Mind the Gap - Political Participation and Representation in Belgium

Mind the Gap is a book on the difficult times of modern representative democracy, and on the way in which political science is trying to make sense of it. Forecasting election results has become a very risky business, and explaining the often-surprising results must increasingly rely on case-by-case ad hoc interpretations. Old and formerly stable political parties now appear to be very vulnerable, because many of their traditional voters seem willing to desert them. If voters turn out to vote at all, they tend to be very volatile and send out complex messages, to decide later than ever what to do in the polling booth, to react to short-term factors and to follow candidates rather than parties. Low levels of trust in political actors and institutions reveal a gap between the elites and the people.
Belgium is one of the countries where one can witness these debates. Yet Belgium is also a special case. Not only a gap between elites and citizens but also a gap between north and south animates the political debates. The territorial division of the country in two language groups has led to the complete split of the parties and the party system and to the transformation of the unitary state into a complex federal system. With on top of all that the European level the lines of representation and accountability in Belgium are extremely opaque. Decision making requires subtle compromises between party leaders and sometimes take a very long time to come about. Voting in Belgium is however compulsory, which means that exiting the scene of democratic representation is not an obvious option. Citizens do turn out to vote and do express their views and their discontent. Some political parties however do suggest that leaving Belgium behind altogether might be better than just muddling through.
This book is based on ten years of research on political participation and representation in Belgium by the interuniversity research team PartiRep. Using several surveys among the population and politicians, voting aid applications, focus groups and experiments it draws a picture of a parliamentary and representative democracy that faces multiple tensions and multiple gaps. It discusses a wide range of political processes and actors, placing them in a comparative perspective, and exploring to what extent the Belgian case fits into the general picture. The chapters of the book deal with political socialization, political parties, representation, economic voting, preference voting and personalized voting, democratic preferences, identity politics and campaign effects and on the way in which elites and citizens try to find their way and make sense of this complex multi-level and linguistically divided country in the heart of the European Union.

List of contents

Introduction, Kris Deschouwer / 1. Norms of Citizenship, Jan Van Deth/ 2. Who framed the party? The perception of political organisations, Camille Kelbel, Giulia Sandri and Emilie van Haute / 3. Public and politicians' preferences on priorities in political representation, Audrey André, Sam Depauw and Rudy B. Andeweg / 4. What is good democracy? Citizens' support for ne modes of governing, Didier Caluwaerts, Benjamin Biard, Vincent Jacquet and Min Reuchamps / 5. Party Families in a Split Party System, Kris Deschouwer, Jean-Benoit Pilet and Emilie van Haute / 6. Language identity and voting, Dave Sinardet, Lieven De Winter, Jérémy Dodeigne and Min Reuchamps / 7. A three-level game: citizens' attitudes about the division of competences in a multi-level context, Soetkin Verhaegen, Louise Hoon, Camille Kelbel and Virginie van Ingelgom / 8. Economic voting in a federal country: Overcoming the limited clarity of responsibility, Ruth Dassonneville, Marc Hooghe and Marc Debus / 9. Policy and ideology volatility during the campaign, Stefaan Walgrave and Christophe Lesschaeve / 10. The time of the vote. causes and consequences of late deciding, Ruth Dassonneville, Pierre Baudewyns, Marc Debus and Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck / 11. Gender-based voting , Silvia Erzeel, Sjifra de Leeuw, Sofie Marien and Benoît Rihoux / 12. The nature of preference voting: disentangling the party and personal components of candidate choice, Audrey André, Sam Depauw and Jean-Benoit Pilet / 13. Preferential voting in local versus national elections: the role of proximity revisited, Peter Thijssen, Bram Wauters and Patrick van Erkel / Index

About the author

Edited by Kris Deschouwer

Product details

• Assisted by: Kris Deschouwer (Editor)
• Publisher: Ecpr Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 18.04.2019
• EAN: 9781786613059
• ISBN: 978-1-78661-305-9
• No. of pages: 324
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 19 mm
• Weight: 528 g
• Series: Studies in European Political Science
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education