Party system(s) and electoral behaviour in Belgium: From stability to balkanisation (original) (raw)
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Party system change in Belgium. From stability to fragmentation?
Party System Change, the European Crisis and the State of Democracy, 2018
Belgium has often been considered as an example of a stable country characterized by consociational politics, heavy pillarization and a party system dominated by cleavage-based parties. Over the last decade, Belgium witnessed important changes and events that reshaped its institutional, electoral and societal structures. This chapter aims to investigate the challenges Belgium has faced that have strongly impacted its party system since the 2000s. The revival of the institutional conflict between French- and Dutch-speaking parties threatened the dominance of mainstream parties and led to the re-emergence of strong regionalist parties. In addition, the economic crisis and growing anti-establishment sentiment among large portions of the population fostered the rise of parties at the periphery of the party system, mostly radical-left and right-wing populist parties. More recently, the terrorist attacks in Brussels and the wave of political scandals put further pressure on the established parties. Along with the weakening of traditional alignments, these major changes have had significant impact on different aspects of the Belgian political system, such as voter’s volatility or coalition building. The political crises of 2007 and 2010–2011 around the formation of the federal cabinet exemplify this new era of political instability in Belgium.
Unified voters in a divided society: Ideology and regionalism in Belgium
Regional & Federal Studies
In societies divided along ethnocultural lines, intergroup cooperation can often be a challenging task. This process can be even more complex if political parties and voters are divided along those same social cleavages. This study focuses on the case of Belgium and explores whether divided societies with separate party systems necessarily lead to distinct partisan alignments. Using electoral survey data from the 2014 Belgian federal election, we investigate whether political ideology is stronger than ethnolinguistic group membership in shaping electoral behaviour. The results demonstrate that although Belgian voters are divided along linguistic lines when it comes to preferences about centralization, they remain aligned along party families on social and economic dimensions.
The aim of this work is to take into account the several dimensions of the Belgian political system. Particular stress will be made on the exceptional Belgian case in terms of the length of the government bargaining, types of government and coalitions as well as the coalition maintenance mechanism. A panoramic view will be made of the Belgian fragmented party system and on its evolution, as well as the aspect of the electoral responsiveness. Therefore, the federal type of state would be considered for better understanding the Belgian case. This will be done by taking in consideration cleavages which shaped the political life of Belgium.
2021
The policy positions and priorities of voters have become central in explaining electoral behaviour, to the detriment of traditional party affiliation. In Flanders, this has contributed to the rise of "new parties" and the demise of the three mainstream parties, whose convergence weakened their ideological profile. Using data from the RepResent electoral survey, I compare how representative the different Flemish parties were of the opinions of their electorate for the May 2019 regional election, using two measurements of congruence. This research shows that two of the three mainstream parties (the CD&V and the Open Vld) have some of the lowest scores on both types of measurements. Meanwhile, the sp.a is not only more representative of the positions of its electorate, but also of the voters of its left-wing rivals (Groen and Pvda) than the party of their choice, showing that the sp.a struggles to create enthusiasm for a program that is nevertheless in line with the demands of progressive voters. Résumé Les opinions politiques et les priorités des électeurs sont devenues essentielles pour expliquer le comportement électoral, au détriment des liens partisans traditionnels. En Flandre, cela a contribué à la montée de "nouveaux partis", et au déclin des trois partis traditionnels, dont la convergence vers le centre a affaibli le profil idéologique. Grâce aux données de l'enquête électorale RepResent, nous comparons la représentativité des différents partis flamands des opinions de leur électorat respectif pour les élections régionales du 26 mai 2019, en utilisant deux mesures de congruence. Notre recherche montre que deux des trois partis traditionnels (le CD&V et l'Open Vld) ont obtenu des scores parmi les plus faibles pour ces deux types de mesures. Par ailleurs, le sp.a est le plus représentatif des positions de son électorat, mais aussi des électeurs de ses rivaux de gauche (Groen et Pvda), ce qui montre que le sp.a peine à susciter l'enthousiasme pour un programme pourtant conforme aux exigences des électeurs progressistes.
Democratization and Polarization in Belgium
This study examines how institutional reforms during Belgium’s transition to consociational democracy around the turn of the 20th century – universal male suffrage, proportional representation (PR), and one-man-one-vote – affected polarization in the Chamber of Representatives. An analysis of new legislative vote data yields two main empirical results. First, as the Socialist Party was integrated into the party system, socioeconomic issues were “politicized” and polarization between the Socialists and the Catholic and Liberal parties increased along this dimension. Second, in the first years of Belgium’s contemporary era of coalition governance after World War I, division between the governing Catholic and Liberal parties and the Socialist opposition was more pronounced on bills pledged in the post-election coalition agreement. A general conclusion drawn is that the consensual effect of PR may be obscured by the onset of democratic contestation, thought PR may still be more conducive to democratic stability than majoritarian electoral systems in divided societies.
The demise of symmetry between ‘sister parties’ has opened up a new chapter in Belgian politics
2015
Belgium’s language divide between predominantly French-speaking Wallonia, and predominantly Dutch-speaking Flanders, is one of the key features underpinning the country’s party system. Regis Dandoy notes that while the language issue continues to be a major part of Belgian politics, the country’s political landscape has nevertheless undergone a significant change over the last decade, underlined by the outcome of the 2014 Belgian federal elections. He writes that the tendency to ensure symmetry in Belgian governments between ‘sister parties’ from the same party family has gradually become displaced by a new framework which has the potential to substantially alter the dynamics of Belgian politics.
Territorial Reforms , Decentralisation and Party Positions in Belgium
2011
The objective of this paper is to explain party positions on the issue of decentralisation in Belgium. Based on a quantitative analysis of the content of the party manifestos of all Belgian parties since 1977, this paper intends to test three hypotheses concerning the amount of attention parties allocate to this issue in their electoral platforms. Our findings demonstrate that territorial reforms as well as patterns of party competition do have an effect on party positions on decentralisation. In this process the specific role of the regionalist parties is outlined, since these parties can be viewed the owners of the decentralisation issue and have a significant impact on the position of the other parties in the party system. I. Territorial reforms and party positions 1.1. Parties and territorial reforms The main question concerning the reforms leading to more centralisation or decentralisation of the institutional structure at the national level is the one of their origin. What is ...