In this paper we investigate the effects of political dissatisfaction, political distrust and ethnocentrism on support to the incumbent coalition in three different municipalities in Flanders. Theoretically, we define the concept of political trust, at which it is differentiated from political satisfaction and political alienation. At the same time, four dimensions of political distrust are disentangled: competence, integrity, responsiveness and justice. Empirically, four research questions may be distinguished. First, we investigate whether political satisfaction, political trust and ethnocentrism have an independent effect on support to the ruling majority. Second, we check whether there are differential effects of the dimensions of political trust on the dependent variable in the different municipalities.Third, we try to connect the micro-level data with macro-level, by linking the results with the characteristics of the local government and the party system. Fourth, we examine the influence of the presence of extreme right. |
Article |
Coalitiesteun in Antwerpen, Hasselt en OostkampDe invloed van politieke ontevredenheid, politiek wantrouwen en etnocentrisme vergeleken |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 4 2007 |
Auteurs | Marc Swyngedouw, Koen Abts en Jarl Kampen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Article |
La parité linguistique au sein du conseil des ministres |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 4 2007 |
Auteurs | Min Reuchamps |
Auteursinformatie |
Article |
Belgian Politics in 2006 |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 2-3 2007 |
Auteurs | Sam Depauw en Mark Deweerdt |
Auteursinformatie |
Article |
De gemeenteraadsverkiezingen van 8 oktober 2006Evolutie sinds 1976 |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 2-3 2007 |
Auteurs | Johan Ackaert, Herwig Reynaert, Koenraad De Ceuninck e.a. |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The 2006 local elections in Belgium were the first one organised after the transfer of the local authorities competences from the federal to the regional level. This means by consequence that the different regions have as well the competence in designing the institutional framework of local government as the competence of changing electoral rules. The same elections were also the first ones after drastic reforms in the national political landscape (eg., the democratic Flemish nationalist party split in different groups, nearly all the parties changed their name and particularly in the Flemish part of the country, different kinds of alliances between parties emerged). |
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De provincieraadsverkiezingen van 8 oktober 2006Electorale tendensen in Vlaanderen en Wallonië |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 2-3 2007 |
Auteurs | Tony Valcke, Herwig Reynaert, Kristof Steyvers e.a. |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The 2006 provincial elections in Belgium were the first organised after the transfer of the bulk of competences on local and provincial government from the federal to the regional level. This means that the different regions have both the competence to redesign the institutional framework on provincial government and to change the electoral rules. The government has exercised its competence: some institutional and electoral rules are now different in the two regions. These elections were also the first after drastic reforms in the national political landscape (e.g., the democratic Flemish nationalist party split in different groups, nearly all the parties changed their name and different kinds of cartels and alliances between parties emerged, especially in the Flemish part of the country). |
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Loont besturen? Electorale voor- en nadelen van bestuursdeelname bij gemeenteraadsverkiezingen |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 1 2007 |
Auteurs | Jan Vermeir en Bruno Heyndels |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
We analyse the presence of a cost of ruling and/or incumbency advantage in the municipal elections in Flanders of 1988, 1994 and 2000. The empirical work concentrates on vote share evolutions of the three main parties: CD&V, Sp.a and VLD. We find evidence that being in power leads to an incumbency advantage, especially for those parties who provide the mayor. The results indicate that this electoral advantage is not uniform among parties (the socialist party appears to benefit more) and, importantly, the incumbency advantage seems to dampen over successive elections. From the perspective of the local politicians, it is important to keep in mind that this incumbency advantage at the local level was insufficient to compensate for the general trend of the major parties to lose votes at all levels of government. Indeed, even in the 1988 elections – where a clear local incumbency (mayor) advantage could be identified for each of the three parties – it was the case that government parties on average lost votes. |
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Doen (wijzigende) instituties ertoe?De invloed van het gemeente(kies)decreet op de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen van 2006 |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 1 2007 |
Auteurs | Johan Ackaert, Koenraad De Ceuninck, Herwig Reynaert e.a. |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
With the local elections in 2006, new organisational schemes have been applied by the Flemish government to the 308 municipalities. These schemes included institutional reform aimed to change the outset of local government. In this article we studied the influence of these reforms in practice. Are they actually carriers of change? We thereby focused on the direct aspects linked to these reforms. While many instruments of reform had indirect intended effects, acceptance and action among key decision-makers (both voters and local governors to the extent of their discretion) to use them directly becomes crucial. Our analysis has shown that, with some exceptions, direct autonomous space for action was only limitedly used, hence reducing the chances for indirect change. While it is still too early to fully assess the foreseen indirect effects, in our opinion it is crucial to understand the nature of these local reforms within the central (Flemish) bargaining arena. The latter seems to have transformed the new schemes of local governmental organisation to the path-dependent art of the political feasible. |
Article |
Eerste lessen uit de automatische benoeming van burgemeesters in Wallonië |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 1 2007 |
Auteurs | Jean-Benoit Pilet, Pascal Delwit en Emilie van Haute |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The last local elections in Wallonia were marked by the introduction of a new legislation concerning the way mayors are appointed. Before 2006, mayors were appointed by the regional government. Since the last elections, a new decree institutes that is automatically appointed mayor the candidate having most preferential votes from the list having most seats. In this article, we explore how the new legislation has affected the way voters behave in 2006 and also how it has affected parties when it comes to coalition agreements. What appears is that the new legislation has a fairly limited impact. Voters did not cast more preferential votes in 2006 than in 2000. The logics of coalitions have not been changed significantly. Finally, the only notable – even if not spectacular – impact of the new Walloon decree is that the elections have been much more focused on the candidates that were leading their list, the ones that were presented by their party as their candidate to become mayor. These candidates have more often been appointed mayors in 2006 than in 2000 and the proportion of preferential votes that they have received is higher in 2006. In that sense, even if the degree of change must not be exaggerated, Walloon local elections are slightly turning into a horse race between candidates leading their list. |
Article |
Het IMBY-syndroom: de (on)zin van de Antwerpse districtraadsverkiezingen |
Tijdschrift | Res Publica, Aflevering 1 2007 |
Auteurs | Peter Thijssen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Together with the city council elections, the citizens of Antwerp elected on 8 October 2006 for the second time their district councils. This new decentralised political level is primarily initiated to restore the confidence of the citizens in the city (and district) government(s). By analysing the results of the city and the district elections we try to find indications whether citizens feel closer to their new district governments or not. Firstly district elections resulted definitely not in less blank votes. Secondly, the number of list votes is higher on the district elections than on the city elections, while we would have expected a higher number of preferential votes. Thirdly, we see that the differences between the electoral results of the city elections and the district elections are becoming more pronounced. Although this last result seems to support the legitimacy of the decentralised district they merely reflect changes in the logic of the city elections. Mainly as a result of media coverage the city elections were direct elections of the mayor. Therefore voters used the district elections to vote for their preferred political party. This was not always possible at city level, because some parties did not have an eligible candidate for mayor. Generally spoken, we can conclude that the district elections do not give much proof of a closer connection between the citizens and the city government. |