual factors shape party nomination strategies and generate gendered outcomes for ethnic minority candidates.

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity, gender, and intersectionality: How context factors shape the intersectional (dis)advantage under proportional representation rules

Politics, 2021

This article aims to highlight the contextual impact of proportional representation (PR) rules on... more This article aims to highlight the contextual impact of proportional representation (PR) rules on the intersectional representation of gender and ethnic groups. We assert that the combination of the institutional and sociodemographic context generates barriers and opportunities for the inclusion of intersectional identity groups in politics. We analyse how the sociodemographic make up of the district electorate influences parties’ and voters’ behaviour within PR systems to shape electoral outcomes in Brussels local elections. We focus on parties’ list composition strategies and candidates’ personal score to determine parties’ and voters’ leverage on representational outcomes. Our research demonstrates that ethnic minority male and female candidates experience a similar advantage on their ethnic majority counterparts in the (s)election process, and that their advantage grows as districts get more diverse. We show that ethnic minority candidates’ advantage comes mainly at the expense ...

Research paper thumbnail of Shaping the (dis)advantage: the impact of partisan and demographic factors on ethnic minority candidates’ success in preferential voting systems. Evidence from the Brussels case

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 2020

This article asks whether Turkish and North African origin candidates experience an electoral (di... more This article asks whether Turkish and North African origin candidates experience an electoral (dis)advantage in the Brussels preferential voting system. We examine the impact of candidates' ethnicity on their intraparty share of preference votes, and whether and how the strength of this relationship is influenced by their partisan orientation and the district concentration of their own ethnic group. Our results indicate that Turkish and North African origin candidates receive higher shares of preference votes on average compared to their co-partisans. We find that North African origin candidates' advantage does not vary according to their ethnic group concentration in the district, but their share of preference votes is higher than their co-partisans when they compete on left and center-left lists. However, Turkish origin candidates get more successful than their co-partisans as their ethnic group concentration increases, especially when they compete on left and center-left lists. Our research overall highlights the importance of candidates' ethnicity as an information shortcut for voters in the context of intraparty competition. We conclude that strong preferential voting systems do generate more opportunities for the inclusion of ethnic minority groups, but that parties' strategies and voters' behavior are more determinant than the rules themselves.

Research paper thumbnail of Het electorale succes van etnische minderheden in Brussel: de rol van kiezers en partijen

Res Publica, 2017

Vote or Party Strategy? Understanding the Electoral Success of Ethnic Minorities in Brussels Euro... more Vote or Party Strategy? Understanding the Electoral Success of Ethnic Minorities in Brussels European democracies have grown ethnically diverse in the recent years. Yet, ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in politics. Despite the theoretical argument asserting that ethnic minorities should perform better in systems allowing voters to cast intra party preferences, empirical studies bring mixed results. In particular, scholars highlight the role of both parties and voters in explaining the electoral success or failure of ethnic minority candidates. Using data on regional elections between 1995 and 2014 in Brussels, our study shows that even though parties have made gradual efforts to include ethnic minorities on their lists, voters appear to be an important force behind the election of ethnic minorities. We find variations according to party ideology, with socialist and-to a lesser extent-Christian democratic candidates benefiting the most from preferential voting. However, the positive impact of preference votes seems to decrease over time, as parties themselves become more inclusive and tend to allocate more realistic positions to their ethnic minority candidates in recent elections.

Research paper thumbnail of Breaking Free from Partitocracy

Belgian Exceptionalism, 2021

Belgium is said to be a textbook example of a partitocracy, that is an extreme case of dominance ... more Belgium is said to be a textbook example of a partitocracy, that is an extreme case of dominance of political parties on all aspects of the social and political system (Dewachter 2002; De Winter, della Porta, and Deschouwer 1996a; Steyvers 2014). This happens through patronage in parliament, public administration, the judiciary, and even in civil society (de Visscher 2004; De Winter 2002; De Winter and Dumont 2000, 2006). Hence, one can assert that Belgian exceptionalism resides among others in her strong partitocratic nature. Belgian parties are powerful actors, if not the most powerful actors of the system (De Winter, della Porta, and Deschouwer 1996b). But is it exceptional compared to other partitocratic countries? Scholars point at the decreasing legitimacy of the partitocratic system, and of political parties in general (Mair 2013; Rahat and Kenig 2018), as attested by declining trends in party membership (van Haute et al. 2013), higher levels of electoral volatility (Dassonneville 2018), and the rise of parties with renewed organizational structures or ideology (Hobolt and Tilley 2016; Mazzoleni and Voerman 2016). One may then wonder whether these weakened party organizations still manage to hold a strong control on their representatives or if politicians are nowadays more often allowed to break with their party line. Building on the (contested) personalization thesis (Balmas et al. 2014; Karvonen 2010), this chapter proposes to disentangle parties' grip on a particular group of political elites, the candidates to elected office. Candidates are key political actors, first during the campaign, then as representatives once elected (André et al. 2017). Electoral candidates embody the party (Katz 2001) from the moment they have been officially selected by party selectorates (Hazan and Rahat 2010). Yet this is not to presume that candidates