Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2021
This article studies citizens’ support for deliberative democracy in Belgium. It examines it, fir... more This article studies citizens’ support for deliberative democracy in Belgium. It examines it, first, from the perspective of Belgian citizens in general. In a second step, it looks specifically at the attitudes of citizens from four disadvantaged groups (women, lower educated citizens, citizens with precarious job conditions and younger citizens). Regarding these groups we want to see whether they show different levels of support for deliberative democracy than the rest of the population and if their attitudes are driven by the same factors as for citizens from more advantaged groups. Regarding the general population, the main finding is that support for deliberative democracy is driven by negative attitudes towards elected politicians but mainly by positive attitudes regarding the political competence of fellow citizens. Regarding disadvantaged groups, we see first that women and younger citizens show higher levels of support than the rest of the population. Second, when it comes to the factors driving support for deliberative democracy within these disadvantaged groups, it appears that they are similar to the rest of the population except when it comes to political interest. Being more interested in politics is a determinant to be in favour of deliberative democracy for citizens from disadvantaged groups.
This chapter describes the outputs of DMPs: both the conclusions that mini-publics reach and the ... more This chapter describes the outputs of DMPs: both the conclusions that mini-publics reach and the ways in which these are presented to wider audiences. It also investigates how these outputs are developed and how much meaning should be attached to them. There are substantial variations across DMPs on these matters. Nevertheless, all mini-publics present the considered judgments of their participants on the matters before them, and many also provide valuable insights into the reasoning underlying these judgments. There is good reason to think that those conclusions are meaningful and therefore deserve to be taken seriously by decision-makers further down the policy-making process.
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-psx-10.1177_00323217211055560 for What Kind of Electoral Outcome... more Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-psx-10.1177_00323217211055560 for What Kind of Electoral Outcome do People Think is Good for Democracy? by André Blais, Damien Bol, Shaun Bowler, David M Farrell, Annika Fredén, Martial Foucault, Emmanuel Heisbourg, Romain Lachat, Ignacio Lago, Peter John Loewen, Miroslav Nemčok, Jean-Benoit Pilet and Carolina Plescia in Political Studies
Lors des dernières élections, les Flamands et les Wallons ont clairement voté différemment. En Fl... more Lors des dernières élections, les Flamands et les Wallons ont clairement voté différemment. En Flandre, c’est surtout le parti national-populiste Vlaams Belang qui a gagné (+12,6% aux régionales), tandis que le Pvda (+2,8%) et Groen (+1,4%) ont légèrement progressé et que les trois partis traditionnels ont perdu du terrain. En Wallonie, les trois partis traditionnels ont également reculé, mais c’est la gauche radicale avec le PTB (+7,9% aux régionales) qui a le plus progressé, suivie de près par Ecolo (+5,9%). Les flux d’électeurs semblent donc avoir évolué dans des directions opposées, et la Flandre et la Wallonie2 semblent donc s’éloigner en termes de résultats électoraux. Mais qu’en est-il des opinions politiques qui sous-tendent le comportement électoral des deux côtés de la frontière linguistique? Est-il vrai que ‘les Wallons pensent à gauche et les Flamands pensent à droite’? Pour répondre à cette question, le consortium RepResent a mené une enquête en ligne lors des semaines précédant les élections (cf. l’annexe au sujet de la méthode). Par ce biais, de larges échantillons d’électeurs flamands et wallons ont été soumis à des questions permettant de mesurer leurs opinions politiques et leurs orientations gauche-droite. Dans la présente note, nous analysons tout d’abord le comportement électoral des Flamands et des Wallons à travers un regard sur le paysage partisan belge, afin d’examiner si les partis qui ont reçu leurs votes étaient plus de gauche ou plus de droite. Ensuite, sur base de notre enquête, nous examinons dans quelle mesure les électeurs Flamands et Wallons se définissent eux-même comme de gauche ou de droite, de quelles valeurs politiques ils sont porteurs, quelles sont leurs positions par rapport à des propositions politiques de gauche ou de droite, et quels thèmes ils jugent plus importants.
A vast literature shows that voting for the winning party in elections boosts satisfaction with d... more A vast literature shows that voting for the winning party in elections boosts satisfaction with democracy. But in many list PR systems, voters do not only vote for a party, they can also vote for candidates within parties. Yet, we know very little about how such votes affect voters’ satisfaction with democracy. In this paper, we analyse pre- and post-election panel survey data from Belgium, in which we asked respondents to report their vote choice for parties and for candidates. The main finding is that casting a preference vote for a winning candidate makes little difference, as party-list voters are those with the largest increase in satisfaction with democracy. Such a finding is very important as reforms that increase voters’ opportunities to vote for candidates within list have multiplied recently, and many of these reforms have been justified as being in line with voters’ demand for more candidate-centred electoral systems
This chapter introduces the principal core design features of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs): t... more This chapter introduces the principal core design features of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs): their composition; the format of their deliberations; the topics they discuss; and their outputs. Drawing mostly on the POLITICIZE inventory of DMPs organized by national and regional public authorities across Europe since 2000, this chapter argues that DMPs take a wide variety of forms in terms of composition, format, the policy issues they discuss and the process of producing and approving their final reports. All these elements show the need for careful examination of DMPs, by scholars, political actors, practitioners and interested citizens.
This chapter focuses on core design features concerned with the ‘deliberative experience.’ It sta... more This chapter focuses on core design features concerned with the ‘deliberative experience.’ It starts by identifying the guiding principles in design – inclusiveness, equality in participation and integrity – and then discusses core design features relating to the deliberative experience. DMPs are dynamic processes. Flexibility and appropriateness of the design to the particular DMP’s purpose, size, and mandate are critical.
In most West European Democracies, parties have undertaken several internal changes. A common tre... more In most West European Democracies, parties have undertaken several internal changes. A common trend in these evolutions is the democratization of intra-party life through the empowerment of members in several respects (candidates and leaders selection, etc.). For pillar parties, these modifications have a peculiar signification as it could modify some of their core characteristics (oligarchy, overlapping membership and leadership, etc.). In that context, this article examines both the internal reforms in Belgian pillar parties and their impact. The three traditional Belgian party families linked to a pillar (Christian Democrats, Socialists and Liberals) have opened their membership procedures and democratized leaders and candidates selection. Though, the changes are more formal than effective. The internal reforms of Belgian pillar parties did not affect the core elements of this type of parties, which are elite control via oligarchy, and societal segmentation via overlapping member...
The discussion and empirical analysis of the increasing citizen dissatisfaction with existing rep... more The discussion and empirical analysis of the increasing citizen dissatisfaction with existing representative institutions has become a central concern for political science in recent decades (Rosanvallon, 2006; Papadopoulos, 2013; Merkel, 2014; Thomassen, 2016). Political theory has also contributed to this debate by focusing increasingly on non-elective forms of participation and representation (Saward, 2009; Kuyper, 2016; Landemore, 2020). Paradoxically, there has not been a significant dialogue between political theory and empirical research that would aim to understandwhether these non-elective forms of participation and representation are to be conceived as a complement, a diversion or even a full-blown alternative to electoral representation (Peters, 2016). Is representation dispensable? What are the alternatives to existing institutions? How are existing institutions and their alternatives perceived by citizens, parties and elected representatives? The aim of the present coll...
Est-ce que les reformes visant a combler l’ecart entre pouvoir politique et citoyens (democratie ... more Est-ce que les reformes visant a combler l’ecart entre pouvoir politique et citoyens (democratie directe, accords de cooperation entre le secteur prive et les services publics, election directe du maire,…) menent a une revolution en profondeur ou plutot a une simple renovation des administrations locales ? Dans cet ouvrage, differents experts internationaux en matiere de politique locale se penchent sur la question. A travers les differentes contributions comparant la situation specifique de differents pays, le lecteur decouvrira que de nombreuses discussions ‘typiquement belges’ sont tout aussi bien valables pour d'autres pays.
Parties’ attitudes about changing the electoral system are explained in various ways. The most co... more Parties’ attitudes about changing the electoral system are explained in various ways. The most common approach is based upon rational-choice models stating that parties are first and foremost strategic actors considering any change to the electoral system for its impact on the balance of power between and within parties (Boix, 1999). The dominant model was set up by Kenneth Benoit (2004) and considers that parties evaluate potential reform according to their expected impact on their future seat share (Benoit, 2004). But is this very simple logic really able to account for the positions of parties about changing the electoral system? No systematic empirical testing of the model has been offered yet. In this article, Benoit’s model has been tested for 103 parties involved in 14 different electoral reform debates (Belgium, British Columbia, Canada, Israel, Italy 1993, Italy 2005, Japan, The Netherlands, New Brunswick, New Zealand, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and the United K...
L’une des singularités du système politique belge est qu’il ne compte quasiment plus de parti pol... more L’une des singularités du système politique belge est qu’il ne compte quasiment plus de parti politique national. A l’exception du PTB-PVDA (Parti du Travail de Belgique-Partij van de Arbeid van België, parti communiste), les partis représentés au Parlement fédéral sont soit francophones, soit néerlandophones. Cette scission du système de partis en Belgique a débuté il y a maintenant 50 ans, lorsque le PSC-CVP (Parti social-chrétien – Christelijk Volkspartij) s’est divisé entre un PSC francophone et un CVP néerlandophone suite aux tensions autour de la scission entre l’UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain) et la KUL (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven). Malgré cela, plusieurs décennies après la fin des partis nationaux, nous continuons à parler de partis frères et de familles politiques. Mais cette notion a-t-elle encore réellement un sens ?Les partis dits frères conservent-ils réellement des liens ?Présentent-ils des similitudes qui font que leur partenaire le plus proche est bien celui partageant la même couleur de l’autre côté de la frontière linguistique ?info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
There is perennial debate in comparative politics about electoral institutions, but what characte... more There is perennial debate in comparative politics about electoral institutions, but what characterizes this debate is the lack of consideration for citizens’ perspective. In this paper, we report the results of an original survey conducted on representative samples in 15 West European countries ( N = 15,414). We implemented an original instrument to elicit respondents’ views by asking them to rate “real but blind” electoral outcomes. With this survey instrument, we aimed to elicit principled rather than partisan preferences regarding the kind of electoral outcomes that citizens think is good for democracy. We find that West Europeans do not clearly endorse a majoritarian or proportional vision of democracy. They tend to focus on aspects of the government rather than parliament when they pass a judgment. They want a majority government that has few parties and enjoys wide popular support. Finally, we find only small differences between citizens of different countries.
As representative democracy is increasingly criticized, a new institution is becoming popular amo... more As representative democracy is increasingly criticized, a new institution is becoming popular among academics and practitioners: deliberative citizens’ assemblies. To evaluate whether these assemblies can deliver their promise of re-engaging the dissatisfied of representative politics, we explore who supports them and why. We build on a unique survey conducted with representative samples of 15 Western European countries and find, first, that the most supportive respondents are those who are less educated, have a low sense of political competence and an anti-elite sentiment. Thus, support does come from the dissatisfied. Second, we find that this support is for a part ‘outcome contingent’, in the sense that it changes with people’s expectations regarding the policy outcome from deliberative citizens’ assemblies. This second finding nuances the first one and suggests that while deliberative citizens’ assemblies convey some hope to re-engaged disengaged citizens, this is conditioned to...
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2021
This article studies citizens’ support for deliberative democracy in Belgium. It examines it, fir... more This article studies citizens’ support for deliberative democracy in Belgium. It examines it, first, from the perspective of Belgian citizens in general. In a second step, it looks specifically at the attitudes of citizens from four disadvantaged groups (women, lower educated citizens, citizens with precarious job conditions and younger citizens). Regarding these groups we want to see whether they show different levels of support for deliberative democracy than the rest of the population and if their attitudes are driven by the same factors as for citizens from more advantaged groups. Regarding the general population, the main finding is that support for deliberative democracy is driven by negative attitudes towards elected politicians but mainly by positive attitudes regarding the political competence of fellow citizens. Regarding disadvantaged groups, we see first that women and younger citizens show higher levels of support than the rest of the population. Second, when it comes to the factors driving support for deliberative democracy within these disadvantaged groups, it appears that they are similar to the rest of the population except when it comes to political interest. Being more interested in politics is a determinant to be in favour of deliberative democracy for citizens from disadvantaged groups.
This chapter describes the outputs of DMPs: both the conclusions that mini-publics reach and the ... more This chapter describes the outputs of DMPs: both the conclusions that mini-publics reach and the ways in which these are presented to wider audiences. It also investigates how these outputs are developed and how much meaning should be attached to them. There are substantial variations across DMPs on these matters. Nevertheless, all mini-publics present the considered judgments of their participants on the matters before them, and many also provide valuable insights into the reasoning underlying these judgments. There is good reason to think that those conclusions are meaningful and therefore deserve to be taken seriously by decision-makers further down the policy-making process.
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-psx-10.1177_00323217211055560 for What Kind of Electoral Outcome... more Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-psx-10.1177_00323217211055560 for What Kind of Electoral Outcome do People Think is Good for Democracy? by André Blais, Damien Bol, Shaun Bowler, David M Farrell, Annika Fredén, Martial Foucault, Emmanuel Heisbourg, Romain Lachat, Ignacio Lago, Peter John Loewen, Miroslav Nemčok, Jean-Benoit Pilet and Carolina Plescia in Political Studies
Lors des dernières élections, les Flamands et les Wallons ont clairement voté différemment. En Fl... more Lors des dernières élections, les Flamands et les Wallons ont clairement voté différemment. En Flandre, c’est surtout le parti national-populiste Vlaams Belang qui a gagné (+12,6% aux régionales), tandis que le Pvda (+2,8%) et Groen (+1,4%) ont légèrement progressé et que les trois partis traditionnels ont perdu du terrain. En Wallonie, les trois partis traditionnels ont également reculé, mais c’est la gauche radicale avec le PTB (+7,9% aux régionales) qui a le plus progressé, suivie de près par Ecolo (+5,9%). Les flux d’électeurs semblent donc avoir évolué dans des directions opposées, et la Flandre et la Wallonie2 semblent donc s’éloigner en termes de résultats électoraux. Mais qu’en est-il des opinions politiques qui sous-tendent le comportement électoral des deux côtés de la frontière linguistique? Est-il vrai que ‘les Wallons pensent à gauche et les Flamands pensent à droite’? Pour répondre à cette question, le consortium RepResent a mené une enquête en ligne lors des semaines précédant les élections (cf. l’annexe au sujet de la méthode). Par ce biais, de larges échantillons d’électeurs flamands et wallons ont été soumis à des questions permettant de mesurer leurs opinions politiques et leurs orientations gauche-droite. Dans la présente note, nous analysons tout d’abord le comportement électoral des Flamands et des Wallons à travers un regard sur le paysage partisan belge, afin d’examiner si les partis qui ont reçu leurs votes étaient plus de gauche ou plus de droite. Ensuite, sur base de notre enquête, nous examinons dans quelle mesure les électeurs Flamands et Wallons se définissent eux-même comme de gauche ou de droite, de quelles valeurs politiques ils sont porteurs, quelles sont leurs positions par rapport à des propositions politiques de gauche ou de droite, et quels thèmes ils jugent plus importants.
A vast literature shows that voting for the winning party in elections boosts satisfaction with d... more A vast literature shows that voting for the winning party in elections boosts satisfaction with democracy. But in many list PR systems, voters do not only vote for a party, they can also vote for candidates within parties. Yet, we know very little about how such votes affect voters’ satisfaction with democracy. In this paper, we analyse pre- and post-election panel survey data from Belgium, in which we asked respondents to report their vote choice for parties and for candidates. The main finding is that casting a preference vote for a winning candidate makes little difference, as party-list voters are those with the largest increase in satisfaction with democracy. Such a finding is very important as reforms that increase voters’ opportunities to vote for candidates within list have multiplied recently, and many of these reforms have been justified as being in line with voters’ demand for more candidate-centred electoral systems
This chapter introduces the principal core design features of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs): t... more This chapter introduces the principal core design features of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs): their composition; the format of their deliberations; the topics they discuss; and their outputs. Drawing mostly on the POLITICIZE inventory of DMPs organized by national and regional public authorities across Europe since 2000, this chapter argues that DMPs take a wide variety of forms in terms of composition, format, the policy issues they discuss and the process of producing and approving their final reports. All these elements show the need for careful examination of DMPs, by scholars, political actors, practitioners and interested citizens.
This chapter focuses on core design features concerned with the ‘deliberative experience.’ It sta... more This chapter focuses on core design features concerned with the ‘deliberative experience.’ It starts by identifying the guiding principles in design – inclusiveness, equality in participation and integrity – and then discusses core design features relating to the deliberative experience. DMPs are dynamic processes. Flexibility and appropriateness of the design to the particular DMP’s purpose, size, and mandate are critical.
In most West European Democracies, parties have undertaken several internal changes. A common tre... more In most West European Democracies, parties have undertaken several internal changes. A common trend in these evolutions is the democratization of intra-party life through the empowerment of members in several respects (candidates and leaders selection, etc.). For pillar parties, these modifications have a peculiar signification as it could modify some of their core characteristics (oligarchy, overlapping membership and leadership, etc.). In that context, this article examines both the internal reforms in Belgian pillar parties and their impact. The three traditional Belgian party families linked to a pillar (Christian Democrats, Socialists and Liberals) have opened their membership procedures and democratized leaders and candidates selection. Though, the changes are more formal than effective. The internal reforms of Belgian pillar parties did not affect the core elements of this type of parties, which are elite control via oligarchy, and societal segmentation via overlapping member...
The discussion and empirical analysis of the increasing citizen dissatisfaction with existing rep... more The discussion and empirical analysis of the increasing citizen dissatisfaction with existing representative institutions has become a central concern for political science in recent decades (Rosanvallon, 2006; Papadopoulos, 2013; Merkel, 2014; Thomassen, 2016). Political theory has also contributed to this debate by focusing increasingly on non-elective forms of participation and representation (Saward, 2009; Kuyper, 2016; Landemore, 2020). Paradoxically, there has not been a significant dialogue between political theory and empirical research that would aim to understandwhether these non-elective forms of participation and representation are to be conceived as a complement, a diversion or even a full-blown alternative to electoral representation (Peters, 2016). Is representation dispensable? What are the alternatives to existing institutions? How are existing institutions and their alternatives perceived by citizens, parties and elected representatives? The aim of the present coll...
Est-ce que les reformes visant a combler l’ecart entre pouvoir politique et citoyens (democratie ... more Est-ce que les reformes visant a combler l’ecart entre pouvoir politique et citoyens (democratie directe, accords de cooperation entre le secteur prive et les services publics, election directe du maire,…) menent a une revolution en profondeur ou plutot a une simple renovation des administrations locales ? Dans cet ouvrage, differents experts internationaux en matiere de politique locale se penchent sur la question. A travers les differentes contributions comparant la situation specifique de differents pays, le lecteur decouvrira que de nombreuses discussions ‘typiquement belges’ sont tout aussi bien valables pour d'autres pays.
Parties’ attitudes about changing the electoral system are explained in various ways. The most co... more Parties’ attitudes about changing the electoral system are explained in various ways. The most common approach is based upon rational-choice models stating that parties are first and foremost strategic actors considering any change to the electoral system for its impact on the balance of power between and within parties (Boix, 1999). The dominant model was set up by Kenneth Benoit (2004) and considers that parties evaluate potential reform according to their expected impact on their future seat share (Benoit, 2004). But is this very simple logic really able to account for the positions of parties about changing the electoral system? No systematic empirical testing of the model has been offered yet. In this article, Benoit’s model has been tested for 103 parties involved in 14 different electoral reform debates (Belgium, British Columbia, Canada, Israel, Italy 1993, Italy 2005, Japan, The Netherlands, New Brunswick, New Zealand, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and the United K...
L’une des singularités du système politique belge est qu’il ne compte quasiment plus de parti pol... more L’une des singularités du système politique belge est qu’il ne compte quasiment plus de parti politique national. A l’exception du PTB-PVDA (Parti du Travail de Belgique-Partij van de Arbeid van België, parti communiste), les partis représentés au Parlement fédéral sont soit francophones, soit néerlandophones. Cette scission du système de partis en Belgique a débuté il y a maintenant 50 ans, lorsque le PSC-CVP (Parti social-chrétien – Christelijk Volkspartij) s’est divisé entre un PSC francophone et un CVP néerlandophone suite aux tensions autour de la scission entre l’UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain) et la KUL (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven). Malgré cela, plusieurs décennies après la fin des partis nationaux, nous continuons à parler de partis frères et de familles politiques. Mais cette notion a-t-elle encore réellement un sens ?Les partis dits frères conservent-ils réellement des liens ?Présentent-ils des similitudes qui font que leur partenaire le plus proche est bien celui partageant la même couleur de l’autre côté de la frontière linguistique ?info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
There is perennial debate in comparative politics about electoral institutions, but what characte... more There is perennial debate in comparative politics about electoral institutions, but what characterizes this debate is the lack of consideration for citizens’ perspective. In this paper, we report the results of an original survey conducted on representative samples in 15 West European countries ( N = 15,414). We implemented an original instrument to elicit respondents’ views by asking them to rate “real but blind” electoral outcomes. With this survey instrument, we aimed to elicit principled rather than partisan preferences regarding the kind of electoral outcomes that citizens think is good for democracy. We find that West Europeans do not clearly endorse a majoritarian or proportional vision of democracy. They tend to focus on aspects of the government rather than parliament when they pass a judgment. They want a majority government that has few parties and enjoys wide popular support. Finally, we find only small differences between citizens of different countries.
As representative democracy is increasingly criticized, a new institution is becoming popular amo... more As representative democracy is increasingly criticized, a new institution is becoming popular among academics and practitioners: deliberative citizens’ assemblies. To evaluate whether these assemblies can deliver their promise of re-engaging the dissatisfied of representative politics, we explore who supports them and why. We build on a unique survey conducted with representative samples of 15 Western European countries and find, first, that the most supportive respondents are those who are less educated, have a low sense of political competence and an anti-elite sentiment. Thus, support does come from the dissatisfied. Second, we find that this support is for a part ‘outcome contingent’, in the sense that it changes with people’s expectations regarding the policy outcome from deliberative citizens’ assemblies. This second finding nuances the first one and suggests that while deliberative citizens’ assemblies convey some hope to re-engaged disengaged citizens, this is conditioned to...
Making use of a unique data set that includes more than 1000 leadership elections from over 100 p... more Making use of a unique data set that includes more than 1000 leadership elections from over 100 parties in 14 countries over an almost 50 year period, this volume provides the first comprehensive, comparative examination of how parties choose their leaders and the impact of the different decisions they make in this regard. Among the issues examined are how leaders are chosen, the factors that result in parties changing their selection rules, how the rules affect the competitiveness of leadership elections, the types of leaders chosen, the impact of leadership transition on electoral outcomes, the factors affecting the length of leadership tenures, and how leadership tenures come to an end.
One of the key shifts in contemporary politics is the trend towards greater personalization. Coll... more One of the key shifts in contemporary politics is the trend towards greater personalization. Collective actors such as political parties are losing relevance. Citizens are slowly dealigning from these actors, and individual politicians are therefore growing in importance in elections, in government, within parties, and in media reporting of politics. A crucial question concerns how this new pattern could be restructuring politics over the long run - notably, whether the personalization of politics is changing the institutional architecture of contemporary democracies.
Computer voting was introduced in Belgium in 1994. Paradoxically, no action had been taken to asc... more Computer voting was introduced in Belgium in 1994. Paradoxically, no action had been taken to ascertain the opinion of electors confronted with this original method of voting. This article verifies the social and empirical dimensions of legitimacy of this new method through several empirical indicators used in a survey conducted on the occasion of the federal elections of 18 May 2003: (a) how easy/difficult it was for electors to vote on a computer; (b) to what extent they trust voting on a computer; (c) if they have a philosophical/social opposition to voting on a computer.
This book explores the ways in which political parties, in contemporary parliamentary democracies... more This book explores the ways in which political parties, in contemporary parliamentary democracies, choose their leaders and then subsequently hold them accountable. The authors provide a comprehensive examination of party leadership selection and accountability both through examination of parties and countries in different institutional settings and through a holistic analysis of the role of party leaders and the methods through which they assume, and exit, the office.
The collection includes essays on Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Norway and the United Kingdom which have important differences in their party systems, their degree of democratization, the role assigned to party leaders and their methods of leadership selection. Each country examination provides significant data relating to party rules and norms of leadership selection, leadership tenures and leadership contests. The book concludes with a chapter that merges the country data analyses to provide a truly comparative examination of the theoretical questions underlying the volume.
This book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of legislative studies, elections, democracy, political parties, party systems, political elites and comparative politics.
The project 'Electoral System Change in Europe since 1945' (ESCE) is coordinated by Jean-Benoit P... more The project 'Electoral System Change in Europe since 1945' (ESCE) is coordinated by Jean-Benoit Pilet (Université libre de Bruxelles) and Alan Renwick (University of Reading). The ESCE project aims at contributing to our understanding of electoral systems in Europe in two respects. The website gives access for 30 European countries to the details of the electoral system they have used since their first democratic elections for the lower chamber. The full dataset of the project is also available on the website. Check out: http://electoralsystemchanges.eu/Public/FilesPage.php?ID=69
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The collection includes essays on Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Norway and the United Kingdom which have important differences in their party systems, their degree of democratization, the role assigned to party leaders and their methods of leadership selection. Each country examination provides significant data relating to party rules and norms of leadership selection, leadership tenures and leadership contests. The book concludes with a chapter that merges the country data analyses to provide a truly comparative examination of the theoretical questions underlying the volume.
This book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of legislative studies, elections, democracy, political parties, party systems, political elites and comparative politics.
The ESCE project aims at contributing to our understanding of electoral systems in Europe in two respects. The website gives access for 30 European countries to the details of the electoral system they have used since their first democratic elections for the lower chamber.
The full dataset of the project is also available on the website.
Check out: http://electoralsystemchanges.eu/Public/FilesPage.php?ID=69