In this article we explained the differential electoral appeal of the extreme right in the municipalities of Antwerp. The electoral geography of the Vlaams Blok demonstrated that the further one lives from the city of Antwerp, the less likely one is to vote for the extreme right. This phenomenon was explained trough a specific urbanization pattern and the so called contamination hypothesis. We also found that the presence of migrants and the unemployment rate had a significant correlation with the score of the VB. This helped to understand why some municipalities were characterized by a long distance from the city and yet a high score for the VB. The supply side of the VB was also analyzed. This revealed that the proportion of preferential votes for the VB correlated highly with the electoral score of the VB in the municipalities of Antwerp.

This paper deals with the linkage between changes in the political culture and changes in class-party alignments. First, we investigate how the political culture in Western countries has changed over time. Three views are tested using data on party-manifestos. The first predicts that only new-leftist issues will increase in salience. The second predicts that both new-leftist and new-rightist issues will emerge at the same time. The third, which is empirically corroborated, predicts that first new-leftist issues will emerge followed by a rise in new rightist issues.
Second, we investigate how the emergence of these new issues has affected the traditional class-party alignments. We show that the middle class increasingly votes left-wing as newleftist issues become more important and that the working class increasingly votes rightwing as new-rightist issues become more important. The middle class also appears to alienate from the traditional party of their class as new-rightist issues rise in salience.

Various authors have claimed that postmodern concepts of citizenship have become more important in contemporary Western societies. The new generation of citizens are said to be more critical toward the political system, less likely to participate in conventional politics, but they remain strongly interested in politics and social life (Norris, Inglehart, Dalton). Michael Schudson developed the concept of a ‘monitorial citizen’, who is interested in politics, with high levels of political efficacy and who turns to political action if needed, but does not participate in traditional political organizations. Based on the European Social Survey (2004) we investigate whether this type of citizenship actually occurs in Belgium, and found that approx. 9 per cent of all respondents can be labeled as ‘monitorial citizens’. In accordance with the theoretical expectations, most of them are young and highly-educated citizens. A multivariate analysis shows that, controlling for education, ‘monitorial citizens’ also score relatively high on political trust.

This study reports the results of qualitative interviews with 28 extreme right wing activists in Flanders (Belgium). We focus on the (ideological) motives for activism (why did they become active?) and the trajectory followed in becoming active (how did they become active?). The results show that these activists are primarily motivated by ethnic nationalism. All other ideological stands (e.g. rejection of foreigners, authoritarian attitudes and rejection of actual politics in Belgium) seem to be derived from this core of ethnic nationalism. The trajectory followed is primarily one that relates to socialization and continuity: most interviewees grew up in a family in which nationalism was of primordial importance. A minority of respondents, however, followed trajectories that refer to compliance or to conversion (deprivation).

This article is based on a definition of political and civil servant leadership as a behavioral steering style towards the realization of organizational goals. By means of a grounded theory methodology we get some insights in the characteristics and the interaction between both leadership styles in Flemish cities. This two-faced leadership is depicted by means of a tandem metaphor. First, we identify the relevant dimensions to describe the leadership tandem. It becomes apparent that political leadership styles differ greatly both in time and in scope. Civil servant leadership is generally characterized by a weak but presumably growing impact. This combination results in considerable leadership tensions, which is reinforced by several contingency factors: i.e. the influence of the dominant alderman model, the financial situation, the number of staff, the tendency to professionalize, the dominant political and civil servant culture and the structure of central government (e.g. on a Flemish, Belgian and European level).

According to our analysis of the campaign expenses declared by the Flemish candidates for the 2003 federal and the 2004 regional elections candidates of the three traditional parties spend, on average, about 70 à 80% of what they are allowed to. The impact of the spending limit is much smaller for the other parties, the candidates of which spend only about 50% of what they are allowed to. Incumbents and candidates who are also mayor in a municipality tend to spend more. The background characteristics of the candidates have almost no effect on the expenditures. There is only a small effect of gender, in the sense that women candidates spend less. On average, one third of the individual campaign expenditures is financed by the individual candidates, and two thirds by the party. However, in the liberal party the contribution of the party is substantially lower (35 à 40% on average), while it is higher (80% on average) in the socialist party as well as for female candidates