To all articles

Articles dans des revues avec comité de lecture

A paraître

Political system, civil society and institutions in Italy

Italy's economy and polity are considered to be continuously in turmoil. The recent multiplication of corruption affairs, the spreading of clientelistic practices, the internal economic crisis and the decline in the country's role on the European and international stages suggest that Italy is at a political and historical turning point. For the above stated reasons, it appears relevant to re-evaluate the state and quality of Italian democracy. On the basis of a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, this study aims to analyse the recent changes in Italian polity, economy and society in order to assess whether Italy can be considered as a 'deviant case' among European countries. In this article, we present a preliminary reflection on this research question and we outline the topics of concern that will be explored in this special issue. The first part of the article highlights the transformation of Italian democracy over the years with an emphasis on the persisting inconsistency between institutions and civil society. The second part of this article addresses the problem of the current political and economic crisis and the erosion of the democratic quality of Italian political and institutional settings. The third section addresses the question of whether Italy, in a comparative perspective, can be considered alternatively a 'backward' country in terms of democratic development, a political and institutional laboratory of future trends, an anomaly compared to other European democracies or, finally, a specific variation of common trends already characterizing other European democracies. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Refuser de militer. Les logiques du mésengagement au sein du mouvement Reclaim The City au Cap

National or partisan representation: Do politicians' perceptions of the opinions of these voter groups depend on party characteristics?

Research shows that political parties are not equally responsive to the general public opinion and to their party voters' preferences. This study aims to explore this discrepancy in the context of politicians' perceptions of public opinion, recognising that the knowledge that politicians possess about public opinion is an important route for political representation. Are politicians better at perceiving the public opinion or their party voters' opinion? Departing from the approach of examining only one type of perception, this research investigates why some politicians have a more national-oriented pattern of perception, while others adopt a party-oriented pattern. Drawing on the literature on party responsiveness, this study develops and tests hypotheses regarding the role of party characteristics. Using survey data survey data from Belgium and Germany, the analysis reveals that, overall, party characteristics have a limited impact on MPs' perceptions of public opinion. However, a notable exception is intra-party democracy, which increases of politicians' propensity to better perceive the opinions of their own party voters compared to those of the general public.

Between Decline and Distress Innovations: The Transformation of the Belgian French-Speaking Christian democratic Party (cdH)

Political parties are used to adapt in the face of political challenges, but little is known about how party elites actually perceive crises and ultimately opt for certain types of reforms accordingly. To address this gap, we focus on the complete transformation process of the Belgian French-Speaking Christian Democratic Party (cdH) in 2022 as a case study. Interviews with party elites shows how challenges shared by many West-European centre-right parties can create a dependence on the party leader to the point of marginalising other traditional actors from the definition of a response strategy. We reveal the unprecedented strategy employed by the leader, who positioned an advisor as a surrogate, at the cost of creating major internal dissension. We argue that the likely multiplication of mainstream parties slipping into great distress in the near future could lead to a shift in managing party change, making it more technocratic than political.

Prendre parti pour la coca : de l'action collective au village à la mobilisation en faveur du MAS

Partant du suivi ethnographique d'une mobilisation paysanne dans le Tropique de Cochabamba (Bolivie), l'article interroge les formes d'attachement des cultivateurs de coca au Mouvement vers le socialisme (Movimiento al socialismo, MAS). En plaçant la discrétion des arrangements autour de cette culture controversée au coeur des relations entre le parti, sa branche syndicale et les populations paysannes de la région, il montre les continuités existantes entre « l'action collective au village » et les formes plus exceptionnelles de mobilisation « dans la rue ». En s'inspirant des travaux de Thomas Clay Arnold, l'article propose de conceptualiser ce continuum et l'attachement partisan qui en découle en termes d'économie morale. Celle-ci tourne autour du « bien social » de la coca, fédérant les collectivités villageoises autour du parti autant qu'il trouble leur rapport au politique et à la légalité.

2024

Politicians' Theories of Voting Behavior

While political scientists regularly engage in spirited theoretical debates about elections and voting behavior, few have noticed that elected politicians also have theories of elections and voting. Here, we investigate politicians' positions on eight central theoretical debates in the area of elections and voting behavior and compare politicians' theories to those held by ordinary citizens. Using data from face-to-face interviews with nearly one thousand politicians in 11 countries, together with corresponding surveys of more than twelve thousand citizens, we show that politicians overwhelmingly hold thin, minimalist, “democratic realist” theories of voting, while citizens' theories are more optimistic and policy oriented. Politicians' theoretical tendencies—along with their theoretical misalignment from citizens—are remarkably consistent across countries. These theories are likely to have important consequences for how politicians campaign, communicate with the public, think about public policy, and represent their constituents.

Favoring ingroups, derogating from outgroups? How populist parties in Belgium polarize on social media

The Far Right Out of Its Comfort Zone? Framing Opposition to Immigration during COVID-19 in Italy

Abstract While we know that the far right thrives when migration is salient in public agendas, what happens when this issue is no longer under the spotlight? Building on 25 face-to-face interviews with activists mobilized against migration during COVID-19 in Italy, this article explores far-right framing of migration as a non-salient issue. We find that far-right groups indeed reframe their messages vis-à-vis a less favourable political setting; yet they are also able to seize fresh opportunities to reactivate opposition to migration, notably via prognostic frames delivering ostensibly depoliticized views that hijack solidarity principles and emphasize pragmatic and technocratic approaches to border control and migration management. In uncovering the discursive strategies used by far-right actors to bolster their credibility and appeal when out of their comfort zone, this article contributes to the scholarly understanding of politicization and highlights the mechanisms by which far-right ideas are becoming normalized in the public sphere.

Far-right contentious politics in times of crisis: between adaptation and transformation

The EU's Transactional Approach to Rule of Law Spending Conditionality in the 2020s

Rule of law spending conditionality marks a turn in the EU's strategy in the 2020s. The entry of this value into the budgetary sphere represents an economization process, creating room for the development of a transactional approach to rule of law compliance. This article defines this conceptual framework and examines the extent of its application through the case study of three budgetary instruments used during the 2021-2027 cycle: the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation and the horizontal enabling condition of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Contributing to the recent Europeanization literature, it also emphasizes the change in European governance and in the EU-Member State relationship triggered by the new conditionality culture following the succession of European crises, moving from a traditional politico-legal enforcement model to a transactional one.

Backsliding Populist Governments in the Council: The Case of the Hungarian Fidesz

Populist governments aim to fundamentally challenge the EU, raising the question of when and howbacksliding populist governments disrupt decision‐making in the Council of the EU (hereafter Council). Dueto their anti‐elite and strong anti‐EU stance, along with their opposition to core values of liberal democracy,I argue that these governments are more inclined to resort to unpolitics, understood as “unsettlement.”Analysing the behaviour of the Hungarian Fidesz government in the Council, the article demonstrates thatpopulist governments resort to unpolitics but use an à la carte approach. Populist backsliding governmentsselectively oppose the Council's formal and informal decision‐making rules. Looking at the voting behaviourin the Council since 2009, the article shows that the Fidesz government preserves the norm of consensus.However, over time, it has become the government that has most often broken with this norm. Conversely,when it comes to “backsliding‐inhibiting competences,” the Fidesz government challenges both formal andinformal rules through a wide range of strategies, i.e., systematically contesting the legality of proceduresand decisions, embracing a confrontational approach and diplomacy, self‐victimisation, bending the truth,and accusatory rhetoric. To illustrate them, the article focuses on decisions related to the dismantlement ofthe rule of law in the country, such as Article 7 TEU, the application of Regulation 2020/2092, and thedisbursement of Cohesion funds.

The Preferred Governing Actors of Populist Supporters: Survey Evidence From Eight European Countries

Populist parties have been shown to attract many voters disillusioned with representative democracies. And some of these parties do indeed propose models of government that challenge contemporary democratic systems. However, we do not know exactly what the democratic preferences of populist party supporters are. We propose to fill this gap by investigating the types of actors that citizens who are more sympathetic to populist parties would like to see play a greater role in their national political system. First, we find that populists believe that citizens should be more involved, highlighting the people-centred nature of populism. Second, they advocate a greater role for business leaders, military generals, and religious leaders, a preference found among both right-wing and left-wing populists. Third, left-wing populists show a unique preference for scientific experts in government, suggesting a technocratic inclination. Conversely, right-wing populists are particularly critical of elected politicians, underlining their deep anti-elitist attitudes. Our findings suggest that, among citizens who are more sympathetic to populist parties, there is support for models of government that challenge representative democracy. The question is whether populist parties would be influenced by these citizens to push for institutional reforms.

Panamá: desarticulación del sistema de partidos en medio de movilizaciones históricas

Desde la transición a la democracia, Panamá se ha caracterizado por su estabilidad política y económica, que se basaba en un consenso transitista. Planteamos que este modelo económico y político es una traducción panameña de lo que la aca- demia ha nombrado rentismo en otros países. En 2023 sin embargo, se mostraron señales de posible resquebrajamiento de esta solidez: por un lado, el año preelec- toral mostró fuertes señales de desarticulación del sistema de partidos tal como se conocía; por otro lado, se desarrollaron las protestas sociales más masivas de la era democrática. Efectivamente, con el cambio climático y las oportunidades mineras, algunas élites económicas parecen buscar alternativas al modelo económico histórico. Esto genera tensiones sociales fuertes, y podría volver inoperante el sistema de partidos existente en el país, que existía precisamente en torno a este consenso ante el transitismo.

From fringe to front? Assessing the voting influence of the radical right in the European Parliament

Le personnel politique face à la numérisation de leur parti dans un contexte post pandémie: plongée dans les attitudes face au numérique

Resilient austerity? National economic discourses before the pandemic in the European Union

After the euro crisis, politicization patterns led the institutions of the European Union to gradually redirect the bloc's socioeconomic governance away from austerity. It is less clear whether the erosion of austerity was mirrored in national economic discourses. To fill this gap, this article provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of parliamentary budget debates in four country cases: France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal, from 2014 to 2020. The results show contrasting patterns of “fiscal discipline” frame resilience in national economic discourse in ways consistent with intergovernmental bargaining around the pandemic recovery agenda. Moreover, shared preoccupations relating to investment in the economy, social inequality, and climate change emerge as major threads shaping budget making. These findings suggest an increasingly integrated multi-level system of economic governance and call for further investigation into the links between ideas shaping EU economic governance and economic discourses in member states.

Comparing political participation profiles in four Western European countries

Abstract Most studies of political participation have either focused on specific political behaviours or combined several behaviours into additive scales of institutional versus non‐institutional participation. Through a multi‐group latent class analysis of participation in 15 different political actions, conducted among citizens from four Western European countries, we identified five empirically grounded participant types that differ in their political engagement, socio‐demographic characteristics and political attitudes: ‘voter specialists', ‘expressive voters', ‘online participants', ‘all‐round activists' and ‘inactives'. While the same participant types were identified in all four countries, the proportion of citizens assigned to each type varies across countries. Our results challenge the claim that some citizens specialize in protest politics at the expense of electoral politics. Furthermore, our typological approach challenges previous findings on the individual characteristics associated with political (in)action.

Do populist parties promote direct democracy? An empirical assessment in 29 countries in the last two decades

Populism is often associated with direct democracy. However, empirical support for this connection remains limited. Analysing a unique dataset on national referendums across 29 countries, this study challenges the presumption that populists are more inclined to advocate for referendums. Surprisingly, populists exhibit this tendency primarily when in opposition. Despite the increasing inclusion of populist parties in coalition governments, their impact on facilitating national-level direct democracy is more complex than anticipated. Utilising V-DEM data over 30 years, we find that populists prima facie enhance the use of direct democracy. However, this effect is contingent on contextual factors, such as party system institutionalisation and the democracy's age, indicating a nuanced relationship between populism and direct democratic practices.

Distinction within the ‘global north'? A Bourdieusian approach for analysing development discourse

The paper conducts a comparative analysis of EU (91 texts) and US (93 texts) discourses concerning post-peace accord Colombia (late 2016 to mid-2022). Employing a Bourdieu-influenced methodology, our proposal aims to reconcile Post-Development theories with International Relations research. This innovative and multidimensional approach illuminates both discursive continuities within Global North while concurrently providing a framework that allows to identify and interpret internal political divergences. Our findings highlight a shared commitment to a liberal conception of peacebuilding, alongside internal distinction strategies employed to legitimize respective policies towards Colombia.

The Communist Party of Belgium and the muncipal elections of 24 November 1946: a deceptive breakthrough

On November 24, 1946, the first municipal elections in Belgium since the end of the Second World War were held. The Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-KPB), which had had relatively little presence in the municipalities until then, achieved what was to be its best electoral and political performance at this level. After the election, the communist leaders reported a significant electoral leap compared to the previous local elections - 1926, 1932 and 1938 - and they claimed that they had won twenty mayoral positions and that more than one hundred of their candidates had been elected as aldermen. Compared to pre-war elections, the result was an undeniable step forward and a potential lever for increased influence. But did this really turn out to be the case? This article tackles the question from two perspectives. The first concerns the data analysis of the election. What were the PCB-KPB's actual electoral and political results ? This is a highly complex question as no database for the 1946 municipal elections exists. Furthermore, information about the communal councils is often patchy or even missing. The second perspective concerns the PCB-KPB itself, notably in terms of its ambitions : how did the PCB-KPB experience and analyse its results on November 24, 1946 ?

Studying dimensions of representation: introducing the Belgian RepResent panel (2019-2021)

This research note presents the RepResent Belgian Panel (RBP). The RBP is a voter panel survey consisting of four waves fielded to a sample of voters in Belgium around the May 2019 federal, regional, and European elections in Belgium. It provides unique data on about 250 variables for a quota sample of the same respondents, pre-2019 elections (N = 7351), post-2019 elections (N = 3909), one year after the elections (N = 1996), and 2 years after the elections (N = 1119). The RBP panel dataset was designed to analyse voters' political attitudes and behaviours, notably on different dimensions of democratic representation, and with a specific focus on democratic resentment (e.g. citizens' attitudes towards democracy such as distrust and alienation, but also behaviours such as abstention, protest, or voting for anti-establishment parties). Its longitudinal structure allows to explore the political dynamics at play in Belgium throughout the lengthy government formation process. Finally, the last two waves of the RBP were fielded during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing to explore public opinion before and during this global crisis. The RBP should be of interest to scholars of public opinion and electoral studies.

Beyond parliamentarism: How do citizens want to decide on divisive policies?

Europeans, on average, are distrustful toward representative institutions. In recentdecades, to restore confidence in political institutions, several countries have imple-mented alternative decision-making processes. The literature has analyzed prefer-ences for these alternatives, such as direct democracy or technocracy, and their driv-ers. However, these analyses often treated these preferences in isolation, withoutconsidering that citizens might have more complex preferences involving multipleactors in the decision-making process. We test whether this complexity exists in anovel survey experiment where citizens are exposed to two different vignettes aboutdivisive policies in Italy. Our results indicate that, more than anything else, Italiancitizens prefer having their fellow citizens decide alone in referendums. However,they also favor consulting experts before Parliament's decision. Furthermore, wedemonstrate that while instrumentality is still crucial in evaluating the fairness ofthe processes, certain decision-making processes make losers of the policy outcomeas satisfied as specific groups winners. These findings hold significant implicationsfor citizens' policy evaluations, highlighting that the decision-making process mightinfluence their overall satisfaction with policies.

Embedding past, present and future crises: time and the political construction of the Covid-19 pandemic in the EU

This paper investigates the construction of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis by EU elites. It addresses the puzzling relationship between the spread of the new virus with a large-scale reconfiguration of economic governance in the EU which was unimaginable a few months earlier. Drawing from a constructivist approach to political economy, we argue that the discursive construal and framing of this crisis was instrumental to embed the emergency of the pandemic with broader levels of conjunctural, historical, and even civilizational temporal references. Providing a frame analysis of public statements by the heads of the European Commission, the European Council, and European Central Bank during 2020, we show how the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 was framed as a catalyst for tackling the EU's historical crisis of purpose, the socio-economic imbalances left over from the euro crisis, as well as the predicament of the climate crisis.

Beyond ‘responsibility vs. responsiveness': reconfigurations of EU economic governance in response to crises

The Covid-19 pandemic led to an important reconfiguration of economic governance in the European Union towards deeper economic integration. This fits uneasily with predictions of an inevitable political ‘lock-in' stemming from a responsibility-responsiveness dilemma, or an inexorably constraining politicisation. Investigating the evolution in discourses on and policies of economic governance in the EU, the papers in this collection approach the relationship between prevailing notions of responsible and responsive government as socially constructed and critically contingent upon politicisation processes. The special issue explores the reconfiguration of economic governance in the EU through multi-level analysis of politicisation, ranging from citizens' attitudes to conflicts over central banking mandates, using a variety of methodological toolkits. As the collection shows, the shift towards investment, fiscal sharing, and green transition in the new recovery programme followed the emergence of a form of ‘responsive responsibility' dating back to the aftermath of the euro crisis and which has led to the incorporation of responsiveness imperatives in prevailing notions of ‘responsible government'.

The angry voter? The role of emotions in voting for the radical left and right at the 2019 Belgian elections

This study examines the role of negative (anger, fear) and positive emotions in addition to political attitudes (political trust, populist attitudes, external political efficacy) as key determinants of voting behaviour. We rely on the RepResent voter survey conducted in 2019 in Belgium ( n = 3236) allowing us to assess the relationship between emotions, political attitudes, and the vote for radical right (VB, PP) and radical left parties (PTB-PVDA). Findings indicate that anger is significantly and positively related to voting for radical left and right parties, while controlling for key political attitudes and issue positions. Fear and positive emotions are not significantly more related to voting for radical parties than for other parties. The results suggest that anger should be more systematically integrated in electoral research. These findings call for further analysis on the causal mechanism linking emotions and voting behaviour, and the (in)direct effects of emotions on voting.

Dealing with a Violent Past and its Remnants in the Present

Kicking off passion: the birth and rise of football in Belgium (1880-1914)

The article explores the early advent and evolution of football in Belgium until WWI, highlighting the crucial role played by British expatriates andthe influence of Catholic and State schools. It traces football's journey from an elite pastime to a ‘popular' sport, articulating football development to prominent cleavages in the society, especially Church-State and Economic divides. The paper delves into the challenges of establishing football in Belgian society, including issues of numerous practical problems, amateurism vs. professionalism, the role of Belgians in the establishment of FIFA and the football's contribution to national identity pre-WWI.

Shut up! Governments' popular support and journalist harassment: evidence from Latin America

Explaining judges' opposition when judicial independence is undermined: insights from Poland, Romania, and Hungary

Over the past decade, governing parties in Central and Eastern Europe have dismantled liberal democracy, violating the rule of law and limiting the power of judges. This article examines the opposition to these transformations, focusing on the role of judges in Poland, Hungary, and Romania. Drawing on an original survey, as well as a set of interviews with judges, the article shows that while in Poland judges have developed a unified opposition to the government in defending their independence, in Romania, in contrast, governmental measures have polarized judges into a divided opposition, while their mobilization has been rather non-existent in Hungary. Why do judges oppose governmental action limiting judicial independence in some contexts but not in others? The article shows that the nature and the sequencing of domestic transformations, coupled with ideational factors and interests-based calculations, explain judges' opposition at the collective and individual levels.

Populism and alternative models to representative democracy

This introduction to the special issue provides an overview of the state of the art in the study of populism and democracy. It outlines the current debates and identifies several questions that remain unexplored or underexplored. It elaborates on how the different articles in this special issue address these gaps in the literature in order to advance and consolidate our knowledge about the relationship between populism and alternatives to representative democracy. Those articles make a significant contribution to this debate and open important avenues for future research.

It's not only about the leader: Oligarchized personalization and preference voting in Belgium

Research on the electoral personalization of politics has stressed a trend towards a greater role of top prominent political figures (party leaders and ministers). This trend was described as centralized electoral personalization. Yet, this trend is merely one side of a more complex story. No leader attracts all voters' support, and other candidates manage to stand out despite lower resources and visibility. Using a unique dataset of 47,239 actual ballot papers cast for the 2018 Belgian local elections, we show that candidate-level, list-level and district-level factors result in distinct preference voting behaviour. While these factors lead to unmistakable forms of (de-)centralized personalized forms of elections, we furthermore, show that intermediary situations distinctively emerge. A significant number of ‘subtop' candidates stand out among candidates, by attracting support from voters who do not support the mere leader of the list. This ‘oligarchized personalization' would deserve greater attention in the literature.

Fair Enough? Mini-Public Composition and Outcome Acceptance from the Maxi Public

One hope associated with the spread of deliberative mini-publics in established democracies is that they could increase acceptance of policies because of their inclusive and diverse composition. Yet, participants are not representative of the broader public in all characteristics. They tend to be more engaged with politics or debated policy issues than the average population. Building on a Climate Citizens' Assembly commissioned by the Luxembourg government in 2022 (Klima Biergerrot-KBR), this study examines how the maxi public reacts when informed about the profile of mini-public participants. Via a survey experiment, we found that descriptive representation and similarity matter to accept the outcomes, but not universally. It depends on respondents' attitudes about mini-publics prior to the experiment and situations of cognitive dissonance. Indeed, when people initially neutral or opposed to mini-publics (‘participatory skeptics') learn that the process is fairly representing (their in-) groups, they increase their willingness to accept the outcomes, stressing improvement in the perceived legitimacy. By contrast, the lack of social inclusion and political diversity is an issue to keep the ‘participatory enthusiasts' on board, stressing that they also pay attention (and perhaps even more) to how and which groups of citizens are represented within a mini-public. Our message is that deliberative mini-publics need to address more thoroughly how they can best meet their normative assumptions of participatory equality and procedural fairness; otherwise, they may not help to foster political legitimacy.

Haut-Karabakh : vie et mort d'une enclave arménienne

Unequal perspectives? Income inequality as a benchmark for support for European integration

Despite growing attention to income inequality in debates about European integration, our understanding of its effect on European Union support remains limited. Using European Social Survey data from 2002 to 2020, we analyse how income inequality and pro-redistribution attitudes shape diffuse and specific forms of support for the European Union. We find no direct effect of country-level income inequality, while individual support for redistribution has a negative effect on both. In line with benchmarking theory, inequality emerges as a contextual moderator: in unequal national settings, egalitarian citizens are comparatively more supportive of further integration than in more equal countries. This effect persists when we control for income position, suggesting an ideological rather than utilitarian basis for benchmarking European Union attitudes. We discuss implications in light of debates about a social Europe.

2023

Introduction to the Special Issue: EU Digital Policies and Politics

God, [political] family… and Europe? The selective resilience of religion in shaping the work of Italian members of the European Parliament

Drawing on data from an original survey and the qualitative content analysis of parliamentary written questions, the contribution studies how religion shapes the political activity of Italian MEPs. It claims that Italian MEPs show some resilient attachment to the Catholic identity of Europe, although they do not take religious values much into consideration for policy decisions. To highlight the role of religion in European politics, this contribution also compares its impact on some policy issues in the EU and Italian political arenas. In both spheres, religious tropes and values, considered as a cultural reference, are more politicised on security issues than on other questions. Such politicisation is undertaken by populist radical right MEPs, who adopt a securitisation framework to emphasise the threat posed by Muslim communities. In the Italian polity, religious values as Christian cultural norms are also politicised on identity issues and morality questions to sustain value-driven restrictive policies.

Autocratization as Ethnocratization?

When a country becomes more autocratic, does it affect the relations between ethnic groups in a systematic way? Cross-national and case-based research witnesses how autocratization (the opposite of democratization) is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in societies where ethnic relations are politicized and polarized. However, we still lack sufficient know-ledge on how autocratization might have an impact on ethnic relations. The paper advances previous autocratization and ethnic studies. It hypothesizes that if a country autocratizes, this further deteriorates its ethnic relations (ethnocratization). It substantiates this claim through a mixed-method design. It starts with a longitudinal analysis at the ethnic group-level, to dem-onstrate how ethnic discrimination and domination are more probable during autocratization episodes. Next, it examines a collection of international reports on the predicament of ethnic majorities and minorities in countries undergoing autocratization episodes, to identify two causal mechanisms as the main incentives and justifications of the incumbent (and autocratiz-ing) elites: ideological legitimation and authoritarian experimentation. This research encourages scholars on autocratization and ethnic studies to join their efforts, to investigate how democ-racy and ethnic inclusion can decline in parallel and, thus, to show the reasons why they should advance together.

Support for Deliberative mini-Publics among the Losers of Representative Democracy

Abstract The literature on deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) establishes a link between political dissatisfaction and support for DMPs. However, little is known about the sources of political dissatisfaction that trigger this support. Our research tackles this specific question and claims that citizen dissatisfaction is rooted in a position of ‘losers of representative democracy', which leads citizens to be more open to reforms that move away from the representative model. Building on the literature on loser's consent, we focus on the effect of voting for a party not associated with the government and of descriptive and substantive (under)-representation in support of DMPs. We rely on a comparative survey conducted across fifteen Western European countries. Supporters of opposition parties and those who are badly represented, both descriptively and substantively, are more supportive of DMPs. These findings have important implications for understanding the public appeal for deliberative democracy instruments.

Projection in Politicians' Perceptions of Public Opinion

Research has shown that politicians' perceptions of public opinion are subject to social projection. When estimating the opinions of voters on a broad range of issues, politicians tend to assume that their own preferences are shared by voters. This article revisits this finding and adds to the literature in three ways. First, it makes a conceptual contribution by bringing together different approaches to the analysis of projection and its consequences. Second, relying on data from surveys with politicians (n = 866) in four countries (Belgium, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland) conducted between March 2018 and September 2019, it shows that there is more projection in politicians' estimations of their partisan electorate than in their estimations of the general public or of their geographic district. Third, comparing the data on politician projection with data from parallel surveys with citizens, the article reveals that—at least in three out of the four countries studied here—elected politicians are not better at avoiding erroneous projection than ordinary citizens. The article discusses the implications of these findings for the workings of representative democracy.

Populism and democracy: a reassessment

Populism comes in so many forms, both historically and in its contemporary manifestations, that we cannot assess its relationship with democratic institutions as if it were homogeneous. In this article, we reconnect with the history of the first movements that have called themselves populists and draw on an understanding of populism as an egalitarian impulse against oligarchic tendencies, centred on anti-elitism and the defense of a democratic common sense. This genetic approach goes against the dominant definitions which tend to overstretch its range of application while assuming a form of anti-pluralism as part of its common features. Then, we draw attention to the diversity of conceptions of democracy within populist thought and practices and show that the types of democratic institutions favoured by populist movements, and their attitudes towards intermediary bodies, are highly contextual. Finally, we argue that populism's inherent ambiguities shed some doubt on its capacity to respond to the current challenges faced by representative institutions.

Regulating Disinformation and Big Tech in the EU: A Research Agenda on the Institutional Strategies, Public Spheres and Analytical Challenges

The growing influence of social media platforms, and the disinformation that circulates in them, has transformed the public spheres. How to deal with disinformation is an open normative, empirical and political question in contemporary democracies. In this article, we outline an agenda on the institutional strategies pursued in the European Union (EU), the normative understandings of the public sphere that such strategies imply, and the analytical challenges to undertake this line of inquiry. We argue that there is an emerging competition in the EU field of disinformation - constructed by actors coming from different pre-existing fields, such as journalism or foreign policy - not only to define what is ‘true' from what is ‘fake', but also to determine the sort of the public sphere and democracy we ought to strive for. This perspective allows us to anticipate which actors might be empowered (or disempowered) depending on how disinformation is addressed in regulatory terms.

Democracy and pluralism after European integration: Incorporating the contested character of the EU

Recent years have seen multiple controversies between the EU and its member states that revolve around different conceptions of what kind of polity the EU is, and what it should be. These controversies are particularly heated when fundamental democratic values are at stake. In this article, we address the fundamental tension between the assertion of common EU values and the pluralistic character of the EU polity, both among and within member states. The driving question of this article is how we can understand controversies between the EU and its member states in light of the presence of alternative conceptions of the EU and its democratic and pluralistic character. We reconstruct two opposing conceptions of the EU-the intergovernmental and the cosmopolitan conception-and then analyse how the disagreement between these fundamental conceptions plays out in five key controversies. We argue that the disagreement over what the EU is, and what it should be, is inherent to EU politics. The EU can only become democratic if it recognizes these conflicting understandings and provides political arenas in which the disagreements between them can be articulated, confronted, and resolved.

Editorial: Decolonizing Rather than Decentring ‘Europe'

SLAPPs against journalists in Europe

Reports show that media freedom is under pressure worldwide. Violence against journalists has a legal facet that takes the form of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) that aim at silencing critical speech. In 2022, the European Commission presented a directive and a complementary recommendation to protect people who engage in public participation, including journalists, from manifestly abusive court proceedings. This article explores the role that journalistic self-regulatory bodies perceive they (could) have in fighting SLAPPs, analysing 16 qualitative answers gathered via a questionnaire. Self-regulation has historically been a way to protect the independence of journalism and uphold its ethical standards. The open-ended responses help to understand how SLAPPs put into question the representations that media councils and professional associations use to construct their ‘professional jurisdiction' (Abbott, 2003), and therefore, their ‘territory' and the way in which they see their role in society. Our results provide food for thought on the handling of legal attacks against journalists.

Contagion From Abroad. How Party Entry in Western Europe is Influenced by Party Family Members Abroad, 1961-2016

New parties are a key mechanism behind party system innovation as voters are offered new choices. To explain party entry (i.e. participation in a lower house election for the first time), the state-of-the-art has typically focused on domestic determinants. This, however, assumes that party entry takes place in an international vacuum. Building on the policy diffusion literature, we explore how party family members abroad influence party entry in the focal country. Based on a new dataset on the evolution of each party family in 17 Western European party systems between 1961 and 2016, including 2191 new parties, our mixed-methods approach combining spatial econometric models with pathway case analysis demonstrates that party entry is influenced by the entry and electoral success of their party family abroad. This has important implications for the literature on party entry and the international diffusion of policy platforms.

Exploring the Causes of Technocratic Minister Appointments in Europe

In the last decade, the appointment of technocratic ministers has become more common than ever before in Europe. Yet, scholarly attention has mostly focused on the economic determinants that lead to the appointment of such political outsiders in governments. In contrast, political determinants have not been fully examined. This article aims to investigate the role of economic determinants, as well as institutional factors (e.g. electoral system), party-system characteristics (e.g. volatility, polarization) and cabinet-related factors (e.g. intra-cabinet heterogeneity, the strength of populist parties within the government). Using a novel data set comprising data for more than 7000 ministers, including around 900 technocrats, our analysis shows that the share of populist parties within the cabinets has the strongest effect on the likelihood of appointing technocrats in national government. However, institutional-level variables appear to have no effect on the levels of technocratic appointments.

The Lure of Technocrats: A Conjoint Experiment on Preferences for Technocratic Ministers in Six European Countries

The aim of this research is to gauge public support for ministers who did not followa typical “career politician” pathway prior to their nomination (i.e., those whonever held an elected office and are not affiliated to a political party) and to understandwhat drives this support. We use a web-based conjoint experiment fielded insix European countries, in which respondents are presented with pairs of vignettesdescribing the profile of hypothetical ministers and must state which of the two candidatesthey would personally prefer. The task is repeated five times, once for thePrime Minister office and once for four specialized minister positions. We find thatattributes associated with technocratic government almost always increase popularsupport for ministers. These preferences are stable across policy domains and areas prevalent in the case of the PM as in the case of specialized ministries. However,we identify substantial cross-country variations: pro-technocratic attitudes are moreprevalent in Italy, Poland and Spain than in the UK and Germany.

From liberalisation to regulation: managerial political work in the European digital copyright policy (2014-2019)

The 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market represents an intriguing departure from the anticipated path of liberalisation in public policy. While it includes provisions seemingly aligned with the liberalisation of the Digital Single Market by relaxing digital copyright enforcement, it also introduces mechanisms that bolster digital copyright protection, signalling a shift towards market regulation. This paper explores why and how Jean-Claude Juncker's European Commission proposed a directive featuring robust regulatory elements despite initial promises of copyright deregulation within the Digital Single Market. Combining insights from political economy and political sociology, I examine the concept of ‘political work' as the practice of promoting, defending, and implementing a choice of public action. Within this framework, I identify a managerial dimension of political work involving political practices that influence the institutional structure and management of public action. Utilising a qualitative methodology involving twelve in-depth interviews with Commission officials conducted between 2018 and 2021, alongside document analysis, I demonstrate how Jean-Claude Juncker and his cabinet's managerial political work, encompassing organisational reforms within the Commission, played a pivotal role in steering the proposed policy towards regulation.

Do Mutually Reinforcing Cleavages Harm Democracy?

Do mutually reinforcing cleavages harm democracy? Evidence from specific cases suggests that autocratization can be related to the predicament of ethnic groups, if ethnicity is politicized and involves resource distribution. However, we know little about whether this is a cause of autocratization more broadly. The article demonstrates that, with increasing inequalities between ethnic groups, a country experiences a decline in its level of democracy and higher propensity to start autocratizing. The analysis thus advances previous contributions, focusing on individual inequalities and power-sharing institutions as explanations of democratization or democratic quality, in two ways. First, isolating autocratization as downturns in democracy levels and the onsets of related timespans (autocratization episodes), and comparing the impact of (economic, political, and social) types of inequalities between ethnic groups. Second, adopting a global sample of (democratic and non-democratic) countries since 1981, with an original data collection integrating expert surveys with survey data. Quantitative evidence confirms most expectations, particularly on economic inequalities between ethnic groups, and - although less precisely - economic, political and social dimensions combined. The findings have important implications for political regime and ethnic studies, showing that preventing the mutual reinforcement of sociocultural and economic cleavages is key to stabilize democracy.

How the impossible became possible: evolving frames and narratives on responsibility and responsiveness from the Eurocrisis to NextGenerationEU

This paper explains how a turn in EU governance which was unthinkable only a few months prior became possible in 2020. Rather than a sudden paradigm shift brought about by the pandemic, we argue that it occurred through successive episodes of reinterpreting the rules and layering on new instruments while fostering investment and fiscal sharing on top of the pre-existing ordoliberal regime. Through a discursive institutionalist lens, the paper supports these claims by studying the frames and narratives of French, German and EU leaders during three rounds of reforms, namely the flexibilization of the European Semester (2014-2016), the adoption of the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness (BICC) (2017-2019), and the adoption of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (2020-2021). The analysis shows that an increased awareness of a responsiveness imperative, going beyond national constituencies, transformed European elites' conceptions of ‘responsible' government thus at least momentarily closing the gap between responsibility and responsiveness.

Politieke communicatie 2.0: voor elk wat wils?

Campagne voeren op sociale media is niet langer de uitzondering. Iedereen doet eraan mee, luidt het. Maar klopt dit wel?

The Ideological Drivers Behind the Support for the Use of Direct Democracy among Voters and Parties of Benelux Countries

The use of referendums has become increasingly popular among both voters and parties. Yet, despite the diffusion of direct democracy in Europe during the last decades, referendums remain not a very common policy instrument in Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg). We establish that this trend could be attributed to a large consensus among mainstream (especially right) parties and voters against the use of direct democracy. Moreover, we confirmed the well-established line of demarcation with radical ideologies, which convey overall more support on the use of referendums than their mainstream counterparts. Additionally, and probably reflecting this new line of cleavage, we show that support for referendums among the voters relate to left-wing economic position, but also with culturally right-wing view. Overall, this article questions the relevance of the traditional left-right divide to explain support for direct democracy, as well as the capacity for (some) parties to align with their voters in terms of democratic demands.

‘Democracy without Politics' in the European Commission's Response to Democratic Backsliding

Abstract The debate on EU responses to democratic backsliding in EU member states has mostly been anchored on technocratic appeals to the rule of law and judicial independence, and on Poland and Hungary. In this article, we ask: What understandings of democracy have shaped the European Commission's response to democratic backsliding in recent years? After developing an understanding of pluralist democracy, we uncover the way in which the European Commission conceives of democracy through a discourse analysis of European Commissioners' speeches (2018-21) and a normative‐theoretical analysis. We identify the Commission's conception as a form of ‘democracy without politics', and argue that it matches the EU's policy choices in regard to democratic backsliding. We argue that a fuller, healthier and normatively more attractive conception of democracy encompasses more attention to political pluralism, agonistic contestation and the vibrancy of civil society.

La «intergubernamentalidad» neoliberal y la politización de la UE: la transformación de los campos políticos nacionales y los nuevos europeísmos

La década de 2010, iniciada con la crisis financiera, continuada con la de los refugiados y culminada con la del coronavirus en 2020, ha consolidado los enfoques teóricos en torno al campo político europeo como algo más que un entorno diplomático en el que gobiernos nacionales negocian políticas comunes. Sin embargo, la crisis del coronavirus ha dado lugar a una respuesta más rápida y decisiva que las anteriores, movilizando una cantidad de recursos sin precedentes y construyendo nuevos consensos a un ritmo no contemplado anteriormente. El artículo plantea desde la sociología política que las recientes crisis europeas revelan una transformación en las formas de ejercicio de la política que llamamos «intergubernamentalidad», un proceso compatible con la transformación de los campos políticos nacionales a través de la politización de la UE.

Technocracy above partisanship? Comparing the appeal of non-partisan and partisan experts as ministers - A survey in 14 countries

Do Politicians Outside the United States Also Think Voters Are More Conservative than They Really Are?

In an influential recent study, Broockman and Skovron (2018) found that American politicians consistently overestimate the conservativeness of their constituents on a host of issues. Whether this conservative bias in politicians' perceptions of public opinion is a uniquely American phenomenon is an open question with broad implications for the quality and nature of democratic representation. We investigate it in four democracies: Belgium, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland. Despite these countries having political systems that differ greatly, we document a strong and persistent conservative bias held by a majority of the 866 representatives interviewed. Our findings highlight the conservative bias in elites' perception of public opinion as a widespread regularity and point toward a pressing need for further research on its sources and impacts.

Time to go: Paths of term limit resilience in sub-Saharan Africa

Ideological drivers of participatory democracy in Europe: disentangling the different approaches of populism and post-materialist politics

Abstract Empirical literature regarding which actors support the most participatory democracy is surprisingly scarce. Discussing the core ideological features of populist and post-materialist-centred parties, we expect that these parties emphasise participatory democracy more than their competitors. Additionally, populist parties should embody a monist demand for greater participatory democracy, while post-materialist-centred (PMC) parties should advocate a pluralist understanding of it. Drawing on party electoral manifestos, we verify these assumptions in several national elections across Europe. Our findings show mixed support for the theoretical expectations. Both post-materialist and populist parties support participatory democracy more than other parties, and their principles diverge. More precisely, our data confirm that PMC parties advocate a pluralist understanding of participatory democracy. Yet populist parties show a fuzzier picture. While populist radical right parties exhibit a monist profile, radical left populist parties are much more in line with post-materialist arguments.

Lost in transition? Social justice and the politics of the EU green transition

Focusing on two key instruments, the Just Transition Fund and the Social Climate Fund, this article assesses to what extent the EU's pledge for a ‘just transition' has the potential to foster greater social justice while implementing the European Green Deal. We analyse the related objectives, policy tools and patterns of political conflict and find that both Funds have narrow objectives anchored in a reactive logic complementing existing social investment initiatives with a focus on reskilling the workforce hit by decarbonisation. Both instruments rely on multi-level investment aiming to generate green growth, combined with targeted compensation for the more vulnerable. This, we argue, is not conducive to a just transition that addresses the intersection of environmental and social problems in a holistic way. Finally, various political fault lines pose the threat that EU action will be insufficient to tackle exacerbated inequalities in the future.

Candidate visibility, voter knowledge, and the incumbency advantage in preferential-list PR

Our knowledge about how voters decide which candidate(s) to vote for under preferential-list proportional representation (PLPR) systems remains limited. In particular, it is debated whether incumbent MPs enjoy an electoral advantage over outsiders also under PLPR. We argue that such an incumbency advantage critically depends on candidate visibility (in the media) and differs across voters with varying levels of political knowledge. Our empirical analysis combines candidate information with rich individual-level voting data collected via “mock ballots” in the 2014 Belgian PartiRep election study. We show that the vote premium linked to incumbency increases with increasing media visibility, and while high-visibility incumbents outperform incumbents among the entire electorate, low-visibility incumbents enjoy an advantage only among knowledgeable voters. The results contribute to a better understanding of candidate voting and the incumbency advantage in PLPR. They also have implications for campaign strategies and the regulation of media access.

It's not only about the leader. Oligarchized personalization and preference voting in Belgium

Research on the electoral personalization of politics has stressed a trend towards a greater role of top prominent political figures (party leaders and ministers). This trend was described as centralized electoral personalization. Yet, this trend is merely one side of a more complex story. No leader attracts all voters' support, and other candidates manage to stand out despite lower resources and visibility. Using a unique dataset of 47,239 actual ballot papers cast for the 2018 Belgian local elections, we show that candidates-level, lists-level and districts-level factors result in distinct preference voting behaviour. While these factors lead to unmistakable forms of (de-)centralized personalized forms of elections, we, furthermore, show that intermediary situations distinctively emerge. A significant number of ‘subtop' candidates stand out among candidates, by attracting support from voters who do not support the mere leader of the list. This ‘oligarchized personalization' would deserve greater attention in the literature.

Information or Accountability? A Research Agenda on European Commissioners in National Parliaments

Abstract Research on national parliaments in the EU has greatly expanded since the Treaty of Lisbon fully recognized their role in providing democratic legitimacy for EU decision‐making. However, the direct interaction between national parliaments and the European Commission has received little academic attention. This research note seeks to frame a research agenda that explores whether, and under which conditions, the Commission visits to national parliaments have the potential to develop from sites for inter‐institutional exchange of information to arenas for cross‐level accountability. We lay out a framework to capture the relation between national parliaments and the Commission based on three kinds of indicators: the formal set‐up, logic of interaction, and public communication. We illustrate the kind of evidence and range of variation that this agenda may unearth by applying this framework in an exploratory analysis of Trade Commissioner Malmström's visits to seven national parliaments in the EU.

Business as usual? How gamification transforms internal party democracy

This article was motivated by the question whether gamification represents a substantial innovation in internal party democracy, by contributing to change the dynamics of power within parties. To answer this question, we examine the only known case of gamification in the field of internal party voting, launched by the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle. We expected that gamified internal votes would reduce the incumbent advantage and promote party activists. Our data, however, suggest that these decision-making processes follow the same logic as the traditional ones. We thus conclude that digital innovations often end up working as “business as usual”.

A digital principal? Substantive representation in the case of the Italian Five Star Movement

One of the main ‘promises' that populist parties seek to deliver is to bring politics closer to the ‘people'. While the literature focused mainly on the relationship between voters and those parties, less attention has been given to the role of members' priorities in shaping parties' legislative activity. In this paper, we focus on a paradigmatic technopopulist case, the Italian Five Star Movement (FSM): one of the founding trademarks of the party was the involvement of the members in the party activities via a digital platform. FSM's digital platform included participative digital law-making features, which matched member priorities and élite policymaking. We built an original dataset which comprises the law-making activities of members and parliamentarians from 2013 to 2019. We analysed 2000 law proposals and found that FSM elected representatives' agenda, albeit partly diverging from that of members, still changed in the direction of member priorities through time.

Book Review: The deinstitutionalization of western european party systems

Where you live explains how much you trust local (and national) institutions: A study of the Italian case

Political Parties Abroad. A New Arena for Electoral Politics

This Special Issue contributes to the growing literature on parties abroad. Expansive citizenship has transformed and reinforced the civic and political links between emigrants and their home country. Political parties face the dilemma of engaging or not in this new arena for electoral politics and must consider how. However, until recently the literature on transnationalism and on party politics has surprisingly largely overlooked this issue. This introduction identifies the existing gaps in the literature, and stresses two main questions that remains largely unanswered, namely (1) why and how parties decide to campaign abroad, and (2) how voters abroad are receptive to these campaigns and operate their party choice in this specific context. The five articles offer a mix of case studies and comparative perspective, and quantitative and qualitative analyses. This case selection allows to explore the diversity of strategies adopted by political parties abroad in different settings, with different tools. The results illustrate the impact of local party branches and entrepreneurs' outreach and local campaigns on mobilisation, turnout, and the result of elections, but also show that emigrants' vote choice is influenced both by the context of their country of origin and of their country of residence.

When the Far Right Makes the News: Protest Characteristics and Media Coverage of Far-Right Mobilization in Europe

When do the media cover far-right protests? News coverage matters for the entrenchment of the far right in contemporary democracies, but little comparative research has looked at what drives news attention to far-right mobilization. We apply a classic input-output process model of news selection bias to test the hypothesis that the visibility of far-right protests events depends on the characteristics of protest initiators, type of action, and reactions. We appraise this via logistic regressions on an original dataset of 5972 protest events retrieved from online press releases by far-right groups (input) and national quality newspapers (output) in 11 European countries (2008-2018). The analysis confirms that news media are particularly responsive to contentious action, protest around migration issues, and action-reaction chains between political opponents. Our findings shed light on the role of news organizations in the success of the far-right and on the pathways by which these movements shape public agendas.

The establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office: integration with limited supranationalisation?

In 2017, member states established the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), an EU body investigating and prosecuting offences against the EU financial interests. This article analyses the relation between the institutional design of the EPPO and sovereignty concerns of member states. Combining the core state powers framework with literature on Council negotiation dynamics, it argues that the Council was divided on the question of how far-reaching the authority of this new body vis-à-vis member states should be or to what extent member states should retain control over the body. A qualitative discourse analysis shows that the competition between states sharing a supranational position regarding the EPPO and those sharing an intergovernmental position resulted in the creation of a complex and ambiguous body. These findings contribute to the literature on agencification of Justice and Home Affairs as well as, more broadly, to scholarship on the construction of new types of authority.

When nationalism meets populism: examining right-wing populist & nationalist discourses in the 2014 & 2019 European parliamentary elections

The political economy of a failed drug reform

As the world's second largest coca producer, Peru has a flourishing market for coca for non-narcotic uses. With more than 20,000 hectares and approximately 35,000 officially registered farmers in the Peruvian legal scheme for coca cultivation and commercialization, this market is formally under the monopoly of the National Enterprise of Coca (ENACO). Nonetheless, ENACO only captures 2% of all coca produced nationally and has experienced a sustained reduction of farmers' participation and coca purchases within the legal trade. At different times, these problems have opened the way to demands from left-wing political parties, subnational governments, coca growers' organizations and even Peru's central drug control institutions to reform the legal coca market in Peru. However, none of these attempts have succeeded. Based on a policy analysis of the legal coca trade and analysis of official data, together with a case study of Peru's main legal coca valley (La Convención) this article seeks to understand the current crisis of the legal coca trade as well as the repeated failures of reform. Peru's political centralism and the historical marginalization of Andean culture help to explain the successful blocking of reform attempts to the legal coca trade.

Is There an Alternative to Consensus?

Consensus is a key feature of the European Union. In the European Parliament, most legislation is adopted by a grand coalition between the left and the right. While this trans-partisan cooperation has always been informal, the epp and S&D groups agreed on a formal political coalition in 2014. For the first time in the ep's history, this grand coalition was based on a policy programme negotiated by the two groups' leadership. Based on roll-call vote data, this paper aims to understand the impact of this deal on actual coalition-building in the ep plenary. We find that the 2014 coalition deal provided a framework that incentivises legislative actors to increase their levels of cooperation on the issues on which they usually cooperate the least.

Which political outsiders do Europeans prefer as ministers?

Abstract Previous research suggests that Europeans want more experts in government, but which experts do they want and why? Using survey data collected in 15 European countries, this study compared citizens' preferences for high-ranking civil servants, university professors, and business executives over traditional political actors (MPs and former ministers) as ministers in government. Overall, university professors were rated more positively than MPs or former ministers in almost all countries, whereas civil servants and business executives were only rated more positively than politicians in Poland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland, and Belgium. While political distrust is a key predictor of preferring political outsiders, we also found that civil servants are not as appealing to politically distrusting individuals, depending on the country. Furthermore, while the demand for more expertise in government mainly influences preferences for university professors, the demand for more government by the people is connected to preferences for business executives and (to a lesser extent) civil servants. The latter finding challenges the common distinction between citizen and expert-oriented visions of democracy and the alleged ‘elitist' underpinnings of empowering non-elected outsiders.

Who do Europeans want to govern? Exploring the multiple dimensions of citizens' preferences for political actors in nine European countries

Many studies have tried to identify citizens' views about which actors should govern and how. These studies have mostly looked at support for citizens or independent experts being given a greater role. Recently, Hibbing, Theiss-Morse, Hibbing and Fortunato have proposed a new battery of 21 survey items capturing the dimensions along which citizens' preferences for who should govern are organized. Testing their survey instrument among US respondents, they identified seven dimensions. In this study, we replicate their approach across nine European democracies, namely, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands. The replication allows, first, to compare citizens' preferences for political actors between the US and Europe, and within Europe. Second, it provides suggestions for how Hibbing and colleagues' battery might be adapted and re-used in other countries, enabling further cross-national comparative research on citizens' preferences for who should govern.

A scandal effect? Local scandals and political trust

The political construction of the ‘citizen turn' in the EU: disintermediation and depoliticisation in the Conference on the Future of Europe

The EU has recently organised a series of ‘citizen-centred' processes that may be indicative of a new pattern in terms of democracy and participation. The article begins with this observation in order to pose the following question: to what extent the introduction of ‘citizen participation' mechanisms in the Conference on the Future of Europe reflects a rupture with the EU's dominant understanding of democracy? While there are innovative elements in the Conference, which are described in detail, the article develops a normative critique of the underlying philosophy with which it was organised and constructed, as it followed an alternative legitimacy logic that fundamentally deviates from an agonistic public sphere perspective. The Conference illustrates a ‘citizen turn' that breaks away from the ‘participatory turn' described by Saurugger (2010) in that it decouples ‘citizen participation' from civil society and the idea of a European public sphere, both in discursive terms as well as in the ensuing political practices. The article concludes with a wider conceptualisation of what the ‘citizen turn' means for EU democracy, and why the disintermediation of European politics is coherent with the preexistent depoliticised EU political dynamics, conceived in the case of the Conference as ‘democracy without politics'.

Participer sans protester. Les logiques de l'engagement situé au sein du mouvement Reclaim The City au Cap

Choosing an Electoral Rule: Values and Self-Interest in the Lab

We study the choice of multi-person bargaining protocols in the context of politics. In politics, citizens are increasingly involved in the design of democratic rules, for instance via referendums. If they support the rule that best serves their self-interest, the outcome inevitably advantages the largest group. In this paper, we challenge this pessimistic view with an original lab experiment, in which 252 subjects participated. In the first stage, these subjects experience elections under plurality and approval voting. In the second stage, they decide which rule they want to use for extra elections. We find that egalitarian values that subjects hold outside of the lab shape their choice of electoral rule in the second stage when a rule led to a fairer distribution of payoffs compared to the other one in the first stage. The implication is that people have consistent ‘value-driven preferences' for decision rules.

Do technocrats boost the acceptance of policy proposals among the citizenry? Evidence from a survey experiment in Italy

Are policies proposed by technocrats more easily accepted by citizens than those proposed by traditional partisan actors? This is a crucial question, as politicians increasingly rely on technocrats for resolving “wicked problems” such as financial, environmental, and health crises. To answer this question, we conducted a survey experiment among 5000 Italian respondents. At the time of our experiment, Italy was governed by a “grand coalition” of various technocratic and partisan actors, enabling us to realistically vary the proponents of different policy proposals. Overall, citizens are more likely to accept policies proposed by technocrats as opposed to party leaders. In particular, we find that technocratic proponents boost policy acceptance even more for economic and valence issues. Furthermore, we find that this “technocratic effect” is generally stronger among citizens who are more likely to disagree with the policy content.

Technocratic Ministers in Office in European Countries (2000-2020): What's New?

Although Europeans are favourable towards the idea of being governed by ‘independent experts', and despite the burgeoning literature on technocratic ministers, we still miss important information about the profiles of technocrats in government. This article provides new insights into the characteristics of non-partisan, non-elected ministers and the roles they perform once in government based on a Technocratic Ministers' Dataset covering all governments in 31 European countries from 2000 to 2020. First, we show that average share of technocratic (as opposed to partisan) ministers in European cabinets rose from 9.5% to 14.2% over the last two decades. This increase is characteristic of all macro-regions, except Scandinavian countries. Second, technocratic ministers are assigned to a diversity of portfolios and not just finance and economy, which, respectively, account for only 15% of technocratic ministers. Finally, technocratic ministers do not hold office for shorter periods of time than partisan ones, except when they are part of caretaker cabinets.

How Do Politicians Bargain? Evidence from Ultimatum Games with Legislators in Five Countries

Politicians regularly bargain with colleagues and other actors. Bargaining dynamics are central to theories of legislative politics and representative democracy, bearing directly on the substance and success of legislation, policy, and on politicians' careers. Yet, controlled evidence on how legislators bargain is scarce. Do they apply different strategies when engaging different actors? If so, what are they, and why? To study these questions, we field an ultimatum game bargaining experiment to 1,100 sitting politicians in Belgium, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. We find that politicians exhibit a strong partisan bias when bargaining, a pattern that we document across all of our cases. The size of the partisan bias in bargaining is about double the size when politicians engage citizens than when they face colleagues. We discuss implications for existing models of bargaining and outline future research directions.

Big ideas, little detail: how populist parties talk about referendums in Europe

The idea of increasing the power of the ‘pure people' at the expense of a ‘corrupt elite' lies at the core of populism. One way for populist parties to do this is to push for a greater use of referendums. Previous research shows that populist parties mention in general in their communications the referendums as suitable avenues for the direct involvement of the people in the decision-making process. However, we miss details about how they refer to referendums. This article addresses this gap in the literature and explores how populist parties talk about referendums in their election manifestos. It seeks to identify what type of referendum populist parties tend to support, and to analyze whether their support for referendums is generic or policy-specific. Our qualitative content analysis draws on the election manifestos used by 38 populist parties in 21 European democracies in national elections taking place between 2016 and 2023.

Parliamentarians' Support for Direct and Deliberative Democracy in Europe: An Account of Individual-Level Determinants

Approaching the Unknown. The COVID-19 pandemic, political parties and digital adaptations: party élites' perceptions in Italy and Spain

During COVID-19 politics was radically transformed. Even though parliaments, parties, and parliamentary groups continued working, they did so mainly through digital means. Our aim is to investigate how political parties and their élites reacted to those changes. For this aim, we launched a pilot survey among party élites in Spain and Italy. We use descriptive statistics and multivariate OLS regressions to answer to our research questions. Our results point out that parties quickly adapted to executive online meetings, but meetings of other (representative) organs were far less frequent. As for the élites' adaptation and in particular privacy concerns, we find that socio-demographic characteristic of the élites matter and being member of a digital party are not crucial determinants, as we expected. Ideology, on the contrary, play a much relevant role, with right-wing élites being more concerned about privacy. Finally, younger and more educated respondents are more favorable toward moving some parties' activities in the on-line sphere.

2022

Fame and factions: A process-tracing analysis of the 2019 leadership selection process in the Belgian French-speaking liberal party (MR)

This study applies process-tracing methods to understand the 2019 leadership selection process in the Belgian French-speaking liberal party, MR, which is the oldest and second largest party in French-speaking Belgium. We triangulate a variety of sources to assemble a rich qualitative material that is used to contrast the formal rules and outcome of the race to the actual process. We show that the gatekeepers were not the ones ascribed in the statutes, that formal rules were bent to fit the profile of the race, and that the very nature of the race was much closer to a coronation than the results may suggest. We also uncover mechanisms through which party actors, especially the incumbent leader as steering agent, informally influence the process to the desired outcome, with the race being played prior to the validation of the candidacies. This analysis puts focuses on when and how key actors use their informal influence to weigh the process and influence the outcome of leadership races.

How many captains for a ship on electoral drift? Limiting the number of leadership candidates in the Flemish Christian-democratic party (CD&V)

Many Western parties have opened up the process of leadership selection to party members under the noble premises to democratize the party. Yet, this might just be window-dressing as party leadership selection is often a coronation rather than an open contest. We argue that the preparation phase preceding the actual election phase is crucial in understanding the balance between the impact of party members and the steering of the party elite. This study compares the preparation phase of two leadership contests after losing elections in one party, the Flemish Christian-democratic party in Belgium: one with a single candidate and one with an exceptionally high number of candidates. Our analysis, based on 22 in-depth elite interviews, demonstrates that leadership elections are influenced by a cluster of different influencing actors, but in particular by what we label the “last person standing” whose candidacy is identified as the most effective mechanism to influence the nomination process. Other (slightly less effective) influencing mechanisms include encouragements, discouragements and the diffusion of an ideal profile for the future party leader.

Is Protest Only Negative? Examining the Effect of Emotions and Affective Polarization on Protest Behaviour

This contribution sheds light on the link between affect and protest behaviors. Using data from a voter survey conducted around the 2019 elections in Belgium, we examine two dimensions of affect: a vertical one, i.e., negative and positive emotions towards politics in general, and a horizontal one, i.e., affective polarization towards fellow citizens. Our findings make three important contributions. First, we identify five distinct classes of respondents depending on their emotions towards politics (apathetic, angry, hopeful, highly emotional, and average). Second, we demonstrate that the combination of both anger and hope is more strongly associated with protest action than anger alone. By contrast, apathy, characterized by an absence of emotions towards politics, is negatively related to protest behavior. Third, we show that affective polarization is a key driver of protest behavior per se. We also show that the two dimensions of affect have distinctive effects. Yet they interact: Affective polarization towards political opponents compensates for the absence of emotions towards politics in general.

“My guitar is my rifle”: Mexican migrants mobilising unconventionally through arts

Diasporas can create, transform, and exploit transnational networks to engage in politi‐ cal movements in their homeland and in their hostland, engaging in both electoral and non‐electoral politics through political parties, political campaigns, and hometown organisations. However, the individual processes of subjectivation and its relation‐ship with arts as a form of political engagement have been under‐explored especially in contexts of violence and insecurity. This ethnographic paper sheds light on the micro‐level of diaspora mobilisation by introducing the concept of “subjectivity” as a key term to analyse the transnational and unconventional political practices organised by migrants. As a result, this research aims to answer the following questions: (1) How are Mexican migrants becoming diasporic political subjects and creating spaces of transnational political activism in reaction to the context of violence in their home‐ land? (2) What makes them resort to art as a repertoire of contention against violence in their home towns? The paper introduces empirical examples collected in Brussels during 19 months of fieldwork with members of the Mexican diaspora, including semi‐structured interviews with key informants and participant observation at political demonstrations, music rehearsals, charity concerts, gastronomic and artistic festivals, and political debates.

Executive gladiators in the European arena: discursive intergovernmentalism in the politicization of the Covid-19 EU recovery plan

As the politicization of European integration is channeled through the media, it fundamentally implies a discursive power distribution between actors and institutions based on who and what type of argument is promoted. Scholars have started to hypothesize who will benefit from this expansion of debates to wider publics, predominantly using media logics to conclude with the notion of ‘discursive intergovernmentalism': where media spotlights enter, executives benefit. In this paper, we contribute to these nascent studies into the discursive empowerment of actors and institutions, by adding a critical notion. Taking our cue from Critical Discourse Analysis, we argue that media output should not only be theorized based on news values, but equally by accounting for existing institutional power (im)balances. To evaluate this argument, we draw on new intergovernmentalist theory, and empirically delve into the Spanish and Dutch media coverage of the (run-up to the) July 2020 NextGenerationEU recovery package.

Metaphors, political knowledge and the basic income debate in Belgium: an experimental study

The framing impact of political discourses has long been attested for. Metaphors in particular are known to ease the understanding of complex concepts and processes. Yet, the question remains to what extent metaphors do work the same on different recipients? Based on an experimental design, we test a potentially key moderating variable in the study of political metaphors: political knowledge. Our experiment aims at determining the extent to which the confrontation of individuals to arguments and metaphors impacts their preferences regarding the implementation of a basic income in Belgium. In particular, we hypothesize that the marginal effect of metaphors as cognitive shortcuts decreases when political knowledge increases. Our findings suggest that some metaphorical frames are more successful than others, hereby supporting the idea that the aptness of the metaphorical frame is a key factor when conducting experiments. We conclude that political knowledge is an important variable when analyzing the framing effect of metaphors, especially when it goes about very low or very high levels of political knowledge. The insertion of metaphors in political discourses may easily succeed in rallying individuals behind a given cause, but this would only work if participants have a lower knowledge of politics.

Regional inequalities as drivers of affective polarization

This paper investigates divergences in levels of affective polarization across Belgian regions around the 2019 elections. Elaborating on the relative deprivation theory, we analyse the role of current and long- term socio-economic regional inequalities and of geographical distance separating regions. Empirically, we aggregate individual-level measures of affective polarization at the Belgian NUTS-3 level and use a gravity approach to explore the determinants of regional divergences. Our results show that regional variations in affective polarization are best explained by a current rural-urban divide and by how regions have performed economically in the last years. We also show that geographical proximity matters and reinforces the effects of economic deprivation.

Conflicts of sovereignty in contemporary Europe: a framework of analysis

Contemporary conflicts of sovereignty in Europe have gone beyond the clash between national and supranational sovereignty. Sovereignty conflicts are increasingly occurring within member states. This paper develops a conceptual framework that distinguishes between foundational, institutional and territorial conflicts of sovereignty, elaborating on this taxonomy with reference to the historical evolution of the concept of sovereignty in Europe. It provides an account of why we have seen a proliferation in conflicts of sovereignty within European states. This is due in part to the notion of “shared” sovereignty. Central to European integration, this notion has introduced considerable institutional indeterminacy into the political systems of member states, leading to many of the institutional conflicts of sovereignty we see in Europe today. The struggle of national party systems to institutionalize societal conflict via partisan competition is another contributory factor. This has displaced conflict onto the terrain of how popular rule is institutionalized within the national state. In developing this framework, the paper provides a method for distinguishing between political conflicts tout court and those touching specifically upon sovereignty. Moreover, the framework helps us distinguish between those conflicts of sovereignty most destabilizing for a polity and those which are less so.

Antagonistic understandings of sovereignty in the 2015 Polish constitutional crisis

Since the 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland, the government led by the Law and Justice party (PiS) has sought to win two interwoven battles: the restoration of ‘a strong state' internally and ‘regaining sovereignty' in the country's relationship with the EU. By examining the 2015 constitutional crisis in Poland, this article seeks to understand how and why a domestic dispute over the nomination of constitutional judges has transformed into a conflict of sovereignty in the EU polity. The paper shows that the claims to sovereignty of political, social, and legal actors reflect opposing conceptions of this principle as well as of democracy and the rule of law. PiS' understanding of State sovereignty is rooted in the past, echoes its Hobbesian conception, and is reminiscent of Carl Schmitt's notion of the political and of democracy. In 2015, this conception was pitted against the supremacy of the Constitution (legal sovereignty) and the ideal of shared sovereignty. Drawing on 20 parliamentary debates, this paper shows that the 2015 Polish constitutional crisis encapsulates a conflict of sovereignty over who holds the most legitimate representation of the people and who should have the last word in key political conflicts and constitutional settlements.

Standing up against autocratization across political regimes

Resistance against autocratization is a neglected area of inquiry. Although we have solid knowledge of the structural pre-conditions, modalities, and patterns of autocratization, as well as the motivations and strategies used by authoritarian actors, very little is known about the actors resisting autocratization and their strategies. This article provides an answer to the following questions: why does resistance against autocratization matter and why do we need to address it? How to define it? Who are the actors involved and what are the main strategies adopted? This article contributes to the current debate on autocratization by providing a detailed discussion on the topic of resistance and a definition that can be operationalized for empirical research. It also addresses this issue in a comparative perspective by analysing resistance against autocratization across different types of political regimes, therefore overcoming the narrow focus on democratic backsliding in democratic regimes. Eventually, based on the analysis of selected cases of successful resistance, we conclude by formulating working hypotheses to be further investigated on the density of resistance networks and the shifting nature of resistance when moving from democracy to authoritarianism.

Endiguer la vague. Les ressorts du discours anti-populiste dans le journal Le Monde (2016-2017)

Cet article fait l'analyse d'un corpus comprenant l'intégralité des articles du journal Le Monde consacrés au populisme en 2016-2017. Il s'inscrit dans la littérature s'intéressant à la « populologie », cet ensemble de discours académiques, politiques et médiatiques qui prennent le populisme comme objet. Combinant la textométrie et l'étude des métaphores, il montre comment les modes de désignation et de représentation péjoratifs dont le populisme fait l'objet véhiculent et renforcent les écueils du discours anti-populiste dominant.

Party organisation and the party-delegate style of representation

Politicians perceive their representative role in a variety of ways: as a delegate of their party, a delegate of voters, or a trustee who exercises their mandate independent of any external principal. Existing research finds that the tendency to adopt a specific style of representation depends on system-level institutions and individuals' political experience and profile. The influence of the party organisational context remains little-understood. This study contributes to filling this gap by examining the effects of parties' resources and intra-party distribution of power on the prevalence of party-delegates among their candidates. Drawing on data from the Comparative Candidates Survey (CCS) and the Political Party Database (PPDB) we find that party organisation shapes representation in a way that has not previously been demonstrated: parties with more resources and parties in which members have the final say in candidate selection have a higher proportion of party-delegates among their candidates. This demonstrates the centrality of party organisation to representation.

A Regional Perspective to the Study of Affective Polarization

This research note investigates the scope of regional variations in levels of affective polarization across Europe and contrasts it to national scores to highlight the theoretical and empirical interest of a disaggregated approach. Using all waves of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) dataset, we compute an affective polarization score for 143,857 individuals and aggregate these scores in 190 regions nested in 30 countries, across a period ranging from 1996 to 2019, covering 105 elections. We map variations in affective polarization across regions, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Our results reveal that the range of scores is larger across regions than between countries, and that approximately half of the variation in affective polarization scores can be attributed to within-country heterogeneity. Second, we find that some countries display rather homogeneous regional patterns, while others display heterogeneous scores. Third, we show how the increase in the affective polarization scores over time at the national level can be driven by sharp changes in some regions only, other regions remaining stable. Overall, these results point to the added value of adopting a regional approach to the study of affective polarization.

Affective polarization and coalition preferences in times of pandemic

Using the RepResent Voter Panel Survey conducted in Belgium since the 2019 Federal elections, we investigate the relationship between affective polarization and voters' coalition preferences, in the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results confirm a strict negative link between affective polarization and preferences for coalitions in general. Such result is robust to different types of coalitions, in terms of number and size of parties, as well as the ideological position of voters. However, we also show how the negative effect of affective polarization can be moderated if the coalition includes the voter's in-party. Overall, our results help better understanding the political consequences of affective polarization in a multiparty setting.

Inaccurate Politicians. Elected Representatives' Estimations of Public Opinion in Four Countries

Knowledge of what voters prefer is central to several theories of democratic representation and accountability. Despite this, we know little in a comparative sense of how well politicians know citizens' policy preferences. We present results from a study of 866 politicians in four countries. Politicians were asked to estimate the percentage of public support for various policy proposals. Comparing more than 10,000 estimations with actual levels of public support, we conclude that politicians are quite inaccurate estimators of people's preferences. They make large errors and even regularly misperceive what a majority of the voters wants. Politicians are hardly better at estimating public preferences than ordinary citizens. They not only misperceive the preferences of the general public but also the preferences of their own partisan electorate. Politicians are not the experts of public opinion we expect them to be.

Football in Belgium through the lens of the World Cup (1930-2018)

Belgium, a small country in the centre of Europe, is a country with many historical divisions: linguistic, religious and political. Sport has historically been organized along these dividing lines. While national sentiment proved weak historically, it is interesting to analyse the effects of the careers of the national football team which played in 1986 in Mexico City. In recent years, thanks to a golden generation, the national team has achieved unexpected success. At a time when the existence of the country is being questioned by a significant part of the population in the north of the country, will the good results of the Red Devils save the country or consolidate a weak national feeling?

Commissioned Book Review: Fernando Casal Bértoa and Zsolt Enyedi, Party System Closure: Party Alliances, Government Alternatives, and Democracy in Europe

Editorial: The left behind: Crisis and challenges of the left in contemporary democracies

Back to the Post-Fascist Past or Landing in the Populist Radical Right? The Brothers of Italy Between Continuity and Change

Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) is the new rising star of Italian politics. Scholars and pundits briskly categorised it as a (new) populist radical right (PRR) party. Still, FdI's newness needs to be properly framed. A splinter party of the Popolo della Libertà, it claims a direct lineage with the Alleanza Nazionale-two cases not easily agglutinated into the PRR family. The article analyses the (dis)continuity associated with FdI, examining ideology, organisation, and the continuity of elites. It demonstrates that FdI's organisation and political elites largely overlap with its predecessor parties. However, FdI accomplished a major ideological rebranding, positioning itself as radically different from both the mainstream centre-right and the post-fascist tradition of the Italian right.

Si loin, si proches?

Citizens' perception of the presence of international institutions in Brussels remains understudied. Our study contributes to filling this gap through a survey conducted with a representative sample of Brussels residents in September 2021. The objective is to analyse the representations and practices of the local population with respect to international institutions. Our data show that there is a positive assessment of their contributions to the economy, employment, public goods, identity and culture. These benefits are nevertheless accompanied by perceived disadvantages as regards terrorist risks, integration of immigration deemed excessive and alienation in terms of identity. In conclusion, the world of international institutions seems to coexist and interact with that of ordinary Brussels residents in a relationship of acceptance marked by distance and indifference.

Country or party? Variations in party membership around the globe

This paper explores external (country-level) and internal (party-level) drivers of membership variations across parties. Relying on the Political Party Database combined with other datasets, we provide original, cross-sectional analyses of membership variation across 223 parties in 38 countries, innovatively covering third-wave democracies, post-communist countries, and advanced democracies. It allows for a unique analysis of recruitment patterns of parties under quite different contexts. Departing from the dominant view that parties are the powerless victims of external trends, we show that, while context matters, parties' choices regarding affiliation rules and organization structure also matter. They are more powerful determinants of membership ratios than country-level variables. Especially, the representation of sub-groups in the party structure is a key driver of membership recruitment. We also show how party origins, and the foundational environment in which they emerged, are important to understand how membership varies across parties today. Overall, this study strongly advocates for a broad comparative, multilevel approach to party membership.

The ‘European way of life', a new narrative for the EU? Institutions' vs citizens' view

The ‘European way of life' (EWOL) has emerged as a new narrative in the communication of the European Union (EU) after the 2019 European elections. The article analyses the social relevance and meanings of this legitimizing narrative against the background of similar past communicative attempts; and compares its framing by EU institutions with its understanding by citizens. We rely on the results of a survey exploring the cultural and normative foundations of the European multi-level governance in eight countries, (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, UK). Our findings are twofold. First, the EWOL narrative does not differ much of previous narratives; and the popular perceptions of EWOL are in line with its institutional definition. Second, EWOL has a low public salience and remains an elusive topic. As a conclusion, it is unlikely to significantly alter EU legitimization.

Towards an ever stronger politicization? How members of the European Parliament deal with values in social networks

Since the 2000s, the reference to ‘values' has become a key topic in the legitimation and politicization of the European Union (EU). This article studies to which extent and how members of the European Parliament (MEPs) mobilize values in their Facebook communication and whether it contributes to the politicization-understood as polarization-of their discourse. Our findings show that references to values are minor in MEPs' Facebook discourse. Differences are visible along national and party lines and according to issues at stake. However, no clear patterns emerge to relate specific value narratives to stable coalition- or conflict-lines. Empirically, the article analyses Facebook posts by MEPs of four nationalities (France, Italy, Poland and Hungary) in pre- and post-electoral times (March 2019-March 2020). Theoretically, it contributes to the literature on the politicization and legitimation of the EU; and on MEPs' communication and use of social networks.

LE SEMESTRE EUROPÉEN, UN OUTIL D'INTÉGRATION OU DE FRAGMENTATION ? Approche institutionnaliste du « tournant » représenté par le Semestre européen au sein de la gouvernance économique européenne

L'Union économique et monétaire de l'Union européenne s'est dotée dès son origine d'une structure asymétrique se caractérisant par une supranationalisation des politiques monétaires et une coordination des politiques économiques. La crise de la Zone euro a mis en évidence les faiblesses de la gouvernance économique et a conduit à la création du Semestre européen. L'objectif de notre recherche fut d'examiner l'efficacité du Semestre européen comme outil de coordination sur la voie d'une plus grande intégration des politiques économiques. Ce « chantier de recherche » commence par une présentation du contexte ainsi que du socle théorique dans lequel s'insère notre travail. Ensuite, nous exposons les hypothèses, la méthode et les résultats préliminaires obtenus avant de présenter brièvement nos perspectives actuelles de recherche.

Implementing the will of the people: sovereignty and policy conflicts in the aftermath of the UK's referendum on EU membership

Deep constitutional, political and social conflicts have marked the aftermath of the UK's vote to leave the European Union. Sovereignty has been one of the sites of these conflicts. British Euroscepticism has traditionally mobilized national sovereignty against the EU's supranational institutions. Since the referendum, the focus has shifted to the meanings and practices of sovereignty within the UK. In this paper, we find that the conflicts of sovereignty provoked by Brexit have primarily been at the institutional level, in the relations between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Surprisingly, there has been little conflict around the abstract normative ideal of sovereignty as government by consent of the governed (“popular sovereignty”). Brexit was a source of conflict as much because of the content of the decision to leave the EU as it was due to disagreement about who rules. This discussion of the British case is a useful starting point for the comparative study of sovereignty conflicts in Europe, where institutional conflicts may be accompanied by substantive disagreements about “who rules?” This paper recommends that we carefully delineate conflicts of sovereignty from other sorts of conflicts connected to specific policy choices or outcomes.

Jumping on the Bandwagon? Explaining Fluctuations in Party Membership Levels in Europe

This paper explores how party-specific contextual factors explain variations in membership levels. Based on a subset of MAPP data that includes 2,898 yearly membership data points for 262 parties in 24 countries over a period from 1990 to 2014, it examines three sets of explanations: the lifecycle model (party age), the bandwagon model (electoral performances and governemental participation), and the competition model (effective number of parties). Our results confirm that membership ratios present an overall decreasing trend across parties over time. At the same time, we show that this trend is flattening and that there are important variations at the party level. Fluctuations of membership are part of a party's lifecycle. Our results also point toward a bandwagon effect whereby party membership levels increase or decrease according to electoral performances, and to a patronage boost linked to governmental participation. Finally, we show that party system fragmentation decreases individual parties' membership ratios. Overall, our findings complement the story on party membership decline and calls for further investigations of party-level explanations.

Public Support for Deliberative Citizens' Assemblies Selected through Sortition:Evidence from 15 Countries

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 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 respondents' 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-engage disengaged citizens, this is conditioned to the expectation of a favourable outcome.

Standing for Europe: Citizens' perceptions of European symbols as evidence of a “banal Europeanism”?

This article analyses the perception of the symbols of the European Union (EU) by citizens. Relying on a survey of a representative sample of the population in eight countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom) carried out in December 2020, it investigates to which extent these symbols are considered as good representations of the EU and differences related to political, cultural, social and economic belongings. Empirically, our findings show a large acknowledgement of these symbols in congruence with general attitudes towards the EU. Theoretically, it offers some evidence of the existence of a “banal Europeanism” taking - to a certain extent - European symbolism as granted in contrast with its politicisation in elite discursive struggles.

The Labor Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA): A Modern Radical Left Party?

In a phase of political and electoral downturn of several radical left parties, the Labor Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) strikes the imagination due to its increasing influence. A party of Maoist origin, the PTB-PVDA has been undergoing organizational and communication change since the mid-2000's. In this article, we argue that these changes have created a very singular party. Going against prevailing partisan developments, the heart of the party remains the party-in-central-office. The party has quite a dynamic life between elections, seeks to recruit and recruits party members, trains and mobilizes its membership, borrowing from the paths of historical Belgian pillarization or the model of party of social integration. At the same time, the PTB-PVDA incorporates current partisan modifications: a strong personification, a great investment in social networks, a populist rhetoric, a redesigned communication and a focus on elections to be able to benefit from public party funding. This combination of old and new makes it one of a kind party in Europe and among the European Radical Left. However, this original organizational scheme raises the question of its fate: the aggregation of the various elements requires that it remains in the parliamentary opposition.

Comment les député∙es perçoivent la démocratie participative et les mini-publics : une enquête en Belgique francophone

Satisfied Unlike Me? How the Perceived Difference with Close Network Contacts Prevents from Radical and Protest Voting

Fitting with a common scheme across European democracies, the last election in Belgium led radical (left and right) parties to increase their vote share. One of the key drivers of the radical vote is political dissatisfaction (Droste 2011). Yet, the latter does not always translate into radical or protest voting behaviors. Using the 2019s RepResent Belgian Elections Study, we show the moderating effect of close social contacts in this relationship. For dissatisfied voters who believe that most contacts are similarly discontent, the probability to vote for radical parties (or, if not, to adopt other protest behaviors) is reinforced. However, the odds decrease the more they perceive their contacts different from themselves, i.e., as politically satisfied voters. Then, they become more likely to avoid protest/radical choices and to vote for institutionalized parties. Overall, our study yields findings showing that voting behaviors should be studied by considering also the voters' social networks, which seem to exert a role in defining the acceptability of voting choices. What matters is not only how one perceives politics but also how one believes his close contacts perceive politics too.

The European Parliament and Covid-19: Organisational Adaptations and their Implications on Parliamentary Activity

As early as March 2020, the President of the European Parliament decided to shut down the assembly's facilities in Brussels and to cancel the plenary sessions in Strasbourg . Impor­tant decisions were made to abandon in-person meetings, introduce teleworking for all staff, and implement remote deliberation and voting both in committees and in the plena­ry . The Rules of Procedure were adapted to formalize these organisational changes and make them ready for future crises . All in all, the European Parliament proved to be resilient and adaptive: it continued to discuss and adopt many legislative, budgetary, and non-legis­lative texts in the plenary . However, remote-work did have an impact on the political dynamics within Parliament . It was characterised by a very high level of consensus, as the result of a higher level of agreement between the two main party groups, the European People's Party and the Socialists & Democrats . Those main groups also became much more cohesive .

Conficts of sovereignty in contemporary Europe: a framework of analysis

De l'activisme citoyen à l'engagement armé

Le présent article s'attache au passage à la violence armée des combattants volontaires ukrainiens de la guerre du Donbass. Il analyse la façon dont le contexte de la mobilisation de l'hiver 2013-2014 et la répression des autorités bouleversent les individus sur le plan intime, qu'ils aient directement ou non participé à la mobilisation, et rendent envisageable le passage à la violence armée. Outre l'analyse des parcours d'engagement, l'article revient sur la perception qu'ont les individus de celui-ci, plusieurs années après. Si l'engagement est le résultat de bouleversements intimes qui se sont opérés à l'hiver 2013-2014, on remarque que les individus font preuve d'une rationalisation ex post de leur parcours d'engagement en lui conférant une dimension collective et sacrificielle.

Conflicts of sovereignty over EU trade policy: a new constitutional settlement?

Citoyens contre « résidus » : la réforme électorale de 2021 au Panama

Comme c'est l'usage après chaque élection, le Tribunal Électoral a convoqué en 2020 la Commission Nationale de Réforme Électorale pour actualiser et « perfectionner » le Code Électoral, dont la version réformée a été votée par l'Assemblée nationale en octobre 2021. Cependant, cette réforme électorale, la septième depuis la transition démocratique, s'est déroulée de façon exceptionnellement houleuse. L'affaissement de la confiance dans les institutions, le manque de légitimité des modes de négociations collectives et les scandales à répétition ont représenté autant d'obstacles pour le bon déroulement d'une réforme entendue par chacun comme une façon de maximiser ses prochains intérêts électoraux.

Politicizing Europe on the far right: Anti-EU mobilization across the party and non-party sector in France

Are All Populist Voters the Same? Institutional Distrust and the Five Star Movement in Italy

El debate transatlántico sobre la definición y actuación ante la ‘desinformación': una agenda de investigación

Las esferas públicas son hoy objetos muy diferentes a los que iniciaron los procesos de globalización. Uno de los aspectos novedosos de las esferas públicas actuales es la creciente influencia de las plataformas de redes sociales y la desinformación que circula en ellas, pues ha sido un factor fundamental en cómo se desarrolla actualmente la comunicación política en general, y las campañas electorales en particular. Este artículo trata de delinear una agenda de investigación sobre cómo investigar la construcción de este nuevo objeto político tanto a nivel de debate político como de marco regulatorio. Proponemos estudiar este objeto político desde la perspectiva de una disputa en el emergente campo transnacional por definir la desinformación, lo cual tiene implicaciones tanto teóricas, metodológicas como normativas. Argumentamos que hay diferentes campos preexistentes (el del periodismo, el de la seguridad internacional) que se ven afectados por la emergencia del nuevo campo transnacional de la desinformación y que los actores de cada campo tratan de establecer las reglas del juego, y que es precisamente la preexistencia de estos campos lo que lleva a los actores presentes en ellos a politizar y despolitizar selectivamente ciertos aspectos.

Cultural and geopolitical conflicts between the West and Russia: Western NGOs and LGBT activism

Gender norms and sexuality have become a part of cultural and geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West. In the early 1990s, Russia was ready to embrace Western liberal values welcoming foreign and international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to work in the country. In the last two decades, the Kremlin has started to perceive the promotion of Western liberal ideals across the globe as a sign of imperialism. Putin's Russia presents itself as an advocate of “traditional values” and a defender of “traditional family”. The rejection of LGBT rights is part of Putin's narrative of resisting Western liberal dominance. The Kremlin views Western NGOs promoting liberal agenda as actors working to undermine the county's sovereignty and security. The paper analyses the role of foreign and international (Western) NGOs in Russian LGBT activism. It discusses how changes in geopolitical orientation and foreign policy that Russia has experienced in the post-Soviet period affected the connections between Russian LGBT activists and Western donors.

The mistrust of development in coca-growing regions in Peru: The valley of the rivers Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro

Since the 1970s, drug-producing regions have been the target of ‘alternative development' policies. These policies aim to provide alternative crops to illegal coca, poppy, and marijuana growers, but also to initiate a greater development process in the regions concerned. The redefinition of these policies in international arenas has been widely studied, but little is known about the representations that farmers have of these policies in the production regions. This contribution proposes to overcome these limitations by examining more directly the effects of these policies at the subnational level. To this end, the case of the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers (VRAEM), Peru's main illegal coca-producing region and a post-conflict area, is analyzed. Despite an apparent consensus on development at the subnational level, tensions remain around these policies and their administration and occasionally arise between the Peruvian state and social organizations. This article shows that the implementation of development policies generates mistrust among farmers due to the ambiguity of the future of crops and the uncertainty of the benefits derived from development programs. The distrust is mainly directed at the agents in charge of implementing the programs and the leaders of social organizations who act as intermediaries. Because these policies largely exclude collective actors, they undermine trust in political representation and the Peruvian state in a region still weakened by the post-conflict context.

Avec ou sans coca ? Itinéraire conflictuel d'une appropriation corporatiste des politiques de développement par les cultivateurs du Tropique de Cochabamba, Bolivie

2021

Breaking the Budgetary Taboo: German Preference Formation in the EU's Response to the Covid-19 Crisis

In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, the German government embraced a major shift towards a grants-based EU recovery fund relying on common European debt. How can we explain this impetus, especially in view of the reticent German fiscal stance in previous years and in the early stages of the pandemic? To elucidate this question, this paper provides a qualitative inquiry into German preference formation during the spring of 2020. Theoretically, it reconciles liberal intergovernmentalist and discursive accounts of preference formation in the context of EU politics stressing the intertwined nature and simultaneousness of preference formation in the national and European arenas. We hypothesise that, along with material self-interests, the construction and framing of the pandemic as a certain type of crisis was key. Examining the stances taken by the federal government, commercial groups and key EU actors such as France and the European Commission, our findings point to a rapid preference realignment in German political and economic circles. Overall, the analysis suggests that especially in times of crisis, assumed national preferences are subject to reconfiguration thus allowing for contingent political responses.

You Will Never Participate Alone. Personal Networks and Political Participation in Belgium

This paper looks at the mobilizing effect of personal networks on the individual propensity to favour some types of political participation over others, in a context of changing participation repertoires. We rely on original egocentric network data gathered via a unique online survey conducted among a quota sample of 2801 Belgian citizens. We show that dominant political behaviour(s) in a network diffuse as byproduct of social proximity and influence: the more someone has been exposed to a certain type of participation in the past, the more this person is likely to be recruited in the same type of participation in the future (engagement), or, if this person was already active, to retain the same participatory behaviour (retention). Moreover, our results point to a cross-over dissuasive effect across types of participation that keeps citizens away from certain participatory behaviours. In particular, exposure to online and instiutionalized participation in their personal network decreases respondents' likelihood to engage in non-insitutionalized participation. Overall, we stress the added-value of a meso-level approach that embeds citizens in their personal network to understand their participatory choices.

Think Like Me, and I Will Trust You

Do citizens with a lower level of political representation evaluate political actors more negatively? While the literature has documented inequalities in political representation, less attention has been given to the extent to which different levels of representation affect citizens' levels of political trust. We aimed to fill this gap by analysing whether Belgian citizens with a lower level of policy opinion congruence with their party's legislators have lower levels of trust in the parliament. Our results show that policy opinion congruence has a positive impact on citizens' political attitudes. Indeed, citizens with policy preferences closer to those of their political representatives tend to have higher levels of trust in the parliament. This rela‍tionship depends on political sophistication: policy opinion congruence affects political trust for most citizens except those who consider themselves to be ‘very interested' in politics. Citizens with a very high level of interest in politics trust the parliament regardless of policy opinion congruence with their party's legislators.

Political parties abroad as actors of transnational politics

This paper argues that parties abroad are the actors of a new arena for citizenship and party politics. The proliferation of overseas voting and the development of representative institutions for emigrants has transformed and reinforced the civic and political links between sending-states and their diaspora. This has also created new opportunities for political entrepreneurs and political parties tasked with reaching out to citizens living abroad. Yet research on political parties and on transnationalism has almost never crossed paths. This has created a gap in our knowledge on political parties abroad, demonstrating the timeliness of a special issue on political parties abroad. This paper introduces this special issue and presents an overview of the main theoretical questions and debates addressed in the articles. We emphasize existing gaps in the literature and stress the importance of a better understanding of the growing phenomenon of political parties abroad. We also explain why a comparative approach is necessary to tackle the issue of political parties abroad, offering a theoretically-minded framework. Our summaries of the papers in this special issue highlight how they relate to the more general questions discussed in our introduction.

A Comparative Analysis of Selection Criteria of Candidates in Belgium

The literature on candidate selection has focussed extensively on the degree of inclusiveness and decentralization of the selectorate, as part of the debate on intra-party democracy. However, much less attention has been paid to the degree of openness of candidacies, or selection criteria within parties. Yet parties have a lot of leeway in how they design selection criteria internally. Which guidelines do parties follow when making the crucial choice on which candidates to select for elections? This paper investigates selection criteria from two perspectives: the formal rules set by parties that restrict the candidate's pool and the (informal) preferences of selectors that shape who gets selected. We aim first at contrasting the degree of party institutionalization and parties' formal rules in candidate selection and so, we shed light on whether parties formalise their candidacy requirements and candidate selection processes to the same extent as other party activities. Second, the paper investigates the role of the selectorates, and how selectorate's characteristics matter for the kind of (informal) selection criteria, be they intended at maximizing offices, votes or policies. Drawing on party statutes coded in the Political Party Database (PPDB) and 23 in-depth interviews with selectors, we study three francophone Belgian parties that differ both in terms of inclusiveness of the selectorate who has the final say on candidate selection and in terms of degree of centralisation, and in terms of party institutionalisation: the green party (Ecolo), the socialist party (PS), and the liberal party (MR). Our comparative analysis of parties, selection criteria provides new insights into the secret garden of politics and highlights in particular the major impact of parties, degree of centralization.

What Kind of Electoral Outcome do People Think is Good for Democracy?

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.

Do populist parties support referendums? A comparative analysis of election manifestos in Europe

Earlier research refers to populist parties as being advocates of a greater use of referendum. Yet, there has been no large-scale systematic test of this claim. This article addresses this gap in the literature and tests the relationship between populism and greater use for referendums in party manifestos. It analyzes 824 manifestos of 187 populist and non-populist parties in 27 Member States of the European Union between 1994 and 2018. We test if populist parties are virtually all in favor of a greater use of referendums and whether they would talk about referendums much more than non-populist parties.

Les clivages et la structuration des systèmes partisans

En 1967, Seymour Martin Lipset et Stein Rokkan théorisent la notion de clivage dans le domaine politique. Lignes de démarcation sociale forte qui se traduisent politiquement, les clivages s'expriment dans des espaces circonscrits, l'État-nation. L'amenuisement des communautés, l'affaiblissement des délimitations territoriales et la déstructuration d'identités sociétales ou politiques diversifient les comportements et élargissent les conflits politiques, donnant naissance à de possibles nouveaux clivages et à certaines reformulations de la théorie des clivages.

More competent thus more legitimate? MPs' discourses on deliberative mini-publics

MPs face a dilemma when it comes to deliberative mini-publics (DMPs): in a context of distrust, they may see it as an opportunity to re-legitimize themselves and solve complex policy issues. But it could also challenge the quasi-monopoly they used to have on political decisions and undermine the role of the Parliament and the primacy of elections. The article is found on 91 face-to-face interviews with French-speaking Belgian MPs sitting in federal or regional parliaments. First, we describe the profile of supporters of DMPs. We then identify three ideal-typical discourses: the power-sharing discourse, the consultative discourse, and the elitist discourse. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, it analyzes the argumentative frames used by MPs to assess deliberative mini-publics using a large number of interviews. Second, it demonstrates that their discourses depend on their evaluation of ordinary citizens' competence to participate and on their resulting vision of representation. Political actors mainly perceive DMPs as power-sharing instruments that would alter their elected position and the legitimacy of the election.

Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe By Catherine E. De Vries and Sara B. Hobolt. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020. 336pp. $29.95 (Hardcover)

The Praise for a ‘Caretaker' Leader

Studies on media coverage of women politicians have underlined how the media contribute to the association of the figure of the political leader with masculinity. Yet, the social construction of leadership seems to evolve towards a more ‘femininity-inclusive' definition. Research on the ‘glass cliff' phenomenon suggests that stereotypical feminine attributes might be expected from political leaders in a time of crisis. We investigated the gendered construction of political leadership in the press in a COVID-19 context through the case of former Belgian Prime minister Sophie Wilmès. In line with the ‘think crisis-think female' association, our discourse analysis shows an appreciation of traditionally feminine traits, and particularly care-related qualities, in the evaluation of what a ‘good' leader should be in pandemic times, although some characteristics traditionally associated with masculinity are still considered valuable assets in the journalistic portrayal of Wilmès' leadership.

Au coeur ou à la marge ?

« Occuper » dans un quartier gentrifié : expériences et mobilisations des habitants expulsés de Woodstock au Cap

Through empirical and qualitative research, I explore how the occupation of the old hospital of Woodstock (Cape Town) by evicted residents transforms their experiences and practices within the neighbourhood. I hereby answer the following questions: in what sense does this occupation represent a space of resilience at the center of a gentrified neighbourhood? What are the strategies deployed by the inhabitants to live there as serenely as possible, preserving their personal routine while responding at the same time to the demands of the social movement that hosts them? I observe that the occupation fosters the reshaping of local solidarities and allows the inhabitants to revisit their social role. However, I also emphasize the ambivalence of this lodging place by highlighting that the constraints and social norms imposed on the inhabitants can be considered as an additional form of confinement in the urban space.

Book review: Armenia and Azerbaijan anatomy of a rivalry

L'art de résister : de la pratique théâtrale à la lutte pour la reconnaissance dans les favelas de Rio de Janeiro

Face aux différentes formes de violences et de stigmatisation présentes dans les favelas de Rio de Janeiro, de nouveaux modes de résistance s'organisent. Les formes classiques de mobilisations populaires se voient bousculées par des mouvements de contestation qui prennent appui sur de nouveaux outils de résistance. La pratique artistique et en particulier le théâtre jouent un rôle important dans ce domaine, en créant des espaces de dialogue, de transmission et de conscientisation. À partir de données empiriques récoltées durant une enquête de terrain de six mois dans le complexe de favelas de la Maré à Rio de Janeiro, notre travail propose de comprendre comment la pratique du Théâtre de l'Opprimé peut mener les actrices et acteurs favelados à entrer dans une lutte pour la reconnaissance de leurs droits. En s'appuyant sur un cadre théorique articulé autour de la théorie de la lutte pour la reconnaissance, cette recherche appréhende le rapport entre art, politisation et engagement militant, dans un espace marqué par la violence et la marginalisation.

Threat or Corrective? Assessing the Impact of Populist Parties in Government on the Qualities of Democracy: A 19-Country Comparison

Scholars have long debated whether populism harms or improves the quality of democracy. This article contributes to this debate by focusing on the impact of populist parties in government. In particular, it inquires: (1) whether populists in government are more likely than non-populists to negatively affect the quality of democracies; (2) whether the role of populists in government matters; and (3) which type of populism is expected to negatively affect the quality of liberal-democratic regimes. The results find strong evidence that the role of populists in government affects several qualities of democracy. While robust, the findings related to (2) are less clear-cut than those pertaining to (1). Finally, regardless of their role in government, different types of populism have different impacts on the qualities of democracy. The results show that exclusionary populist parties in government tend to have more of a negative impact than other forms of populism.

Hybrid Voters: How the Politics in the Home and the New Country Influences External Voters

Based on 20 years of election data gathered for 6 European countries, this article analyses how the non-resident citizens vote from abroad in the elections of their origin country. Our mediation model demonstrates that the external vote share of a party is dependent on the support for this party in the homecountry before the election and the support registered for ideologically close parties in the new country of residence at the same moment. Our results put thus forward that external voting choices are hybrid: they mostly reflect the political context of their ‘home' origin country, but also mirror politics in the ‘new' country of residence. Furthermore, the article shows that the link between incumbency and the share taken by a party among the external community is not direct but mediated by how much is this party supported in the home-country, and how much ideologically similar parties are supported in the host-country. This finding further confirms that the flow of public opinion in the home and the new country both shape the choices that are made by external voters.

Institutionalization, Professionalization and Internationalization of Romanian Political Science

Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review celebrates twenty years of existence since its creation in 2001. If this anniversary is a celebration, it also raises questions about the evolution of political science as a discipline since the collapse of communism. There are many ways to trace the genesis and the development of a discipline and one of them is to look at peer-reviewed academic journals. They reflect a given field of study or discipline as much as they construct it. Drawing on a sociology of knowledge approach and using bibliometric methods, this article examines the institutionalization, professionalization, and internationalization of Romanian political science, as well as its contribution to the discipline as a whole from an inward and outward looking perspective. To do so, the article draws on a database which brings together political science articles focusing on Romania published over the last twenty years in Studia Politica, in thirteen area studies and six European Union (EU) studies journals. Inductively, tracing the evolution of Political Science as a discipline through the lens of Studia Politica, the place of Romania in international area studies journals and academic articles on Romania in EU studies journals, the article shows the role of “locals,” i.e., Romania-based researchers in the legitimation, domestic professionalization and internationalization of the discipline and illustrates the roles of the “foreigners” and “emigrants” in the development of the transnational Romanian studies political science community. If Romanian political science as a discipline is mainly institutionalized by “Locals,” research on Romania emerges as a co-constructed field involving “Foreigners,” “Emigrants,” and “Locals.”.

“Le clash des paradigmes? Quand l'état de droit se heurte à l'essor des idées anti-libérales”

Anti-liberal ideas and institutional change in Central and Eastern Europe

Three decades since the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the ideal of liberal democracy is under considerable strain. Recent developments in the region show that democratic institutions do not only evolve and consolidate, but they can also decay. The article intends to provide a comprehensive theoretical account to shed light on the ongoing multifaceted and multi-layered processes of change in the region. Drawing on the literature on the role of ideas and on the body of research explaining ongoing transformations in Central and Eastern Europe, it conceptualises the normative core of anti-liberal ideas. It shows that this core is embedded in a set of narratives pitted against liberal democracy, which take the form of causal stories, put forward values and solutions, being ultimately used to legitimise institutional change in politics (i.e. agency and the social power structures) policies (i.e. how economic nationalism alters the neoliberal model) and the polity (i.e. the rules of the political game). This conceptual map, which is derived inductively from the literature, is meant to guide future empirical studies and theory building exercises seeking to understand institutional change in the region and beyond.

The shaping power of anti-liberal ideas

This special issue sheds light on the shift from consensus over democracy and liberal values to increased dissensus. With a focus on Central and Eastern Europe, it explores the nature and the origins of anti-liberal ideas and their diffusion beyond the EU. While anti-liberal ideas are not new per se, this special issue shows how in recent years they have re-emerged, being invoked by a wide range of political and social actors who seek to translate them into policy solutions and by the same token to change the foundations of national polities, policies and politics.

Interview with Cristian Preda: “We Wanted to Emulate Western Political Science Journals”

Engaged, Indifferent, Skeptical or Critical? Disentangling Attitudes towards Local Deliberative Mini-Publics in Four Western European Democracies

Democratic innovations, such as deliberative mini-publics, are designed to encourage public engagement in policymaking. They are increasingly being used to inform decision-making on the environment, climate change, and other sustainability issues. Research on support for democratic innovations has focused on identifying citizens in favor and understanding whether they are “enraged” or “engaged” with politics. However, this approach ignores potential differences between citizens expressing more (or less) positive attitudes towards democratic innovations. In an online vignette study, respondents from four Western European countries rated varying descriptions of a local mini-public, indicating both their support for the decision-making process and their willingness to get involved. Four distinct groups were identified based on a latent profile analysis: (1) those who are truly engaged, in that their support for mini-publics is reinforced by intentions to participate, correspond to one-third of citizens. Engaged deliberative democrats stand out as being more concerned about the environment than any other issue on the agenda; (2) the majority of citizens are indifferent, expressing neither positive nor negative inclinations towards mini-publics; (3) a group of “elitists” is skeptical of integrating citizens into policymaking despite intending to participate themselves; and finally (4), a small share of citizens was identified as critics, scoring low on both support and willingness to participate in a mini-public. The diversity of profiles points to the challenges of using deliberative mini-publics to address sustainability issues.

Public support for deliberative democracy. A specific look at the attitudes of citizens from disadvantaged groups

This article studies citizens' support for deliberative democracy in Belgium. Itexamines it, first, from the perspective of Belgian citizens in general. In a secondstep, it looks specifically at the attitudes of citizens from four disadvantaged groups(women, lower educated citizens, citizens with precarious job conditions andyounger citizens). Regarding these groups we want to see whether they showdifferent levels of support for deliberative democracy than the rest of the populationand if their attitudes are driven by the same factors as for citizens from moreadvantaged groups. Regarding the general population, the main finding is thatsupport for deliberative democracy is driven by negative attitudes towards electedpoliticians but mainly by positive attitudes regarding the political competence offellow citizens. Regarding disadvantaged groups, we see first that women andyounger citizens show higher levels of support than the rest of the population.Second, when it comes to the factors driving support for deliberative democracywithin these disadvantaged groups, it appears that they are similar to the rest of thepopulation except when it comes to political interest. Being more interested inpolitics is a determinant to be in favour of deliberative democracy for citizens fromdisadvantaged groups.

The POLITICIZE dataset: an inventory of deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) in Europe

This note introduces the POLITICIZE dataset which contains information on thecharacteristics of 105 Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs) that took place in Europebetween 2000 and 2020. Based on coding of experts regarding cases of real-lifedeliberative experiments in 18 different European countries, the dataset describesthe core features of DMPs in Europe. It comprises information on three crucialdimensions: their composition (who deliberates?), their format (how do they deliberate?)and their role (what do they deliberate about and what are their prerogatives?).Hence, the note presents the different variables included in the dataset and reportsempirical variations across them, thereby presenting the main contribution of thePOLITICIZE dataset: delivering the most systematic and comprehensive efforts ofdata collection on mini-publics in Europe.

Parties in the ‘twilight zone': Beyond first and second-order elections for the 2019 European Parliament elections in Spain

While most research has analysed election-orderness by looking at electoral behaviour, this article looks instead at political parties and political programs in the case of the Spanish 2019 European elections. With the collapse of its two-party system and challenger parties on the rise, this paper analyses how Spanish parties addressed topics in their political programs, using content and political discourse analysis. The article argues that the traditional classification of first and second-order elections is no longer well-equipped to depict the increasingly politicised and Europeanised political parties. This finding indicates a new way of addressing topics in Spain, a ‘twilight-zone'.

Electoral and Executive Agenda in Time of Populism: A Solemn Oath or Coalition Politics as Usual?

The translation of electoral pledges into the executive's agenda is all but a linear process. Parties that take office have to compromise on what issues will be prioritized in the governmental agenda, which never exactly matches parties' electoral platforms. Populists may further challenge this mechanism, as they pursue a more direct link with people and claim to be different from nonpopulist parties. This study, bridging the party mandate model and agenda-setting scholarship, analyses the congruence between electoral manifestos and the prime minister's investiture speech in Italy, both at the aggregate and individual-issue levels. By comparing the behaviour of parties in government (1994—2021), the analysis meals that populist parties do not reinforce the ‘transmission belt' from electoral pledges to the executive agenda.

The Resilience of Democracy in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since January 2020, European countries have implemented a wide range of restrictions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet governments have also implemented democratic compensators in order to offset the negative impacts of restrictions. This article aims to account for the variation of their use between Belgium, the Netherlands and France. We analyse three drivers: the strength of counterpowers, the ruling parties' ideological leanings and political support. Building on an original data set, our results distinguish between embedded and ad hoc compensators. We find that ad hoc compensators are championed mainly by counterpowers, but also by ideology of the ruling coalitions in Belgium and the Netherlands and used strategically to maintain political support in France. Evidence on the link between embedded compensators and counterpowers is more ambiguous.

Commissioned Book Review: Benjamin Biard, Laurent Bernhard and Hans-Georg Betz (eds), Do They Make a Difference? The Policy Influence of Radical Right Populist Parties in Western Europe

Correction to: Referendums: increasingly unpopular among the ‘winners' of modernization? Comparing public support for the use of referendums in Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, and Hungary (Comparative European Politics, (2021), 19, 1, (49-76), 10.1057/s41295-020-00222-5)

After publication, it was noticed that the funding note has been missed in the original publication of the article. The funding note was added: This research was made possible by two projects financed by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme: POLPART (Grant Agreement No 339829) and POLITICIZE (Grant Agreement No 772695).

Editorial: Improving, Bypassing or Overcoming Representation?

Defying Europe? The Euroscepticism of radical right and radical left voters in Western Europe

Radical Left Parties (RLPs) and Radical Right Parties (RRPs) parties have adopted similar platforms over EU economic integration, rejecting further budgetary/economic authority transfers towards the EU. During the Euro crisis, EU-led management of the recession, constraining budgetary independency, may have worsened public concerns over the loss of state sovereignty on economic prerogatives. Although RLPs and RRPs have conveyed to voters anti-EU budgetary messages, we do not know if the electors have responded to this cueing activity. Thus, this paper seeks to understand whether, during the Euro crisis, voters supported the RLPs and RRPs due to anti-EU budgetary positions or not in Western Europe. On the one hand, we show that voters have electorally rewarded RRPs on the anti-EU budgetary issues, profiling themselves as Euro-rejectionists. On the other hand, we found that voters have not significantly matched RLP anti-EU budgetary stances, perhaps expressing favourable orientations towards the EU inter-state solidarity.

Europe between decline and decadence: The 'éternel retour' of an elitist lamento?

Populist Attitudes and Direct Democracy: A Questionable Relationship

Earlier research links citizens' populist attitudes with the support for referendums. However, the foundations and meaning of this relationship remain unclear. This research note proposes a theoretical, conceptual and methodological discussion that identifies three main problems: studies linking populist attitudes with support for referendums have a rather narrow theoretical framing limited to populist studies, there is much ambiguity surrounding the role of direct democracy in the political system, and there is a tautology in studying the relationship between populist attitudes as measured through various indices and the preferences for direct democracy. Our goal is to discuss such problems and to propose several avenues to circumvent them. In particular, we believe that connecting to adjacent literatures beyond populist studies could be an important improvement.

Origines et impacts des hyper-utilisateurs et hyper-utilisatrices en cyberdémocratie. Le cas du pétitionnement en ligne

La répartition fortement inégale des niveaux d'engagement entre personnes utilisant les sites web de participation citoyenne (e-forums, sites de pétitionnement en ligne, etc.) est l'une des caractéristiques les plus connues de ces plateformes : alors que la majorité de leurs membres n'y participe que très peu, une petite minorité, souvent qualifiée d'« hyper-utilisatrice » (power users), y contribue abondamment. Cette minorité est sous-étudiée dans le corpus actuel de recherches portant sur la participation en cyberdémocratie ; cet article vise à combler cette lacune. En nous appuyant sur un jeu de données observationnelles unique, portant sur des centaines de milliers de personnes utilisant une plateforme de pétitions en ligne, nous montrerons que la quantité de temps libre, ainsi que le fait d'avoir eu un premier contact positif avec le site, sont des facteurs en favorisant un usage intensif. Nous montrerons également que les « hyper-utilisateurs et utilisatrices » sont plus efficaces que les membres habituels de ces sites dans leurs entreprises de mobilisation collective, mais que leurs centres d'intérêt diffèrent considérablement de ceux de la majorité utilisant moins intensivement ces sites. Cela signifie, globalement, que ces petits groupes exercent une puissante influence sur ces sites, avec un effet de distorsion à la clé.

La participation politique en ligne au révélateur du pétitionnement électronique

The Prize of Governance. How the European Union Uses Symbolic Distinctions to Mobilize Society and Foster Competitiveness

(Re)structuring American studies in Belgium

The normalization of left populism? The paradigmatic case of Podemos

After a hopeful electoral debut, left populism in Europe has undergone relative normalization. While the literature on new parties might regard the persistence of left populist forces as a success, we deem instead that such an outcome should be considered against the backdrop of the initial left populist hypothesis. Based on a discussion of the existing literature and ten semi-structured interviews with party members, this paper analyses the case of Podemos in Spain as a proxy to assess the fortunes of left populism in Europe at large. We describe its political trajectory and explain its failure to go mainstream by reference to the interplay between, at a macro level, the structure of political opportunities and, at a meso level, its interpretation of the populist strategy. In particular, we focus on the paradoxical effects of the representative void, on the specific and unfavorable mutations of the populist moment in Spain for Podemos, and its own organizational and strategic shortcomings.

The Impact of VAAs on Vote Switching at the 2019 Belgian Legislative Elections

Comment devient-on combattant ? : Recourir au concept de carrière pour l'analyse des parcours d'engagement d'ex-combattants ukrainiens de la guerre du donbass

Nationalisation of local party systems in Belgium (1976-2018): the combined effects of municipality size and parliamentary parties' dominance

This article studies the nationalisation of local party systems in Belgian regions across eight electoral cycles (1976-2018). Our research design assesses the relevance of Rokkan's structural approach of nationalisation while testing the effect of conjunctural electoral factors. Our empirical results highlight the positive effect of a municipality's size on local party system nationalisation. Moreover, the analysis uncovers the impact of the electoral dominance of national parties in the local districts at previous national elections: where parliamentary parties have performed weakly at the previous national elections, nationalisation of local party systems increases.Interestingly, the analysis demonstrates that this relationship is stronger in the biggest municipalities, showing an interaction effect between conjunctural and structural factors. Finally, our findings indicate that significant variation remains across Belgian regions. This opens up avenues for future research regarding the potential effects of institutional factors and the ‘freezing' of local political offer across subnational party systems. .

Les mini-publics en Belgique (2001-2018) : expériences de panels citoyens délibératifs

Far-right protest mobilisation in Europe: Grievances, opportunities and resources

What explains far-right mobilisation in the protest arena? After decades of growing electoral support and policy influence, the far right is experiencing an increase in grassroots mobilisation. Scholars of social movements and political parties have devoted little attention to the determinants of far-right protest mobilisation in Europe. In this article, we bridge previous research on the far right and social movements to advance hypotheses on the drivers of far-right protest mobilisation based on grievances, opportunities and resource mobilisation models. We use an original dataset combining novel data on 4,845 far-right protest events in 11 East and West European countries (2008-2018), with existing measures accounting for the (political, economic and cultural) context of mobilisation. We find that classical approaches to collective action can be fruitfully applied to the study of the far right. Cultural grievances, notably concerns about immigration, as well as the availability of institutional access points in contexts characterised by divided government increase far-right protest mobilisation. But far-right protest mobilisation also rests on the organisational resources available to nativist collective actors, that is, the network in which they are embedded, their visibility in the media and elected officials. These findings have important implications to understand far-right success in advanced democracies. They show that far-right mobilisation in the protest arena not only rests on favourable circumstances, but also on whether far-right actors can profit from them. More broadly, the study links party politics and social movement research to grasp the far right's modes of political contestation, locating research on this phenomenon at the intersection of political sociology and comparative politics.

The EU-Turkey deal in the 2015 ‘refugee crisis': when intergovernmentalism cast a shadow on the EU's normative power

The aim of this article is to understand why the EU opted to conclude the ‘EU-Turkey refugee deal' in March 2016 in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis, despite the fact that the agreement deeply contradicts fundamental EU values and norms. The article seeks to explain the outcome—the conclusion of the EU-Turkey refugee deal—by analysing not only the ability of EU institutions to shape decisions, but also their motivations, ideas and preferences in justifying the EU's actions in responding to the refugee challenge. It is argued that the deal results from ideational and power struggles between supranational (the European Parliament and the European Commission) and intergovernmental institutions (the European Council and the Council of the European Union). It is demonstrated that while the former put forward normative arguments, the latter invoked security as a main concern to avoid internal divisions between Member States. This article also reveals that such ideational and power struggles have consequences for the EU's identity. Theoretically, the article builds on the new intergovernmentalist claims and on the normative/civilian power literature. Empirically, it explores the usage of normative justifications by EU institutions and points to inter-institutional tensions in framing the EU's response to the refugee challenge.

Fundamental right or political value? The evolution of ‘freedom of religion or belief' in the European Union's legitimation and public action

In the last decade, freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) emerged as part of the European Union's (EU) agenda in two ways: first, through attempts of its institutionalisation as a full-fledged diplomatic issue by the European External Action Service; and, second, as a bone of contention in EU internal affairs through its instrumentalization by national leaders, such as Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, who advocated for ‘Christian religious freedom' as a rallying cry for identity politics. Our research question is twofold: whether FoRB has turned from a legal principle to a value likely to shape political conflicts; and to what extent the developments around FoRB in the realms of law and external affairs are connected to its uses in domestic EU politics. Using various qualitative methods (discourse analysis; interviews, media analysis) and drawing on a selection of relevant data (case-law, policy reports and recommendations) we trace the manifestations of FoRB across different policy sectors. Our findings suggest that no cross-cutting ‘politics of religious freedom' is likely to appear in the EU. Looking at the broader picture, this article contributes to the scholarship on the interactions between politics and religion in the EU and on the latter's quest of legitimation.

Can Scharpf be proved wrong? Modelling the EU into a competitive social market economy for the next generation

Criticism of the EU's social deficit has become more vivid than ever following the socially regres-sive handling of the 2008-10 financial and debt crisis. In 2010, Fritz Scharpf famously argued thatthe EU‘cannot be a social market economy'owing to its institutional architecture, legal features,and collective action issues. The COVID-19 pandemic has nevertheless led to a new agenda com-bining investment, social concerns, the green transition and more fiscal solidarity. However, a lotremains to be done, it is argued, to bridge the social gap. A three-pronged model is outlined to con-ceive of the EU's role in enhancing national, inter-national and transnational social cohesion. Thepaper furthermore points to where the EU's action must be intensified to make significant pro-gress on the way to a competitive and social market economy. In many respects, the hard politicalbattles remain to be fought.

Don't think of a wave! A research note about the current autocratization debate

One of the most fascinating developments in the recent comparative politics scholarship is undoubtedly the turn from the studies on the process of democratization to those on the opposite phenomenon, that is, autocratization. After the recent, initial wave of empirical studies, only recently scholars began to tackle some underlying albeit essential issues, such as the problem of conceptualization and measurement of this concept. On the pages of Democratization, a crucial debate recently emerged when Svend-Erik Skaaning reacted to the high-impact 2018 article by Anna Lührmann and Staffan Lindberg. This piece aims to contribute to this stimulating debate. The main message of this piece is: don't think of a wave! Autocratization matters and deserves to be studied, even if there is no such a “third wave.” This research note claims that steering the debate on the concept of wave(s), which is of limited analytical and explanatory power, is misleading and risks taking the entire discussion down a blind alley. In the second part, the research note discusses some of the open issues of this literature, and in particular a) the very conceptualization of autocratization and b) the problem of thresholds and false positives. In the same way, the third part deals with three new areas of inquiry: c) the multi-dimensional nature of autocratization d) the multi-level dimension of autocratization and e) the opposition to autocratization.

Politics as construction of the unthinkable

This article is the English translation of a text originally published by Ernesto Laclau in French in 1981 as part of the proceedings of the colloquium Materialités Discursives held in Nanterre on 24-26 April 1980. In this text, Ernesto Laclau reflects on the subject of hegemony as a discursively constructed phenomenon. Building on research on the discursive construction of the acceptability of popular front politics in 1935 during the Seventh Congress of the Komintern, the author proposes a number of broader arguments on the notion of antagonism and on some of the problems related to the Marxist conception of totality.

Beyond the wave, the sea: Reassessing the southern Europe's populist upsurge

The paper re-assesses the relation between the economic crisis and the rise of populist parties in the South of Europe. It argues that the former did not cause the latter directly, but rather played out as a catalyst of previously existing trends, i.e. the erosion of party democracy and the disintermediation of Western societies. It combines several theoretical approaches to advance an explanatory model that replaces the relation between crisis and populism - conceived of as political, performative and discursively mediated - within its structural pre-conditions. By doing so, it aims at providing a synthetic and steady explanation of the contemporary rise of populism in Southern Europe and beyond.

2020

“It's not just an occupation, it's our home!” The politics of everyday life in a long-term occupation in Cape Town and their effects on movement development

The Social Network of Solidarity With Migrants: The role of perceived injunctive norms on intergroup helping behaviors

Using an ego‐centered network approach, we examine across two studies whether and how injunctive network norm s—behaviors that are approved by alters—are related to majority members' decisions to participate in helping actions supporting migrants. We hypothesize that the more people perceive their personal social networks as positive toward humanitarian actions for migrants, the more they consider their opinions on migration issues as self‐defining, and the more they are willing to mobilize in helping behaviors. With a name generator approach, we collected personal social network data among majority members of Belgian, mobilized volunteers (Study 1, N =204) and Swiss, non‐mobilized participants (Study 2, N =247). Results demonstrate the impact of injunctive network norms in promoting and maintaining helping actions for migrants, and the role of self‐defining attitudes. Overall, the results highlight the importance of injunctive norms within personal social networks on participation in intergroup helping behaviors.

Nagorno-Karabakh between Turkey's Scylla and Russia's Charybdis

Characterizing networks of propaganda on twitter: a case study

Abstract The daily exposure of social media users to propaganda and disinformation campaigns has reinvigorated the need to investigate the local and global patterns of diffusion of different (mis)information content on social media. Echo chambers and influencers are often deemed responsible of both the polarization of users in online social networks and the success of propaganda and disinformation campaigns. This article adopts a data-driven approach to investigate the structuration of communities and propaganda networks on Twitter in order to assess the correctness of these imputations. In particular, the work aims at characterizing networks of propaganda extracted from a Twitter dataset by combining the information gained by three different classification approaches, focused respectively on (i) using Tweets content to infer the “polarization” of users around a specific topic, (ii) identifying users having an active role in the diffusion of different propaganda and disinformation items, and (iii) analyzing social ties to identify topological clusters and users playing a “central” role in the network. The work identifies highly partisan community structures along political alignments; furthermore, centrality metrics proved to be very informative to detect the most active users in the network and to distinguish users playing different roles; finally, polarization and clustering structure of the retweet graphs provided useful insights about relevant properties of users exposure, interactions, and participation to different propaganda items.

Emotions and Vote Choice

This article digs into the relationship between voters' political resentment and their electoral choice in 2019 by focusing on the respondents' emotions towards politics. Using the RepResent 2019 voter survey, eight emotions are analysed in their relation to voting behaviour: four negative (anger, bitterness, worry and fear) and four positive (hope, relief, joy and satisfaction). We confirm that voters' emotional register is at least two-dimensional, with one positive and one negative dimension, opening the possibility for different combinations of emotions towards politics. We also find different emotional patterns across party choices, and more crucially, we uncover a significant effect of emotions (especially negative ones) on vote choice, even when controlling for other determinants. Finally, we look at the effect of election results on emotions and we observe a potential winner vs. loser effect with distinctive dynamics in Flanders and in Wallonia.

Drivers of Support for the Populist Radical Left and Populist Radical Right in Belgium

This study investigates how protest attitudes and ideological considerations affected the 2019 election results in Belgium, and particularly the vote for the radical right-wing populist party Vlaams Belang (VB) and for the radical left-wing populist party Partij van de Arbeid-Parti du Travail de Belgique (PVDA-PTB). Our results confirm that both protest attitudes and ideological considerations play a role to distinguish radical populist voters from mainstream party voters in general. However, when opposed to their second-best choice, we show that particularly protest attitudes matter. Moreover, in comparing radical right- and left-wing populist voters, the article disentangles the respective weight of these drivers on the two ends of the political spectrum. Being able to portray itself as an alternative to mainstream can give these parties an edge among a certain category of voters, albeit this position is also difficult to hold in the long run.

Voters of Populist Parties and Support for Reforms of Representative Democracy in Belgium

Recently, studies have burgeoned on the link between populism and demands fordemocratic reforms. In particular, scholars have been debating the link betweenpopulist citizens or voters and support for referendums. In this article, we examinevoters of populist parties (Vlaams Belang (VB) and Parti du Travail de Belgique-Partij van de Arbeid (PTB-PVDA)) in Belgium in 2019 and we look at their attitudestowards various types of democratic reforms. We find that voters of populistparties differ from the non-populist electorate in their support for different kindsof reforms of representative democracy. Voters of VB and PTB-PVDA have in commonstronger demands for limiting politicians' prerogatives, for introducingbinding referendums and for participatory budgeting. While Vlaams Belang votersare not significantly different from the non-populist electorate on advisory referendums,citizens' forums or technocratic reform, PVDA-PTB voters seem more enthusiastic.

Do Citizens Perceive Elected Politicians, Experts and Citizens as Alternative or Complementary Policy-Makers? A Study of Belgian Citizens

In the scholarly literature, studies have underlined a link between citizens' low levels of support for elected politicians and demands for a greater role of other actors such as citizens themselves or independent experts in policy-making. Yet, what remains unclear is whether such demands to increase the role of these actors are rooted in a desire to replace entirely politicians, or whether citizens and experts are perceived as complementary to elected politicians. It is precisely what we explore in this article. Using data from 2019 Belgian Election survey, we conduct a latent profile analysis to see what models of governance emerge among citizens. First, we demonstrate that while some citizens indeed perceive politicians, citizens and experts as separate governing groups, others combine support for multiple actors. Building on the typologies that emerge, we conduct two complementary analyses. In the second section, we try to analyse how these different views regarding who should govern translate into support for specific institutional reforms consultative referenda, binding referenda, assemblies of citizens and a government of experts. Our results show that, in general, citizens tend to favor the mechanisms that empower the actors they support, for instance deliberative democracy mechanisms are preferred by those who are positive about citizens as policy-makers. Finally, in the last section we examine the impact of citizens' personal characteristics (age, gender, education, employment) and political attitudes (political interest, political knowledge, political trust, left-right) on belonging to each of the latent classes identified. We determine the main socio-demographic traits and/or political attitudes that predict the likelihood of belonging to one of the seven classes. For example, we observe that people who delegate decision-making to politicians and experts share better socio-economic conditions and have higher levels of political interest and political knowledge. We close our analysis by explaining the importance of taking into account such preferences for a mix of policy-makers (citizens, experts and politicians) in broader debates on models of democracy.

Which organization for which party? An organizational analysis of the five-star movement

While challenger parties are on the rise in Europe, there has been little attention paid so far to their organization. Even though new parties enjoying path-breaking electoral success soon after their foundation tend to lose votes at their second electoral contests, due among other things to their organizational structures, some parties stand as exceptions. Among them, the Five-star Movement is the most prominent such party in Europe. The party has undergone a number of major organizational changes in the last 10 years, which have halted its institutionalization process, but whose impact on electoral success were, at first sight, less relevant. How did the party deal with the issue of internal reforms and how did these internal reforms change the party structure? This article retraces the party's transformations and tests hypotheses related to three competing interpretations of the Movement's organization: those that see it as a business-firm party, a franchise party and a party movement. Eleven years after its foundation, I contend that the Movement should now be analysed as a ‘plebiscitarian' movement party.

Absorbing the Blow: Populist Parties and their Impact on Parties and Party Systems Edited by Steven Wolinetz and Andrej Zaslove. New York: Rowman & Littlefield International. 2018. vi+340pp. £24.95, pb. ISBN 978-1-78661-314-1

Introduction. La participation politique en ligne au révélateur du pétitionnement électronique

The EU's Socioeconomic Governance 10 Years after the Crisis: Muddling through and the Revolt against Austerity

Pétitions électroniques au Québec : entre transfert et résistance

En 2009, l'Assemblée nationale du Québec a introduit les e-pétitions. Cette réforme a-t-elle modifié l'agenda parlementaire et contribué à davantage de participation citoyenne ? Il s'avère que les élus ne se sont pas véritablement approprié les nouveaux mécanismes de suivi des pétitions. Seuls des enjeux qui transcendent les clivages partisans ont fait l'objet d'une étude approfondie en commission. Pour attaquer le gouvernement et recueillir des données personnelles, les partis optent plutôt pour leurs propres plateformes. Nous constatons enfin une hausse du nombre de pétitions, sans pour autant que ce phénomène se traduise par une augmentation du nombre de signataires.

Panama 2019 : beaucoup de mouvement et peu de changements ?

Extreme-right communication in Italy and France: political culture and media practices in CasaPound Italia and Les Identitaires

Are radical right and radical left voters direct democrats?

Towards a unified anti-Europe narrative on the right and left? The challenge of Euroscepticism in the 2019 European elections

Symbolic Implementation of Cultural Participation Programmes

THE MOST COMMON CONCEPT OF SUCCESS IN CULTURAL PROGRAMMES IS COLOURED BY DIEHARD RATIONAL ECONOMICNARRATIVES. PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION PROCESSES, HOWEVER, HAPPEN WITHIN A SET OF INSTITUTIONS THAT GUIDE THEACTIONS OF AGENTS WITH SOMETIMES CONFLICTING INTERESTS. IN SOME CASES, THE PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAMME COULD BEDEFINING THESE RULES AND ALLOWING ACCESS TO NEW AGENTS. THIS IS THE CASE IN CULTURAL PARTICIPATION PROJECTS THATADDRESS COMPLEX SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DILEMMAS. IN THIS PAPER, WE REFLECT ON OUR EXPERIENCES AS BOTH DESIGNERSAND EVALUATORS OF PANAMA'S 500-YEAR FUND, AN INITIATIVE TO COMMEMORATE THE FOUNDATION OF PANAMA CITY IN1519. WE EXPLORE HOW THE EXISTING INSTITUTIONS AND AGENTS IN PANAMA CITY'S CULTURAL SECTOR CAME INTO CONTACTWITH PROFESSIONALS DEALING WITH ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ISSUES, AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPANTS. WE ARGUE THAT THEREWAS A SYMBOLIC IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS FUND. THIS FACILITATED A RESOURCE-INTENSIVE PROCESS TO REDUCE AMBIGUITYABOUT GOALS AND WAYS OF WORKING.

Introduction: Parties at the Grassroots

Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to Study Members and Activists of Political Parties

This article explores the development of my PhD dissertation's methodological approach, based on Social Network Analysis (SNA), or the collection and analysis of network data, in order to deal with political parties and their members (party mem- bership). I extensively relied on this alternative, growing methodological background in three extents. First (1), SNA was used to analyze bibliographic references related to my dissertation topic, i.e. party membership studies, and identify the most central authors, thereby illustrating the literature review while describing their key contributions. Second (2), SNA was employed to collect and analyze network data likely to better grasp how interpersonal networks affect the probability for a random citizen to turn into party member, assuming that social influence matters in the process of joining a political party. Third (3), I further capitalized on SNA to deal with the question of party activism and why some members become active whereas others remain passive, arguing theoretically and showing empirically that part of the answer lies in members' position within their local party branch's social network. Each of these three applications is discussed in the light of the main methodological developments, the empirical findings and their inter- pretation, while shortcomings and research opportunities are more systematically highlighted at the end.

Introduction: soccer under authoritarian regimes

The politics of the Brexit debate abroad: an analysis of parliamentary questions on Brexit in Belgian parliaments

The Brexit referendum in June 2016 marked a critical point for European integration and has quickly attracted attention from scholars. However, the literature so far has focused on the UK and the EU level, neglecting the asymmetric risk exposures and the diverging views around Brexit within the Member states. This article aims at contributing to filling this gap by analyzing to what extent the attention paid to Brexit differs across parliaments in a multilevel setting and whether parties emphasize the same issue across different levels? It relies on a unique database of parliamentary questions in the Belgian (regional and federal) parliaments between 2013 and 2017 and combines social network analysis and a loglinear modeling to analyze how Brexit has been framed and discussed in Belgium.

Left-Populism on Trial: Laclauian Politics in Theory and Practice

This paper offers a critical assessment of ErnestoLaclau's theory of populism in light of recent populist politics.Following the 2008 crisis and its fallout, Laclau's writings haveenjoyed both practical and theoretical prominence, inspiringmovements from Podemos to La France insoumise and an energeticsection of discourse theory. Recent events, however, seemto testify to the exhaustion of his populist imaginary. Examplesinclude Podemos' internal tensions and its uneasy cohabitationwith the Spanish Socialists and Syriza's troubled European pact,while discourse theorists have reconsidered some of the tradition'stenets. This paper investigates this cul-de-sac and hints at possibleescape routes. It does so by examining two possible deficits inLaclau's theory of populism as presented in On Populist Reason: (1)a tension between verticality and horizontality in Laclau's variantof “leadership democracy” and (2) a descriptive and normative“hyperformalism.” The first deficit is explicated with reference torecent developments in European party-systems and how theserestructure patterns of political engagement across party lines.The second digs deeper into Laclau's earlier oeuvre for the rootsof formalism and insights sidelined in his later work. The paperfinishes with suggestions for a research agenda for post-Laclauianpopulism.

‘We are Different': do Anti-establishment Parties Promote Distinctive Elites? An Analysis of the Spanish Case

Since the Great Recession, new parties challenged the pre-eminence of mainstream parties in many European democracies. In this paper we wonder to what extent this challenge translates in the representative politics. This paper aims to evaluate whether a) in terms of descriptive representation, the new challenger parties renewed the composition of the Parliaments; b) new challenger parties belonging to different ideological families elect different élites. The analysis focuses on two new successful anti-establishment parties: Podemos and Ciudadanos. Podemos belongs to the radical left family while Ciudadanos is a centre-right liberal party. We have built a dataset of the representatives of these two parties and the two other mainstream parties (PP and PSOE) in the Congress (2016), in the Autonomous Communities (2015) and in the Party in Central Office. Our findings suggest that Podemos and C's elites are younger and better educated compared to mainstream parties. Yet, we found that beyond their common anti-establishment background, different core ideologies matter when it comes to other aspects of the descriptive representation: in terms of education and working background, Podemos and C's élites are more similar to their ideologically closer parties, rather than among each other, thus highlighting the irrelevance of the shared anti-establishment rhetoric.

Politicizing support and opposition to migration in France: the EU asylum policy crisis and direct social activism

The Troika in its own words: responding to the politicisation of the southern European crises

Comment et pourquoi mobiliser les émigrés ? Approche Comparée des partis politiques à l'étranger. Avant-propos

Les littératures sur les partis politiques et sur le transnationalisme ne se sont presque jamais croisées. Les partis politiques à l'étranger constituent donc un angle mort académique. L'introduction présente une vue d'ensemble des principales questions et débats théoriques, souligne les lacunes existantes et valorise l'importance d'une meilleure compréhension du phénomène croissant des partis politiques à l'étranger. Elle soutient que les partis à l'étranger sont les acteurs d'une nouvelle arène pour la citoyenneté et la politique partisane. La généralisation du vote à l'étranger et le développement d'institutions représentatives des émigrés ont transformé et renforcé les liens civiques et politiques entre les États et leur diaspora. Cela a également créé de nouvelles opportunités pour les entrepreneurs politiques et les partis politiques, avec pour mission de toucher les citoyens vivant à l'étranger. Les partis à l'étranger se caractérisent toutefois par une grande diversité de formes et de fonctions, comme le met en exergue une proposition de typologie. L'introduction esquisse enfin la structure générale du dossier et décrit comment les divers articles s'inscrivent dans cette question générale.

Enraged, Engaged, or Both? A Study of the Determinants of Support for Consultative vs. Binding Mini-Publics

This article investigates the determinants of public support for consultative and binding mini-publics at the local level in Belgium. The study demonstrates that while enraged (politically dissatisfied) and engaged (politically efficacious) citizens are more supportive of both forms of deliberative mini-publics, citizens who are at once enraged and engaged are more likely to support more radical reforms of representative democracy, including binding uses of sortition that would lead to the replacement of elected politicians by citizens selected by lot.

Rapport au système représentatif et soutien à la démocratie directe et délibérative. Analyse comparée des attitudes des élus nationaux en Europe

Introduction to the Special Issue: Narrating “Europe”

La lutte narrative pour la signification et la politisation de « l'Europe » dans les négociations du TTIP

Les études européennes connaissent actuellement un tournant narratif (Biegoń, 2013 ; Bouza Garcia, 2017). Le débat académique commence à tenir compte de l'importance des représentations socioculturelles de l'Union européenne pour comprendre les attitudes des citoyens et de la société civile envers l'UE, et de l'utilisation de stratégies narratives par les acteurs politiques de l'UE. Afin de contribuer à analyser la manière dont l'Europe est racontée dans l'environnement politisé actuel, nous examinons la compétition pour définir « l'Europe » dans le contexte du Partenariat transatlantique de commerce et d'investissement (TTIP en anglais), en analysant les stratégies narratives concurrentes de la Commission européenne et de la coalition Stop TTIP. Nous analyserons les récits proposés dans les documents stratégiques des deux camps, en concevant ces deux récits antinomiques comme une opposition entre « l'Europe bouclier » et le « populisme transnational ». Nous présenterons également des entretiens approfondis avec des représentants des élites politiques bruxelloises afin de faire apparaître l'articulation de ces récits.

Participação institucional e ativismo no Brasil contemporâneo

Instituições participativas sob a égide do lulismo

The Lulismo thesis (Singer, 2012) is based on the idea that both Lula and Dilma's electoral bases moved from the middle class to voters with an median average income of up to two minimum salaries. However, lulismo is more than that: it suggests that Lulismo allows for na improvement of living conditions of the poor without harming conservative sectors. The concept of weak reformism best captures this phenomenon, according to Singer. Our paper proposes an analysis of the Lula-Dilma period's participatory policies from this theoretical standpoint. A central element of the PT's participatory democracy project for Brazil, the so-called participatory institutions (PIs), mobilized new progressive sociopolitical actors coming from their traditional support bases. However, PIs remained quite limited in terms of their political effectiveness and lacked legitimacy against representative democratic institutions, which is coherent with lulismo.

Framing TTIP in the wake of the Greenpeace leaks: agonistic and deliberative perspectives on frame resonance and communicative power

Referendums: increasingly unpopular among the ‘winners' of modernization?

Using data from the 2012 European Social Survey (ESS) and the 2017 Polpart survey we compare public support for the use of referendums in Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, and Hungary before and after the referendums on Mass Immigration (2014), EU-Ukraine Relations (2016), Brexit (2016), and the EU Migrant Quota (2016). We show that overall referendum support declined between 2012 and 2017 in all countries, but especially the Netherlands where the government openly challenged the merits of direct democracy. We also provide evidence that referendum support became more strongly linked to the so-called losers of modernization (i.e. politically dissatisfied, socio-economically disadvantaged, or anti-immigration individuals) in all countries except Switzerland. However, changes in the determinants of referendum support are driven by a decline in support among the winners of modernization (i.e. politically satisfied, socio-economically advantaged, and pro-immigration individuals) rather than an increase in support among the losers whose attitudes stayed more or less the same. Furthermore, we argue that the association between attitudes towards government and referendum support differs between contexts where referendums are government-initiated versus government-challenging.

Who Supports Citizens Selected by Lot to be the Main Policymakers? A Study of French Citizens

Despite their multiplication over the last 15 years, studies on the support for assemblies composed of citizens selected by lot are rare and the few that exist analyse citizens' attitudes towards such mini-publics as consultative bodies associated with traditional representative institutions. In this article, we examine support for citizens selected by lot as new policymakers who take the most important political decisions instead of political representatives. We contrast support for this radical democratic innovation with support for two other reforms that increase citizen participation: generic support for a greater involvement of citizens in policymaking, and specific support for citizen-initiated referendums. The goal is to understand whether the drivers of support for citizens selected by lot overlap or differ from the drivers of support for other forms of citizen participation. We rely upon data from the 2017 French Election Study.

Hard times for governing parties: the 2019 federal elections in Belgium

On 26 May 2019, European, federal and regional elections in Belgium wereheld. The main electoral results showed the decline of ruling parties (N-VA,MR, Open VLD, CD&V) and the rise of radical parties on the right (VlaamsBelang) and left (PVDA-PTB). These results have opened a period of deepgovernment instability with very long negotiations to form coalitions at theregional level, and even more so at the federal level. It eventually took theCOVID-19 crisis outbreak for a new government to be formed. However, thenew minority government obtained external support from six parties for aperiod of six months only. Over the last decade, forming a coalition has pro-ven itself to be more and more difficult in Belgium. The rise of extreme par-ties and the decline of mainstream parties are making it even harder. If thetrend holds, one might have to question the future capacity of Belgium toform sustainable coalitions.

La conversación digital en torno al hashtag #RespetoAlDolorDeMadre en Panamá

En Panamá, al igual que en otros países de la región, los grupos conservadores religiosos han conseguido convertirse en verdaderos actores políticos, impidiendo cualquier avance en políticas públicas o normativas relativas a la sexualidad y el género. En este contexto, fue presentado un proyecto de ley “que da identidad a los bebés fallecidos en el vientre materno” propuesto por una diputada de la mayoría parlamentaria, vocera notoria de los grupos conservadores anteriormente mencionados. En las redes sociales se activó la polémica que, a su vez, se polarizó entre cuentas usuarias de la etiqueta #TuNombreMiRecuerdo, a favor del proyecto y #RespetoAlDolorDeMadre, en contra. En este último hashtag, impulsado por activistas feministas, cientos de mujeres compartieron experiencias de sufrimiento por la pérdida de embarazos. El objetivo general de la investigación es analizar la conversación digital en torno al #RespetoAlDolorDeMadre. Desde el punto de vista metodológico, recurrimos al social media mining, realizado con diferentes herramientas de asistencia que se utilizan para extraer y organizar información que no es posible obtener mediante métodos estadísticos convencionales. El estudio se enmarca en los desarrollos teóricos que postulan al espacio digital como una nueva vía de participación donde los actores sociales, también, pueden debatir problemáticas que los afectan. Dentro de los principales hallazgos destacan que la conversación digital registra comunidades agrupadas con conexiones sólidas y conversaciones densas, que las cuentas más retuiteadas pertenecen a activistas feministas y que las cuentas más mencionadas por los/las usuarios/as en sus interacciones corresponden al sistema político.

The rotating presidency of the EU Council as a two-level game, or how the “Brussels model neutralises domestic political factors: the case of Romania

This article examines the Romanian rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union during the first half of 2019 as a two-level game. It shows how, despite heightened political tensions at the domestic and European level, the Romanian rotating presidency managed to fulfil its main functions. It is argued that the preparation and the conduct of the rotating presidency is not only a two-level game, but also one in which diplomats and civil servants play a central role. Their centrality in the process neutralises domestic political factors such as Eurosceptic governmental attitudes, the lack of political vision or credibility.

European Morality Politics in the European Union: The Case of Prostitution

Prostitution is a standard case of morality politics (MP), defined as a particular type of politics that engages issues closely related to religious and/or moral values, giving way to strong and uncompromising value conflicts in both societal and political spheres. This kind of issues have increasingly become a European policy matter due to their transnational nature and the tensions they create between different legal principles. Our hypothesis is that this leads to the emergence of a specific type of European morality politics (EMP) reflecting the particular constraints of the policymaking of the European Union (EU). The purpose of this article is to understand to which extent the rise of prostitution on the EU agenda alters usual patterns of MP to shape a distinctive type of EMP. Our findings suggest that prostitution characterizes EMP albeit with a significant difference, namely the challenge to regulatory inertia through the successful mobilisation of European values by some policy entrepreneurs to promote a neo-abolitionist approach.

Le Parlement européen et les attentes des citoyens

S'il a traditionnellement joué un rôle de médiateur entre les citoyens et le système institutionnel européen, le Parlement européen jouit d'une image plus positive que jamais auprès des citoyens, comme le montre les données de sondage. Surtout, ceux-ci souhaitent le voir jouer un rôle décisionnel plus important dans un contexte de crises multiples. L'examen de l'activité du PE dans les grands domaines concernés, à savoir les politiques sociales, l'environnement et les migrations, montre que le Parlement européen est pris en tenaille entre une volonté de démontrer sa capacité à peser sur les décisions, d'une part, et son de devoir de représenter une frange croissante de citoyens hostiles envers l'UE et ses politiques, de l'autre.The European Parliament has long played the role of a mediator between voters and the European Union's institutions. Opinion polling data shows that European citizens have had an increasingly positive image of the assembly and, more importantly, would like it to play a more important role in defining policies. This contribution examines the EP's activity in those areas which epitomize the EU's multiple crises, namely social policy, the environment, and migrations. It argues that assembly faces a pervasive dilemma between the willingness to assert its role in decision making, on the one hand, and the duty to represent an expanding group of voters hostile towards the EU and its action.

The antinomies of Ernesto Laclau: a reassessment

This article provides an internal assessment of Ernesto Laclau's theory of populism. While critiques of Laclau have been made from a variety of traditions, few scholars have sought to work through the contradictions of his thought on internal terms. This article identifies some key antinomies in Laclau's oeuvre and hints at some redemptive strategies. It starts with a short summary of Laclau's conception of populism in contextual and conceptual fashion. Subsequently, four possible deficits of Laclau's theory are examined, ranging from a tension between verticality and horizontality, an ahistorical dimension, a descriptive and normative hyperformalism, and the lack of a reflexive approach to the term ‘populism' itself. The article finishes with a fresh research agenda for ‘post-Laclauian' theories of populism.

L'affaire "Réseau" : un cas emblématique des violations systématiques des droits humains dans les procédures judiciaires en Russie

Oltre il trend illiberale: I processi di autocratizzazione nel XXI secolo

The study of the far right and its three E's: why scholarship must go beyond Eurocentrism, Electoralism and Externalism

Over the past decades, the far right has become one of the most studied phenomena in international political science, attracting more attention than all other party families combined. This article critically assesses the scholarly progress made so far and discusses what future research on the far right should focus on. It argues that although the number of studies has grown disproportionately, scholars have been slow in acknowledging that far-right politics have entered a new phase, where traditional aspects progressively lost momentum and new ones acquired central stage. To understand the transformations in the contemporary far right, scholars must address three shortcomings of international comparative research—Eurocentrism, Electoralism and Externalism. Today, we need to re-embed the study of the far right into the broader literature on party politics and political sociology, acknowledging the diversity that exists within the far right, its diffusion beyond (western) Europe and its mobilization outside the electoral arena.

Uneven Ground: The Asymmetric Competition between Anti-refugee and Solidarity Movements in Italy

L'extrême droite est-elle le porte-voix du malaise des quartiers populaires ? Le mythe des campagnes pour le logement social de CasaPound en Italie

Publications

« De stempel van PS en Ecolo? »

Trajectories and Modes of Autocratization in the Early 21st Century

Contemporary processes of autocratization attract growing attention, but their trajectories and modes remain relatively understudied. To contribute filling this gap, we offer one of the first case-oriented comparative analyses of twenty-first century autocratization. First, we examine a global set of cases. Hence, we focus on four typical cases from different regions - namely, Ecuador, Moldova, Thailand and Rwanda - representing different forms of contemporary autocratization. The analysis confirms that autocratization is an empirically relevant phenomenon in this historical phase. Moreover, an evolution is occurring in how this political syndrome unfolds, in the regimes it tends to hit, and in its outcomes. More specifically, the main threat that liberal democracies currently face is a process of sequential autocratization, perpetrated by elected rulers wishing to expand and prolong their power through the loosening of the mechanisms of horizontal accountability and the manipulation of the electoral process. However, we also highlight that an ongoing process of autocratization could be interrupted or reversed.

2019

Armjanskie bojtsy - dobrovoltsy v Nagorno Karabakhskom konflikte. (Les combattants volontaires arméniens dans le conflit du Haut-Karabakh)

La favela Vila Autódromo : façonnement et délitement d'un haut lieu de la résistance urbaine à Rio de Janeiro

De 2010 à 2016, une partie des habitants de la Vila Autódromo, quartier de Rio de Janeiro menacé d'évictions par le nouveau Parc Olympique en construction, se mobilise contre la destruction de leur lieu de vie. À travers l'examen des discours, pratiques et expériences de l'espace produits par une partie des résidents puis véhiculés ensuite par les médias et des groupes issus de mouvements sociaux externes, nous cherchons à comprendre comment les habitants parviennent à ériger le quartier en « haut lieu » de la résistance urbaine à Rio de Janeiro et à imposer temporairement un rapport de force à la municipalité. Prenant en considération la renommée du quartier, les pouvoirs publics s'abstiennent d'abord de réprimer brutalement et expéditivement la contestation comme dans d'autres favelas, mais usent de moyens plus insidieux. Ils proposent à titre individuel des négociations matérielles et financières qui divisent les habitants et emploient quotidiennement la coercition dans le but de désagréger les solidarités locales et d'épuiser les habitants, les encourageant in fine à précipiter leur départ.

Do Characteristics of Consociational Democracies Still Apply to Belgian Parties?

Beyond Fact-Checking: Network Analysis Tools for Monitoring Disinformation in Social Media

Operated by the H2020 SOMA Project, the recently established Social Observatory for Disinformation and Social Media Analysis supports researchers, journalists and fact-checkers in their quest for quality information. At the core of the Observatory lies the DisInfoNet Toolbox, designed to help a wide spectrum of users understand the dynamics of (fake) news dissemination in social networks. DisInfoNet combines text mining and classification with graph analysis and visualization to offer a comprehensive and user-friendly suite. To demonstrate the potential of our Toolbox, we consider a Twitter dataset of more than 1.3M tweets focused on the Italian 2016 constitutional referendum and use DisInfoNet to: (i) track relevant news stories and reconstruct their prevalence over time and space; (ii) detect central debating communities and capture their distinctive polarization/narrative; (iii) identify influencers both globally and in specific “disinformation networks”.

“In the name of the people”? Popular sovereignty and the 2015 Greek referendum

This article explores the rise of new conflicts of sovereignty especiallywith regard to popular sovereignty in the EU polity. It askswhether referenda in the national realm are effective tools toenhance popular sovereignty at supranational level. To elucidatethis question, we distinguish between embedded and unilateralreferenda. Empirically, the paper focuses on the referendum calledby the Greek government on the proposed Memorandum ofUnderstanding in 2015. While ambiguous from the outset, thereferendum turned out to be of an embedded nature and failedto enhance popular sovereignty. Based on elite interviews andanalysis of the discussion in the media, our analysis shows thatthe referendum was envisaged by the Greek government instrumentallyto put pressure on the other negotiating parties andtackle internal party disagreements. This turned out to be a selfdefeatingstrategy ignoring the popular mandate and failing toimprove the conditions for financial assistance.

Framing EU trade policy online: the case of @NoAlTTIP on Twitter

Since the argumentative turn in EU studies, research has shown that civil society activists can challenge frames promoted by EU institutions and incumbent groups, and influence public opinion in the EU. However, most studies of civil society mobilisation on EU issues have focused on the vertical framing of issues from Brussels to national capitals, rarely analysing mobilisation beyond Brussels. This article builds upon ongoing research on Spanish civil society activism on the TTIP (Bouza & Oleart, 2018) and framing EU issues on Twitter (Bouza & Tuñón, 2018), contributing to the study of the role of national activists in the horizontal translation of EU-wide mobilisation to national publics. We argue that national actors play an influential role in the discursive struggle to define ‘Europe' and the EU in the (national) public spheres (Díez Medrano, 2003). Building on our previous analysis of national activism on TTIP in Spain, we analyse whether activists have engaged in a process of frame bridging (Snow et al., 1986), in order to expand the mobilisation against TTIP towards new issues and constituencies relating to the broader trade strategy of the EU. The present research addresses the role of the Spanish anti- TTIP social movement in the emergence, circulation and bridging of critical frames on the TTIP negotiations in the Spanish Twitter sphere. The article combines quantitative and qualitative methods -network analysis and framing analysis- in order to analyse the role of the @NoAlTTIP network in the building and diffusion of frames challenging the EU institutions discourse on trade in the Spanish context.

Sheep in wolf's clothing? Comparing eurosceptic and non-eurosceptic MEPs' parliamentary behaviour

Often presented as a threat, Eurosceptic MEPs and their strategies have been comparatively understudied so far. At a time when the EU is facing a deep crisis and citizens' discontent has led to a significant increase in the Eurosceptics' share of EP seats, it is crucial to analyse empirically whether Eurosceptic MEPs behave in a manner that endangers the legitimacy or the work of the EP of the institution. This article is a first attempt to answer this question. The ambition here is to examine to what extent the behaviour of Eurosceptics differs from the behaviour of non-Eurosceptic MEPs and whether this has evolved over time. Based on an analysis of MEPs' activities during the 6th, 7th and 8th legislature, this article shows that there is a shift in Eurosceptic behaviour, in the sense of a normalisation of their parliamentary activities.

Unpacking old and new conflicts of sovereignty in the European polity

In the post-Maastricht era, member states of the European Union (EU) have proved increasingly reluctant to transfer further competences to the supranational level and are willing to safeguard their sovereignty. Though the responses to the contemporary multiple crises - related to economic and monetary policy, borders and migrations, or democracy and the rule of law - have brought about conflicts over values and sovereignty losses surrounding the legal, economic and political legitimacy of the EU. Against this backdrop, we argue that beyond the traditional contentious (re)distribution of competences between nation-states (national sovereignty) and the EU (and its embryonic forms of supranational sovereignty), new conflicts of sovereignty involve two other key types of sovereignty belonging to the democratic tradition, namely parliamentary sovereignty and popular sovereignty. This introductory article proposes a common analytical framework in order to investigate conflicts in their multi-dimensionality.

‘I want my sovereignty back!' A comparative analysis of the populist discourses of Podemos, the 5 Star Movement, the FN and UKIP during the economic and migration crises

The multiple crises that the EU has faced over the last decade haveprovided fertile ground for the emergence of new political movements,often labelled as ‘anti-system', ‘populist' and ‘Eurosceptics'.One defining characteristic of these parties is their claim to represent‘the people' and their reliance on the idea of sovereignty. Thisarticle aims at examining how these populist parties have framedsovereignty in relation to the economic and migration crises. Itargues that the binary opposition between EU integration andnational sovereignty does not tell the whole story, and that thepopulist upsurge reflects instead competing versions of sovereigntyat the national level. To test this hypothesis, we conducta corpus-based analysis of the discourse of four leading populistparties between 2012 and 2017: the Front National, the UKIndependence Party, the Movimento cinque Stelle and Podemos.

Contesting EU authority in the name of European identity: the new clothes of the sovereignty discourse in Central Europe

In recent years, government officials in Hungary, Poland and Austria have contested the authority of the EU in areas linked to core state powers, such as democracy and the rule of law and migrations. Analyzing the discursive strategies displayed by conservative and/or right-wing governments in these countries, the article shows how the old conflict line over sovereignty that has traditionally shaped the integration process-supranational vs domestic sovereignty-is being complemented by a new discourse which consists in disparaging EU ‘interference' in the very name of European values and a common European identity, defined in opposition to multiculturalism and political liberalism. Pioneered by Viktor Orban, this discourse has been circulating among other Central European heads of government and incumbent parties' officials in the wake of the refugee ‘crisis', which opened up a discursive opportunity structure for its diffusion.

Opening the Opaque Blank Box An Exploration into Blank and Null Votes in the 2018 Walloon Local Elections

La vertu du sacrifice collectif. Antagonisme et valeurs morales dans le discours d'austérité en Italie et en Espagne (2010-2013)

Getting ‘right' into the news: grassroots far-right mobilization and media coverage in Italy and France

How do non-established far-right actors reach visibility in the media? While much research focuses on media visibility of progressive movements and established parties, little is known about the coverage of grassroots far-right mobilization. Inspired by insights from media studies, social movement literature, and scholarship on the far right, the paper suggests that media coverage is a function of the protest strategies of non-established far-right actors. To this end, We use a new dataset measuring political claims made on the websites of CasaPound Italia (CPI) and the Bloc Identitaire (BI), and from newspaper reports in France and Italy. We use logistic regressions to quantify increasing media coverage based on specific characteristics of mobilization (issue ownership, dramatization, confrontation and counter-mobilization). Focusing on two countries with comparable political contexts but major differences in other factors relevant to far-right mobilization (number of migrants, asylum seekers, perceived most important problem, and proximity to elections), we illustrate that news coverage is more likely when CPI and BI mobilize on immigration, engage in street protest, and create public controversy. While broader comparative evidence is needed, the paper offers a novel meso-level perspective on the interplay between far-right mobilization and media attention, and it sets out an innovative method to combine online and offline data for the study of protest in far-right politics.

The far right as social movement

The literature on the far right is trying to connect with social movement studies. Scholars from different social scientific backgrounds are increasingly acknowledging that extra-parliamentary grassroots activism is part of the alliance and conflict structure of nativist collective actors. The recent rise in far-right street politics - or, precisely, its re-emergence with seemingly different clothes - should encourage the study of the inter-relations between party and non-party collective actors. As a case in point, the far right not only includes political parties geared towards elections and public office but also social movements or ‘networks of networks' that aim to mobilise public support, and a conglomeration of subcultural groups and groupuscules. By putting forward a three-part metric to analyse mobilisation factors at the macro, meso, and micro levels, this piece and the Special Issue it introduces bring the (inter-)relations between far-right parties, movements, and subcultures frontstage, and elaborate on nativist collective action across different arenas of contention.

Italy: Political Developments and Data in 2018

Sheep in wolf's clothing? Comparing eurosceptic and non-eurosceptic MEPs' parliamentary behaviour

Often presented as a threat, Eurosceptic MEPs and their strategies have been comparatively understudied so far. At a time when the EU is facing a deep crisis and citizens' discontent has led to a significant increase in the Eurosceptics' share of EP seats, it is crucial to analyse empirically whether Eurosceptic MEPs behave in a manner that endangers the legitimacy or the work of the EP of the institution. This article is a first attempt to answer this question. The ambition here is to examine to what extent the behaviour of Eurosceptics differs from the behaviour of non-Eurosceptic MEPs and whether this has evolved over time. Based on an analysis of MEPs' activities during the 6th, 7th and 8th legislature, this article shows that there is a shift in Eurosceptic behaviour, in the sense of a normalisation of their parliamentary activities.

What's going around? A social network explanation of youth party membership

Because people do not join political parties in a social vacuum but rather in close relation with their peers, this paper explores how the structure and composition of interpersonal, social networks affect youth party membership, and questions the answer's implications for recruitment. The structure does not affect statistically the young citizens' probability of becoming party members, as the process depends to a high degree on their proximate network core, e.g. their relatives, pointing towards a certain exclusivity in recruitment patterns and giving insight also on why they might stay away from conventional politics. A homogeneous composition matching with a high social and political profile is a pattern that has a considerable impact on their odds of joining a party, stressing that social networks can work in reproducing social and political inequalities, confining recruitment targets to the national population's most “usual suspects”, and thereby explaining some difficulties faced by party organisations. Drawing on these findings, the conclusion discusses strategic considerations for Belgian parties.

Transnational Economists in the Eurozone Crisis: Professional Structures, Networks and Ideas

In recent years IPE and EU studies scholars have examined how actors in international organisations and EU institutions shape policy ideas. This article explores the professional structure of economists affiliated to two Brussels-based think tanks, Bruegel and CEPS, who, in the context of the Eurozone crisis, sought to contribute to the production of policy solutions to douse the flames of the crisis and put forward long term recommendations for the EMU's stability. Through the analysis of more than 300 CVs and by drawing on network and sequence analysis, the article shows that in their search for solutions, Brussels-based think tanks bring together economists from different EU member states, whose authority draws on academic qualifications, experience, and seniority. They are ‘multiple insiders' connected to a wide range of institutions and professional networks, who move back and forth between professional and organisational networks and serve as bridges between revisionist, orthodox, and mixed economic ideas.

Introduction. Authoritarian resurgence: Towards a unified analytical framework

This introductory note to the Special Issue 'Autocracy Strikes Back: Authoritarian Resurgence in the Early 21st Century' situates this collection of articles in the burgeoning literature on authoritarian resurgence, and illustrates the conceptual terrain on which these articles make their contribution. In this regard, we discuss autocratization, authoritarian resilience, democratic transition failure, and autocracy-to-autocracy transition as processes of regime change representing different ways in which authoritarian resurgence may advance. Relatedly, we clarify how these processes of regime change differ from each other and provide a few basic coordinates to frame their comparative analysis.

Post-Cold War autocratization: Trends and patterns of regime change opposite to democratization

The so-called third wave of democratization is over and scholars are increasingly alert to the apparently growing number of regime changes in the opposite direction. However, there is little agreement concerning how many distinct forms these processes can take, and even less systematic cross-regional analysis of the phenomenon, which diminishes our ability to seize its actual import. Accordingly, this article pursues a twofold goal. First, we present a framework for the analysis of the processes opposite to democratization. Specifically, we build on the notion of 'autocratization', identify similarities and differences between the various forms it can take, and catalogue how it can happen. Second, we provide new data on post-Cold War cases across the world and use these data to map the prevailing trends. The analysis confirms the increasing empirical relevance of the phenomenon, and reveals the existence of a few geographical and historical patterns in the forms and modes of contemporary autocratization.

A Survey Experiment on Citizens' Preferences for ‘Vote-Centric' vs. ‘Talk-Centric' Democratic Innovations with Advisory vs. Binding Outcomes

‘The EU counter-radicalisation strategy as “business as usual”? How European political routine resists radical religion'

The emergence of an EU counter-radicalisation (CR) strategy has challenged the usual reluctance of European institutions to tackle value-loaded issues. This article examines whether this new policy alters EU policy-making and especially its approach to religion. It illuminates, first, the triggers of such a CR strategy (traumatic events, popular expectations and international influences). It then shows how the shift of CR from foreign to domestic EU affairs leads to the acknowledgement of religion as a multi-dimensional phenomenon and to the involvement of a greater number of political, bureaucratic and civil society actors. Still, usual patterns of EU public action apply to reduce the controversial potential of CR: circumscription to a legal and bureaucratic logic, institutional burden-sharing, delegation to member states and civil society, hollowing of the normative content of religion. In conclusion, CR has sparked a new EU policy field but has not radically shaken the routine of European politics.

A methodology for cross-national comparative focus group research

Prompting Legislative Agreement and Loyalty: What Role for Intra-Party Democracy?

Existing research often suggests that a greater degree of internal democracy within parties could weaken party unity. This article tests this assumption and analyses the relationship between degrees of intra-party democracy (IPD) and legislators' attitudes towards party unity. The article uses data collected in the framework of the PartiRep Comparative MP Survey; and of the Political Party Database (PPDB). The study includes 796 parliamentarians in 45 parties, elected in 14 European national assemblies. The findings indicate that the legislators from more democratic party organizations tend to report more frequent disagreement and to assert their own opinions against the one of their parties.

Introduction: Towards a Better Understanding of Parliamentary Party Unity

The study of parliamentary party unity has followed several lines of enquiry: describing the variation across political actors, contexts and time; comparing the multidimensional and dynamic aspects of parliamentary party unity; explaining it from a rational-institutional perspective with emphasis on macro-level arrangements and individual rational motivations. However, we know relatively little about how party organizations shape parliamentary party unity and this special section seeks to address this gap in the literature. This introductory article explains how the special section makes theoretical contributions to the concept of unity, provides alternative measurements and investigates several alternative determinants of unity.

Whose primaries? Grassroots' views on candidate selection procedures

Opening-up processes of candidate selection is often viewed as a means for political parties to regain legitimacy, and perhaps more crucially, members and voters. Despite a widespread belief that citizens want more democracy, including within parties, little research has questioned what sort of opening-up is desired—e.g., open or closed primaries—if at all, and by what type of citizens. Using data of the 2014 PartiRep voter survey in Belgium, we examine the diversity of preferences regarding candidate selection, and the extent to which preferences for open or closed primaries relate to voters' participation in party organisations. Given the diversification of party affiliation types, we operationalise participation through two distinct variables: the formal party membership status of the respondents, and their party activism. We show that both membership and activism influence individual preferences, and that their effects are in fact conditional upon each other. Findings also raise crucial issues regarding the consequences of the multiplication of affiliation modes, the motivations and direction of intra-party reforms, as well as feed the debate on their expected versus genuine consequences.

Rethinking intra-party cohesion: Towards a conceptual and analytical framework

Intra-party cohesion (IPC) is a concept extensively used to assess institutional change and behaviour in legislative and party politics. In spite of its popularity, there is confusion about its meaning mostly derived from its multidimensional nature. This article aims to clarify the understanding of this term across three different fields of research (legislative studies, party factionalism and Hirschman's theory applied to intra-party dynamics) and to build a conceptual framework that integrates several analytical dimensions. It uses quantitative network-based analysis of bibliographic data to provide a descriptive account of connections between these fields of the literature. Based on this, it identifies major challenges in the study of IPC and reveals the necessity to investigate it beyond ideology and legislative arena. To this end, we argue and illustrate how Hirschman's theory applied to three levels of analysis allows us to formulate a framework suitable for the study of IPC.

The dynamics and dimensions of intra-party conflict: Introduction to the special issue

Existing research on intra-party unity and conflict has mostly focused on (dis)unity within the legislative branch of the party at the national level, while neglecting conflict between the different faces or at different levels of the party. Intra-party unity and conflict have also been routinely defined and operationalized through ideological homogeneity or distance, although intra-party conflicts are multidimensional and dynamic phenomena. The articles included in this special issue seek to address these shortcomings in the literature. Their contributions are threefold: (1) they theorize intra-party conflict as a dynamic and multifaceted concept; (2) they explore conflicts across and between several party faces, and among different intra-party actors; (3) they investigate the determinants and management of conflict at several party levels.

Brésil, les enjeux d'une alternance inédite (dossier)

Introduction : Jair Bolsonaro, de l'état de grâce au chemin de croix

Actores Europeos y Desinformación: La disputa entre el factchecking, las agendas alternativas y la geopolítica

The Brexit referendum is a good example of the particular vulnerability of the European project when fighting disinformation. Therefore, EU institutions have developed a series of initiatives throughout 2018 to define a European strategy to counter disinformation that emphasizes the responsibility of social networks in reporting false content. In addition, given the weakness of the European public sphere, the European institutions support the creation of European networks of fact checkers. This strategy implies the denunciation of lies, rather than the promotion of alternative interpretive frames, which authors like Lakoff (2004) consider an error from a framing point of view. Empirically, we demonstrate through an analysis of the main networks of actors on this matter (academics, foundations, think tanks, media, social network platforms and fact checkers) that there is a dispute to define the best way to combat disinformation at the European level.

Was it all about personalization? The determinants of the vote in the 2016 constitutional referendum in Italy

Power users in online democracy: their origins and impact

One well-known characteristic of participatory websites is that the distribution of contribution levels is highly skewed: most people who make use of the service contribute only a little, but a small minority, often known as ‘power users', contribute a lot. These power users are understudied in the literature on online democratic participation: this article aims to fill this gap. Based on a unique observational dataset of hundreds of thousands of users of an electronic petitioning platform, we show that having more free time is an important determinant of becoming a power user, as is having a positive initial experience with the site. We also show that power users are both more effective than regular users and that their interests differ substantially from ‘normal' users: meaning that these small groups have a powerful (and distorting) influence on overall outcomes for the site.

Centralized or decentralized personalization? Measuring intra-party competition in open and flexible list PR systems

This article offers a comparative analysis of electoral intra-party competition in four countries - Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland and Luxembourg - based on an original data set of 79,621 candidates and 3150 party lists covering the last quarter century (1994-2017). We use two measures to describe the nature of intra-party competition over time, across countries and across party lists: a Gini coefficient and a measure of the effective number of candidates. First, in terms of change over time (personalization) - unlike hypothesized in the presidentialization thesis - there is no concentration of intra-party competition around a few leaders over time. Second, in terms of the dynamics of concentration of votes (personalized politics), the results invite to move beyond the clear-cut divide found in the literature between centralized and decentralized forms of personalized politics. Instead, personalized politics is best described by the concept of ‘elitization', meaning the concentration of most votes on a medium-sized group of candidates (5-10 per lists). Finally, three sets of factors condition intra-party electoral competition: the electoral rules organizing preference votes, the level of elections (European, national and regional) and the presence on the party lists of incumbent politicians (party leaders, ministers and parliamentarians).

New challenge, old solutions? Religion and counter-radicalisation in the European Parliament and the radicalisation awareness network

This article explores the implementation of the European Union's (EU) counter-radicalisation strategy (EUCRS) and its treatment of religion. It focuses on two EU institutional frameworks that entail processes of politicisation and depoliticisation through rationalisation: the European Parliament, as the EU's political arena par excellence where value-loaded issues are debated, and the Radicalisation Awareness Network, as a technocratic body that gathers experts and circulates best practices. We examine both policy configurations to determine whether, to what extent and how the religious dimension of the EUCRS leads to the development of new patterns to organise or contain conflict; and whether new actors, divisions, loyalties, repertoires of action and policy practices emerge. We demonstrate that religion is institutionalised as an EU policy issue in usual ways that serve to promote transnational regulation while preserving party, cultural, denominational and national differences without altering the structural logic of European politics and their standard approach to religion.

Radical Right-Wing Parties Facing the Wall of the Local ? The Vlaams Belang and Local Elections (1982- 2018)

Many radical right-wing parties have marked significant growth in the last 20 years. This spectacular dynamic has received thorough attention from the scientific community. Their electoral performance has most often been analysed at a national level. Analysis at sub-national levels is rare. This paper analyses the performance of the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) in local elections in Belgium between 1982 and 2018. Our analysis shows that the Vlaams Belang was able to overcome all institutional and political barriers in order to compete successfully at this level. At the same time, we find that the institutionalisation process at the local level is not a predictor of the ensuing electoral result for the party. On the contrary, the local electoral result correlates to the national curve and the global image of the party. In this dynamics, local elections could lead to different outcomes for the Vlaams Belang. The 1988 and 2018 local elections paved the way to a larger political development. On the contrary, the 2006 local elections led to a sharp political and electoral decline.

Morality politics in the European parliament. A qualitative insight into MEPs' voting behaviour on abortion and human embryonic stem cell research

The literature on morality politics is well-documented, but has mostly taken place at the national level. Yet, morality politics increasingly appears on the European Parliament's agenda. Abortion has been tackled through parliamentary reports on sexual and reproductive health and rights; while human embryonic stem cell research has been dealt with through the successive European research framework programmes. Using semi-structured interviews with (former) MEPs, this research examines how the central actors involved in these parliamentary debates perceive and explain their vote on these issues. The analysis particularly focuses on the role of religion and values, and uncovers its effects at several levels: national culture, political affiliation and personal believing. In that regard, respondents emphasise the great degree of freedom that the European parliamentary arena offers to its members to express their personal values and convictions-and not exclusively on morality issues.

Prendre part aux logiques d'exclusion : les mobilisations anti-migrants en France, en Italie et aux États-Unis

Ce qui se joue dans la protestation

Sur la base du suivi ethnographique d'une manifestation portant sur la défense de la coca dans la Vallée des fleuves Apurimac, Ene et Mantaro au Pérou, j'interroge le rôle des acteurs de la protestation dans la formation de l'État dans une région où prédomine l'économie du narcotrafic. En mobilisant un rapport à l'État conflictuel qui prend ses racines dans l'héritage du conflit contre le Sentier lumineux, les dirigeants des organisations sociales de la Vallée se positionnent dans le champ politique local et acquièrent une légitimité qui leur permet de capter les ressources nationales et transnationales pour se poser en intermédiaires de la mise en œuvre des politiques de développement régional, jugées prioritaires depuis la mise à l'agenda des problématiques du « narcotrafic » et du « narcoterrorisme ». Loin de confirmer une « absence d'État » dans les régions où se déroulent des activités illicites, la mobilisation de la Vallée éclaire le processus de formation de l'État et sa saisie par des intermédiaires selon un mécanisme de chevauchement du champ de la contestation et du champ de l'administration des ressources.

2018

High skilled migration through the lens of policy

Voting and satisfaction with democracy in flexible-list PR

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.

Framing the Basic Income: An Experimental Study of How Arguments and Metaphors Influence Individuals' Opinion Formation

Abstract Using an experimental design, this paper tackles the question of the framing impact of metaphors by focusing on the opportunity to implement a basic income (BI) system in a given polity. We take advantage of the preliminary stage of the BI debate in Belgium to study the influence of discursive strategies on the opinion formation process of individuals, since carefully choosing the arguments employed to address this question can help increase its psychological feasibility. Our experiment aims at determining to what extent the confrontation of individuals to metaphors illustrating the BI system impacts the way they apprehend its implementation. We show that very light variations in an informative text can induce major differences in the opinion formation process of the participants. BI proponents should thus pay attention to which metaphors are put forward in the public debate, as this could modify its outcome.

Shifting spaces of contention: An analysis of the Ultras mobilization in Revolutionary Egypt

“Gouverner par la conditionnalité ou la flexibilité?

La crise de la zone euro a induit une redéfinition profonde de la gouvernanceéconomique de l'Union européenne afin de renforcer les règles du Pacte de stabilité etde croissance (PSC). L'article analyse comment ces idées, initialement conçues pourrenforcer la gouvernance économique, ont également eu des effets sur la politique decohésion et ont façonné l'adoption du règlement 1303/2013 sur les fonds structurelset d'investissements européens (fonds ESI). En examinant les rapports de force entrele Parlement, la Commission et le Conseil, l'article montre comment la conditionnalités'est imposée comme idée dominante entre 2010 et 2013 et comment, après 2013,les mécanismes de sanction imposés pendant la crise divisent les institutions entre lespartisans de l'application stricte des règles et ceux favorables à une plus grande flexibilitédans leur mise en oeuvre.

Scale Matters in Contextual Analysis of Extreme Right Voting and Political Attitudes

A large body of literature has explored the rise of extreme right parties since the 1980s in Europe. A number of studies have assessed whether the context, particularly the level of unemployment and immigration, impacts support for the extreme right and found contradictory results. We argue in this paper that these contradictions might simply result from differences in the scale used to assess the context. We systematically test the impact of immigration and unemployment, measured at various scales, on extreme right voting and attitudes towards immigrants and immigration, using two alternative approaches with data for Belgium. In the concentric approach, we measure the unemployment and the presence of migrants within various radii around each respondent's residence. In the polarized approach, we consider the actual polarization of space, using the very local scale (statistical district), the living pool (municipality), and the employment pool. We show that the scale choice changes the results and that the most significant impacts are generally found at intermediary scales.

Sub-state nationalism and populism: the cases of Vlaams Belang, New Flemish Alliance and DéFI in Belgium

This contribution assesses whether populism is inherently embedded in and combined with the ideology of sub-state nationalist parties, using Belgium as a case study. We argue that sub-state nationalist parties tend to emphasize the opposition between a territorial community (‘us') versus a dominant center (‘them'), a dichotomous view that could overlap with the populist ideology focusing on the opposition between the homogeneous people and the ‘corrupt' elite. We compare the policy positions of the three major sub-state nationalist parties that operate in Belgium: the Vlaams Belang, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and Democrat Federalist Independent, using their manifestos and membership magazines between 2010 and 2015. We show that the manner in which sub-state nationalist parties combine their stances on territoriality to a populist rationale depends on their relationship to power (government vs. opposition). In doing so, this contribution uniquely relates populism to the territorial dimension of Belgian politics.

Aliud pro alio

Abstract This article explores how narratives create connections between the micro-context and the macro-context, focusing on the narratives produced by a neo-Nazi group within ‘Blood and Honour', a neo-Nazi gathering in Italy. The analysis presents a series of thematic narratives that describe how the neo-Nazi members see themselves in daily life, with their private and family sphere and how they aim to impact the political and cultural world. From these narratives, it is possible to understand how the neo-Nazi group sees society and justify the marginal role that they occupy in modern society. From this perspective, narratives operate as symbolic practice of identity creation in which members of the group negotiate new images of themselves and of their political and cultural movement. As we show, the neo-Nazi members aim to obtain legitimation and recognition in order to express a greater symbolic and social power.

Governing by Prizes: How the European Union Uses Symbolic Distinctions in its Search for Legitimacy

Since their creation and with an increasing intensity since the 1980s, European institutions have used prizes, labels and other distinctions as political resources to perform and legitimize their action. The purpose of this article is to make sense of this governance by prizes. It documents the occurrences, uses and meanings of European prizes and what it reveals of EU politics and policies. It shows how the EU mobilizes and updates the three usual functions of prizes as claim of centrality and authority by the prize-giver, creation of incentives and compliance for recipients and construction/solutions of/to social problems. The conclusion is that the European governance by prizes mirrors what happens at other levels of governance while adapting it to its politico-institutional singularity. The EU operates with its own logic of symbolic production but remains secondary to member states in the definition of hierarchies of honours and values.

Assessing Party Membership Figures: The MAPP Dataset

Assessments of party decline and decline of traditional forms of political participation often rely on the argument of party membership decline. Most studies analysing trends in party membership over time focus on aggregate country-level data at a few points in time. While they allow grasping general membership trends, they are not without shortcomings. This article presents the MAPP dataset related to the MAPP project (Members and Activists of Political Parties). The dataset makes a large amount of data on party membership available to the larger public. The dataset provides 6,307 party membership data observations (M) covering 397 parties in 31 countries, mostly between 1945 and 2014. The article discusses the existing literature and data on party membership trends, how membership trends have been assessed so far, and the potential added value of the MAPP dataset.

Centralized personalization at the expense of decentralized personalization. The decline of preferential voting in Belgium (2003-2014)

For more than two decades, scholars have been debating the so-called personalization of politics. Some studies confirm such an evolution, while others demonstrate that evidence of personalization is at best mixed, or even absent. This article aims at shedding a new light on this controversy by looking at the evolution of the use of preferential voting in Belgium. Preferential voting has been constantly growing, but since 2007, the trend has been reversed and fewer voters decide to cast a preferential vote. We argue that this decline is not evidence against personalization. Rather, it illustrates the need to distinguish conceptually and empirically between two dimensions of personalization: ‘centralized' and ‘decentralized' personalization. The decline in the use of preference votes is not related to a decline in the former (which refers to a handful of political leaders). Instead, it is due to the decline of the latter form of personalization (referring to a large group of individual politicians). Candidates other than party leaders appear to have growing difficulties to attract votes. This negative relationship holds, even when we control for measures of electoral reform and the newness of parties. Our results also show that leadership effects are stronger in new parties.

Movement Parties of the Far Right: The Organization and Strategies of Nativist Collective Actors

Italy: Political development and data for 2017

Healthcare Reforms and Fiscal Discipline in Europe: Responsibility or Responsiveness?

This paper asks how governments across Europe have responded to the dilemma between financialresponsibility and political responsiveness against the background of heightened fiscal pressure.Focusing on the domestic politics of healthcare reforms in four contrasted cases (England, France,Hungary, and Ireland), we investigate how governments frame and legitimize these reforms. Wefind that references to input legitimacy vary greatly according to prevailing values of governmentsand party politics in the respective national realms. With regard to output legitimacy, efficiency andfinancial sustainability tend to prevail over concerns related to quality in those countries that aremore affected by debt. Across all cases, governments rely on an instrumentalist conception ofthroughput legitimacy, meaning that they use consultation with different stakeholders as a way toprevent adverse politicization and to support their framing of the reforms.

Governing by price: how the European Union uses symbolic distinctions in its search for legitimacy

Macro-economic coordination and elusive ownership in the European Union

The notion of ownership is well known in relation to global governance.In the realm of EU macro-economic coordination, it hasbecome a buzzword since the revamping process of the EuropeanSemester in 2015. This article investigates how ownership by fourtypes of domestic actors (governments, administrations, parliamentsand social partners) manifests itself in the EuropeanSemester. We conceptualize three types of ownership, namelyinstitutional, political, and cognitive. Using network analysis, semistructuredinterviews, and a small-scale survey, we find that ownershipis strongest among governments and administrations whichare able to shape the outputs of the European Semester (institutionalownership) with little political disagreement (political ownership).While national parliaments display low levels of all types ofownership, employers and unions exhibit relatively strong cognitiveownership. We conclude that the European Semester remains abureaucratic process contributing to building a multi-level administrativespace rather than an arena for political debates.

The “T-Dem” for Democratizing the Europe's Economic and Monetary Union - A Critical Appraisal

Democracy at Stake: Multipositional Actors and Politicization in the EU Civil Society Field

The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) has the potential to significantly change the dynamics of interaction between EU institutions and civil society, which we conceive as a field. This article analyzes how the EU civil society field has been re-shaped by the ECI, the creation of networks and relationships between EU and national organizations and the effects of politicization. Using interview data and online documents from five ECI cases, we argue that an ECI can potentially transform the meta-field of civil society and democracy by altering what is at stake. We show that the five cases compete in a single field of civil society in the EU where incumbent organizations react to challenges. However, the field cannot be characterized in terms of a competition between insiders and outsiders. Rather, the ECI favours actors able to combine activism in different spheres - which we call multi-positional actors.

Quand les identitaires font la une

RésuméComment des formations d'extrême droite à faible ancrage social parviennent-elles à exister dans les médias ? En étudiant le cas du Bloc identitaire, nous proposons quatre logiques complémentaires : la propriété des enjeux politisés, le choix de répertoire d'action, la création de controverses publiques et l'existence de contre-mobilisations. La recherche combine l'analyse quantitative et qualitative des revendications politiques du Bloc, et un entretien en profondeur. Les résultats montrent que sa visibilité augmente lorsque ses actions portent sur la sécurité et l'immigration et suscitent des contre-mobilisations. Deux stratégies sont fondamentales dans l'interaction avec les journalistes : la personnalisation de la communication des événements protestataires et leur spectacularisation.

Dimensional issue competition on migration: a comparative analysis of public debates in Western Europe

Considering the case of migration, the paper develops a dimensional framework for the analysis of the politicization of complex issues in public debates. It argues that since cross-sectoral issues are multidimensional in nature, public debates about them are best understood in terms of selective emphasis over their constitutive dimensions. Theoretically, the paper combines structural and strategic approaches to explain selective emphasis in public debates on migration. Empirically, it examines seven West European countries from 1995 to 2009 based on claims-making data collected by the Support and Opposition to Migration project team. Focusing on both actor-level and political opportunity determinants of the salience of issue dimensions, the analysis examines the varying importance attributed to four constitutive dimensions of the immigration issue, corresponding to socioeconomic, cultural and religious, security and civic aspects. The findings confirm that the composition of public debates on complex issues is not restricted to one single understanding, but changes depending on the actors involved in the debate and on contextual circumstances defining their involvement. As such, this research has profound implications for the scholarly understanding of issue competition and agenda-setting processes.

How have EU ‘fire-fighters' sought to douse the flames of the eurozone's fast- and slow-burning crises? The 2013 structural funds reform

This article examines the debates surrounding the Regulation 1303/2013 on structural funds, arguing that the rules adopted in the midst of the eurozone crisis to strengthen the governance of the euro area had spill-over effects on cohesion policy. It shows how, in the fast-burning phase of the crisis (2010-2013), some actors pushed forward the idea of suspending structural funds in case of non-compliance with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, making funding conditional on Member States' compliance with the rules of the new economic governance, and how, after the entry into force of this Regulation, in the slow-burning phase of the crisis (from 2013 onwards), a greater number of actors has been calling for a more flexible interpretation of the rules. To explain the disruption between t1 and t2, the article examines the change in the power relations between and within institutions and the change in ideas.

Assessing European neighbourhood policy

The role of the European Parliament in Turkey-EU relations: A troublemaker or a useful normative actor?

The article analyzes the role of the European Parliament (EP) in Turkey-EU relations. More specifically, it explores the reasons why in practice EP's role in promoting fundamental values of the European Union (EU) in Turkey remained largely limited. Drawing on the broader socialization literature, it concludes that a combination of factors related to the socializer (EP) and to the socializee (Turkey) limits the EP's effectiveness to emerge as a normative actor in its relations with Turkey. In particular, the study points to the mismatch of values promoted by the EP and those embraced by the Turkish political elite as the real obstacle that prevents any socialization mechanism from being triggered.

Toward an assessment of marginality in democratic systems: The Charlie Hebdo debate in the United Kingdom

This article offers a theoretical and empirical investigation of marginality of actors and ideas in democratic systems. We do so with respect to the extensive public debate that ensued from the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks of January 2015. Using content analytical data retrieved from The Guardian, we assess the degree and nature of marginality as indicated by the presence of different types of intervention in the public debate. Our findings show that women have very limited visibility; religious and minority groups—particularly Muslims—are sidestepped; and actors challenging the dominant securitisation narrative are systematically neglected by those holding dominant positions. We argue for greater attention to the problem of marginality and introduce the Maximin principle of marginality as a means to address this issue in analyses of democratic systems.

The consequences of membership incentives: Do greater political benefits attract different kinds of members?

In recent decades, parties in many parliamentary democracies have radically reshaped what it means to be a party member, making it easier and cheaper to join, and giving members greater direct say over party decisions. This article explores some implications of such changes, asking whether membership costs and benefits influence which supporters take the step of joining their party. In particular, it considers the impact of net membership benefits on membership demographics and on members' ideology. The investigation examines patterns of party membership in 10 parliamentary democracies, using opinion data from the European Social Survey and data on party rules from the Political Party Database project. Our analysis shows that party supporters are more sensitive to political benefits than to financial costs, especially in terms of the ideological incongruence of who joins. As a result, parties offering higher benefits to their members have lower ideological and demographic disparities between members and other party supporters. This is a positive finding for party-based representation, in that it suggests that trends toward more inclusive decision- making processes have the potential to produce parties with memberships that are more substantively and more descriptively representative of their supporters.

Profession : Europe ? La gestion infranationale des affaires européennes

Why and how do think tanks expand their networks in times of crisis?

The eurozone crisis has spectacularly increased the European Union's (EU's) institutional demand for expert knowledge. While the crisis has challenged the legitimacy of the EU in many ways, it has in contrast amplified the visibility and the role of Brussels-based think tanks as laboratories of ideas that think ahead about eurozone governance and policies. Drawing on the analysis of more than 450 expert reports produced by two leading Brussels-based think tanks, over 300 CVs and biographical notes as well interviews, this article explores when, how and why Brussels-based think tanks expand their networks in times of crisis. While the article leaves aside the question of their ideational impact upon agenda-setting and the policy formulation process leading to the new European economic governance, it shows how think tanks adapt to crises and how they seek to have a voice in thinking about the future of the EU's economic governance.

Moins de mandataires locaux à Bruxelles ? Scénarios et impact

Le nombre de conseillers communaux et d'échevins dans la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale est relativement élevé et augmente à chaque élection. Au cours des débats sur le fonctionnement des institutions politiques de la Région, l'idée de réduire le nombre de mandataires locaux est régulièrement mise sur la table. La présente contribution étudie les implications possibles d'une telle diminution. Trois scénarios sont envisagés : une diminution de 10 %, de 20 % et de 30 %. Pour chacun de ces scénarios, une simulation a été faite de ses effets sur le pluralisme dans les conseils communaux, sur la charge de travail des conseillers et échevins, sur la formation de coalitions, sur les équilibres de genres et sur la position des élus néerlandophones. Pour les petits groupes, pour les néerlandophones et pour l'égalité des genres, les effets seraient clairement négatifs.

Les consultations populaires communales en Wallonie

Minder lokale mandatarissen in Brussel? Scenario's en impact

The number of municipal councillors and aldermen in the Brussels-Capital Region is relatively high, and increases at each election. In the debates on the functioning of the political institutions of the Region the idea to reduce the number of local representatives is regularly raised. This contribution explores the possible implications of such a reduction. Three scenarios are examined: a reduction by 10 %, by 20 % and by 30 %. For each of these scenarios, the consequences for the ideological diversity in the municipal councils, the workload for the representatives and the aldermen, the formation of coalitions, the gender balances and the position of the Dutch speaking elected representatives are simulated. For the smaller fractions, the Dutch speaking representatives and the gender balances the effects are clearly negative.

Consultation populaire et référendum en Belgique

Governing by the prizes. How the European Union uses symbolic distinctions to mobilize society and secure loyalty

Belgian Communism in the Light of Its Vanishing (1976-1994)

In the 1987 national elections, the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-KPB) lost all parliamentary representation for the first time since 1925.This failure reflects the accelerated collapse of Belgian Communism in just a decade. The events of 1989 and 1991 in Central and Eastern Europe and in the USSR will then confirm the de facto disappearance of the PCB-KPB. The article goes back to the roots of the decline of a medium-size Communist Party, but showed political and social relevance from 1925 to 1985.The decline is due to the industrial and socio-demographic dramatic changes.The paper also tackles the political choices made in the seventies and eighties to understand it. In particular, it embraces the internal paralysis of the party faced with the challenges posed to all the European Communist Parties at this time, and its inability to deal with them.

Reversing regimes and concepts: from democratization to autocratization

Parliamentary party loyalty and party family: the missing link?

Party cohesion is a crucial aspect of parliamentary systems, and it varies across time, parties and systems. To explain these variations, scholars have set forth the influence of macro-level and individual-level factors. Although party-level factors have also been considered, the role of party family has been overlooked. This research seeks to fill this gap. To this end, I focus on one dimension of cohesion: the extent to which legislators have internalized the norm of party loyalty. The concept of party family permits to investigate the effect of party origin and party ideology beyond a policy-based approach and left-right dimension. Using attitudinal data of 829 parliamentarians elected in 14 European national assemblies, the analysis uncovers a party family effect, particularly in the green and radical right parties. The results suggest that a greater attention should be directed towards party family as a determinant factor of legislative cohesion.

“La constitución de 1988 y los paradojos de la democracia Brasileña” - Entrevista con olivier dabène

Treinta años de la “constitución ciudadana”: Contribuciones de la historia y de la ciencia política

From the 2005 constitution's 'permissive consensus' To TTIP's 'empowering dissensus': The EU as a playing field for Spanish civil society

The negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) saw the development of a transnational campaign that gained momentum as the negotiations reached a critical status, including in Spain. The Spanish anti-TTIP campaign is interesting in that it has gained some salience among media, civil society, trade unions and some political parties in a country where trade and EU affairs are rarely controversial. In order to explain the transformation of the attitudes of Spanish civil society vis-à-vis the EU in the case of TTIP, we formulated descriptive and explanatory research questions, respectively: how is the mobilisation against TTIP different from the traditional involvement of Spanish civil society actors in EU issues? Why have actors which did not work together in previous campaigns cooperated in the case of TTIP? We analyse the Spanish anti-TTIP campaign, and we argue that the change of positions of Spanish civil society actors in relation to the EU in the case of TTIP can be explained on the basis of a change in the field, a notion that is suggestive because of the degree of continuity in the identity of the entrepreneurs of the anti-TTIP campaign in relation to past EU-critical mobilisations. Rather than an increased political cost of EU decision-making at national level, we argue that the introduction of EU-critical ideas can lead to an 'empowering dissensus' where the ability to mobilise citizens on EU issues acquires a renewed importance. We tackle our puzzle through a combination of methods, using semi-structured interviews and network analysis.

No country for acting alone? The neo-Fascist Movement and Lone-Actor Terrorist Attacks in Italy

Democracy in parliament vs. democracy through parliament? Defining the rules of the game in the European Parliament

While an extensive (US) literature stresses the importance of procedural rules in the evolution of parliaments as well as in the legislative process, very few studies have focused on the European Parliament (EP) rules. Whereas the EP's empowerment was significantly influenced by its rules of procedure, the reforms of these rules and their consequences for political actors remain understudied. This paper aims to contribute to the theorisation of the EP's institutional dynamics in light of the North American theories. It examines the challenges faced by the EP due to the rationalisation of its deliberation and the consequences of the procedural changes for the institution, its members and its public image. On the basis of a qualitative analysis of the revisions of the EP rules of procedure from April 1979 to January 2017, it is shown that institutional efficiency has become an objective in itself, but the reforms have had a strong distributive effect by reducing members of the European Parliament's freedom of action. The various reforms have strengthened ‘democracy through parliament' at the expense of ‘democracy in parliament', which could have tremendous consequences for the EP's image among public opinion.

Introduction: the European Parliament at a crossroads

This introductory article discusses the rationale and the aim of this special issue on the European Parliament. Examining the ongoing multidimensional crisis the EU is facing, it emphasizes how the current content has reduced the EU output legitimacy. It also argues that the Parliament has been affected by the recent developments. On the one hand, it has been further empowered with the Lisbon Treaty and the Spitzenkandidaten procedure. On the other hand, the management of the crisis has been essentially intergovernmental and the EP has been sidelined. A second section critically discusses the literature on the EP and highlights the need to further develop our understanding of this institution, which cannot yet be called a ‘normal parliament'. It then presents the articles composing this special issue.

2017

Federal reform and the quality of representation in Belgium

One of the ways in which ‘good' representation can be measured and assessed is by the degree of congruence between the preferences of the population and the preferences and policies of the political elite. One of the arguments for defending decentralisation is that governmental institutions on a smaller territorial scale can be closer to the population, and that they can provide policies that are more responsive to the population of the sub-states. This argument is often made in Belgium, where voters in Flanders traditionally vote centre-right, while the voters of Wallonia vote centre-left, and where federal coalitions need to reflect the preferences of both regions whereas regional governments can be responsive to their voters only. Using data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, this paper tests this assumption and compares the left-right orientation of the population and of governments at the different institutional levels and regions. The findings suggest that sub-state governments are partially more congruent to their sub-state voters than federal governments. However, congruence gaps are less related to constraints in government formation than to changes in behaviour of key political actors.

L'Écrivain et le marché unique la mobilisation des représentants d'écrivains français face au projet de réforme Européenne du droit d'auteur (2014-2016)

This article analyses how the redefinition of artistic property by the EU to build a digital single market affects the mobilisation strategies of two associations of French writers' representatives. The article identifies a double phenomenon: the conservation of previous modes of action due to a path dependency logic and a lack of European social capital; and a transnationalisation of the action as a resistance to a possible supranationalisation, which is the result of the refraction of the Eurocracy field's logics upon the French literary field.

What Citizens Want in Terms of Intra-Party Democracy: Popular Attitudes towards Alternative Candidate Selection Procedures

Reforms of intra-party decision-making processes often rest on the idea that citizens want more direct say in these processes, but empirical data to support this claim are scarce. Using original data from the 2014 PartiRep voter survey in Belgium, this article explores the extent to which citizens support alternative intra-party processes. It shows that voters have heterogeneous preferences in terms of candidate selection procedures and that these are not random. ‘Disaffected' citizens tend to support open procedures, whereas critical citizens tend to prefer closed selectorates, that is, intra-party actors. It also finds that voters' preferences for intra-party models of democracy match their preferences for models of democracy at the system level. Our findings confirm that citizens do have clear preferences for how parties should organise and that these match their general views on how democracy should work.

Framing Exclusion in the Public Sphere: Far-Right Mobilisation and the Debate on Charlie Hebdo in Italy

While the January 2015 Paris terrorist attacks presented a crucial opportunity for far-right mobilisation, the focus on liberal democratic values and Charlie Hebdo's non-conformist progressive profile presented challenges for right-wing discourse. Taking Italy as a paradigmatic case of public controversies on cultural and religious affairs, this article examines the opportunities and constraints generated by multicultural crises for far-right framing choices. A qualitative frame analysis analyses the discourse of three types of far-right actors. While the populist radical right, extreme right, and ultra-religious right groups disagree on crucial criteria for outgroup exclusion, they collectively employed the Charlie Hebdo controversy to redefine their exclusionary discourse on liberal grounds with the goal of gaining legitimacy in the mainstream public sphere.

Born again, or born anew

New-Flemish Alliance (N-VA) burst on the scene barely a decade ago and is now Belgium's largest political party. One explanation for this success is that N-VA is not brand new but rose from the ashes of a dissolved party. How exactly should we differentiate between new and old parties? We use Barnea and Rahat's (2011) analytical framework to assess dimensions of N-VA's newness and capture the party at two stages - start-up and more developed. This shows that N-VA is a successor party, building on its predecessor's ideology and programme, its electorate, activists and organization. However, we also find indicators that the party actively renewed in terms of ideology and party organization. The empirical evidence illustrates that newness of political parties should be conceived of as multidimensional, which allows for a more subtle approach to questions about the origin and varying success of new political parties.

The connection between parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition in the EU. From ACTA to the financial crisis

With no formal division between majority and opposition in the parliamentary arena, the European Union (EU) calls for an approach to political opposition which considers the role of civil society. This article explores the case of opposition to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) within and without the European Parliament (EP) through a political opportunity approach, using the case to reflect on conditions for effective opposition in the EU. The ACTA campaign saw opposed actors within the EP and digital rights groups work together to build coalitions against the agreement. Protests then opened the way for these groups to broker a change of position among other actors, allowing a majority rejection. The ACTA case suggests the need for advocacy by organised groups both within and without the Parliament to construct majorities. Comparisons to similarly successful campaigns bolster this view, as do examples of less effective opposition.

Electoral volatility and the dynamics of electoral reform

Recent elections in Europe have shown that a context of increasing citizen distrust towards democratic institutions may lead to very high levels of electoral volatility and to the emergence of new parties. On the other hand, institutional reforms are sometimes presented as a solution to citizens' discontent with political institutions. Focusing on a specific type of political institution ‒ electoral systems ‒ the question addressed in this study is whether high levels of electoral volatility may trigger electoral reforms. The article investigates the conditions under which reforms affecting the electoral system's degree of openness to new parties were enacted in 25 European countries between 1945 and 2012. The findings demonstrate that volatility due to the emergence of new parties is the most powerful explanation to account for the introduction of electoral reforms, particularly those that hinder the entry of new parties into the system.

Values and power conflicts in framing borders and borderlands: the 2013 reform of EU Schengen governance

The legitimacy gaps of the European Semester. Who decides, what and how

La Tchétchénie de Kadyrov, atout ou menace pour l'État russe ?

Qualifiée « d'État dans l'État » ou « d'étranger de l'intérieur », la Tchétchénie suscite des interrogations quant à la menace de sécurité qu'elle pourrait constituer, malgré son régime loyal à Moscou. L'engagement russe en Syrie et en Ukraine pourrait faire évoluer les positions d'une société exsangue par des années de pacification violente.

« Staan we voor een revolutie op links in Franstalig België »

What ‘‘Brussels'' means by structural reforms: empty signifier or constructive ambiguity?

Varieties of contemporary democratic breakdown and regression: A comparative analysis

The goal of this article is to understand which combinations of explanatory conditions account for the qualitative differences within forms of democratic breakdown (i.e., transition from democracy to a hybrid or authoritarian regime) and democratic regression (i.e., transition within democracy through a loss of democratic quality). The analysis focuses particularly on the specific features of those processes of change ending up with a transition from democratic rule, compared to those producing a simple loss of democratic quality within the democratic regime. Applying two-step fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), the study aims to integrate different types of explanatory factors, offering a fresh and comprehensive perspective on this phenomenon.

Preferences and agreement in legislative parties: testing the causal chain

This research note focuses on two specific dimensions of legislative cohesion: the homogeneity of preferences within a party and party agreement. Although these two dimensions have often been considered as synonyms, it is argued that these two concepts refer to different realities. The authors therefore develop distinct measurements for these two concepts. The authors then examine their statistical relationship, putting to the test the widespread assumption that heterogeneous preferences increase the probability of disagreement. The authors do so by testing the effect of different measures of a member of parliament's ideological distance to her/his party on her/his self-reported frequency of disagreement with her/his party. It is demonstrated that the causal chain linking both concepts is only verified in the case of a conscious ideological distance. The results have crucial theoretical and methodological implications for future research on party cohesion and party unity.

Les métaphores de l'austérité. Abolition et préservation de l'autonomie du champ politique dans les discours de crise en Italie et en Espagne

‘There is no alternative' : How Italian and Spanish leaders' discourse obscured the political nature of austerity

The Eurozone crisis and the remarkable convergence of national governments towards austeritypolicies draw scholars' attention to the discursive strategies that they have used in order tolegitimate their economic decisions. This article studies the common features of austerity discoursebeyond national and partisan boundaries. It relies on an in-depth analysis combining lexicographyand the study of metaphors in speeches of the Italian and Spanish heads of government between2011 and 2013. While drawing on recent work addressing the legitimation of economic policies,this research takes a step back in order to shed light on the broader discourse on which austeritypolicies rely and in order to explain the common patterns in various political actors' discourse.Rooted in a post-foundational approach, it identifies several discursive strategies for depoliticisingeconomic issues (e.g. the construction of an economic common sense, the appeal to externalconstraints and the metaphorical naturalisation of economics), thus unveiling their politicalnature. The ‘restructuring' and ‘rescaling' of social practices are identified as the main mechanismspertaining to the articulation of such a broader hegemonic discourse.

Mobilizing against ‘the invasion': Far right protest and the ‘refugee crisis' in Italy

Far Right Communication in the Third Millennium: The Mediatised Politics of CasaPound Italia

The ‘refugee crisis' in Italy as a crisis of legitimacy

The so-called ‘refugee crisis' marks a crucial juncture in Italian politics. Tapping into the crisis of legitimacy of contemporary European politics, the controversy over migration has triggered discussion of socioeconomic, cultural and security issues. Pressured by public opinion, the EU and Italy have followed the logic of exceptionality, trying to put a halt to the inflow of asylum-seekers rather than pursuing the logic of normalcy that must apply to migration at a global level. Institutional and mainstream actors have mirrored public anxieties and security concerns, endorsing emergency narratives, aggressive policing and militarised border control. Unable to engage with citizens' concerns, they have helped to conflate migration with insecurity, creating a fertile breeding ground for xenophobic, populist reactions. The paper suggests that the refugee crisis is best understood in relation to other ongoing crises in the EU, and that the way it is handled will have significant consequences for future action, shaping the way European societies cope with forthcoming crises and transforming the relationship between states and citizens. Accordingly, it argues that the permanent state of emergency characterising governmental responses so far does not bode well for the future of liberal democracy in Europe.

Italy - Political development and data for 2016

Direct Social Actions in Extreme Right Mobilisations. Ideological, strategic and organisational incentives in the Italian neo-fascist right

Social movements scholarship has increasingly turned to the study of direct social actions (DSAs) in times of economic hardship. This paper broadens this perspective to extreme right organisations. Combining a Political Claims Analysis of newspaper articles and online press releases, with a qualitative discussion of online propaganda material, we explore the engagement in direct social activism by three neo-fascist organisations in Italy: Forza Nuova, Fiamma Tricolore and CasaPound Italia (1996 -2015). Our findings suggest that their propen-sity to direct social activism, rather than being exclusively related to economic distress, responds to a broad set of ideological, organisational and strategic incentives. Ideologically, DSAs are linked to the interpretation of the relationship between ideas and action of historical Fascism and of parts of the Italian neo-fascist tradition. Organisationally, DSAs serve as a tool to build support and solidarity, especially at the local level. Strategically, they are used to frame activism as a direct intervention in defence of interests of native peoples, and against political elites accused of being unresponsive to the needs of citizens. Our results offer a first empirical observation of the use of DSAs by extreme right actors, paving the way for comparative work at the cross-national level and on different arenas of engagement

L'inclusion politique par le corporatisme syndical cocalero au Tropique de Cochabamba, Bolivie

Cette contribution interroge les modalités d'inclusion politique dans le tropique de Cochabamba, région rurale bolivienne productrice de coca, au climat social pacifié depuis l'investiture d'Evo Morales en 2006. Cette inclusion est aujourd'hui conditionnée à l'exercice d'une activité économique, la culture de coca, dont la production est étroitement encadrée par l'organisation syndicale. Ce corporatisme économique est à la fois le fruit de l'héritage de la réforme agraire de 1953 et de la progressive politisation des organisations sociales dans les années 1990, qui ont permis à l'organisation syndicale d'accumuler un ensemble de ressources symboliques, politiques et institutionnelles et de construire une quasi-hégémonie politique dans le tropique. Cette assise territoriale n'est pas sans générer d'importantes frontières politiques à l'inclusion. Elle révèle également les tensions susceptibles d'habiter la relation entre syndicats et État, souvent invisibilisées du fait des controverses toujours tenaces qui alimentent la production de coca.

Organizaciones campesinas y defensa de la coca: contribución a una economía política de la acción colectiva

A partir de las resistencias en torno a la hoja de coca, desarrolladas en la provincia de La Convención (Perú) y en el Trópico de Cochabamba (Bolivia), esta contribución propone estudiar las variaciones en las trayectorias de movilización de las dos regiones a través de una lectura de economía política de la acción colectiva. Al aplicar el concepto de social embeddedness de Polanyi a las organizaciones sindicales de campesinos, demostramos que la capacidad de regulación económica influye en el poder de convocatoria de las organizaciones sociales para la defensa de los intereses relacionados con la coca. Mientras el monocultivo de la hoja de coca en el Trópico de Cochabamba ha permitido a los sindicatos regular esta actividad económica —que el Estado boliviano condenaba y rechazaba—, la diversidad agropecuaria de La Convención y la regulación de los mercados de la coca por el Estado no han permitido a la federación regional de campesinos regular con la misma intensidad las actividades económicas regionales, que han sido más dependientes del Estado o de los mercados. El fuerte enraizamiento social de los sindicatos de cocaleros en el Trópico de Cochabamba permitió importantes movilizaciones sociales para la defensa de la coca, mientras el proceso de desenraizamiento de la federación campesina debilitó la intensidad de las luchas sociales.

Le Parlement européen

The empowerment of the European Parliament (EP) has been extensively studied, notably in relation to the democratic deficit of the European Union (EU). However, the organization of parliamentary work and its impact for the democratic nature of the EU have been largely overlooked so far. This article aims therefore at analyzing the reforms of the rules of procedure and what is at stake during those reforms. We show that there have been numerous reforms since the 1980s, justified by the so-called «efficiency» of parliamentary work. With those reforms, the EP's President and the conference of the presidents as well as the main political groups have been empowered whereas the role of individual members in the European parliament (MEP) has been significantly reduced. Debates in plenary and MEPs' behavior have been more strictly regulated, leaving MEPs with a restricted room for maneuver. The advocates of these reforms have argued that it is the best way for the EP to use the full potential of its formal power and to ensure the credibility of the EP in the interinstitutional negotiations. At the same time, the analysis reveals that these reforms jeopardize the representativeness of the institution and make it more difficult for citizens to understand what is at stake in the parliamentary debates in the EU.

2016

MPs between territories, assembly and party - Investigating parliamentary behaviour at the local level in France, Belgium and Germany

This article introduces the special issue on constituency representation in France, Belgium and Germany. First, it proposes a brief state of the art to show that the literature on European parliamentary systems concentrates on the legislators' activities in the house but it remains comparatively limited regarding their activities outside Parliament. It is even more so in the three countries under study. This lack of comprehensive knowledge is problematic, considering the centrality of political representation in modern democracies but the current context of declining trust and confidence in representative institutions. Second, it describes the data from the CITREP and IMPLOC(BEL) projects as well as the original methodology used by the articles. Indeed, this special issue takes a new approach and combines different types of data and methods to analyse the concrete practices of parliamentarians on the ground. Finally, this article explains the main research questions, hypothesis and variables to be tested in the special issue, including institutional and individual factors.

Conclusion to special issue: ''To the district⋯and beyond!''

This article summarizes the contributions of this special issue on MPs' local work in Belgium, France and Germany. In so doing, it highlights four elements to be taken into account when studying constituency representation: the MPs' incentives related to personal vote and the electoral system but also other motivations; the content of the MPs' activities on the ground; the impact of the district's characteristics; and, finally, the influence of the MPs' career path and institutional position. It proposes further avenues for future research.

Explaining MPs' constituency service in multilevel systems: the case of Belgium

Political representation - the core of modern democracies - essentiallyrefers to a relationship between a representative and those represented by him or her.Therefore, the linkage between citizens and political decision makers is one of the mostimportant topics in the study of democratic political systems. However, the literature onparliamentary systems has concentrated on what MPs do inside parliament on the onehand and on the impact of the electoral system on MPs' behavior on the other hand. Thisaim of this article is twofold. First, it provides a more comprehensive description of theactivities of Belgian MPs on the basis of a mixed-method approach, using data from asurvey, interviews as well as field observations. Second, it addresses four other factorsthat could have an influence on MPs relations to the district, besides the electoralsystem: the level at which they are elected (regional vs. federal), the accumulation ofmandates, the distinction between older and newer parties, and MPs seniority.

"To the district... and beyond!"

This concluding article aims at summarizing the contributions of this special issue on MPs' local work in Belgium, France and Germany. Doing so, it highlights four elements to be taken into account when studying constituency representation: the MPs' incentives related to personal vote and the electoral system but also other motivations, the content of the MPs' activities on the ground, the impact of the district's characteristics, and, finally, the influence of the MPs' career path and institutional position. It further proposes a few avenues for future research.

Christian Rauh, A Responsive Technocracy? EU Politicisation and the Consumer Policies of the European Commission , Colchester, ECPR Press, 2016.

Who makes European Cohesion Policy: a practitioners' learning perspective

Through the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Union subsidizes social inclusion and occupationaltrainee projects. This policy instrument is formulated by European Union institutions and implemented byregions through a call for projects which requires innovative actions and a result-oriented strategy. It is akey vantage point to observe sub-national implementation of an European Union policy instrument in asub-national practitioner's perspective, a topic under-investigated in the literature. For a project to receivefunding, sub-national practitioners must take the European Union requirements (accounting standards,evidence of innovation etc.) and their social needs into account. Against this backdrop, this researchtackles an original question: how can local practitioners adapt their policy actions to fit with EuropeanUnion requirements? Taking the region of Wallonia in Belgium as a case study, the ESF implementationis considered as a specific policy process in sub-national policy sectors. Adopting an in-depth qualitativeperspective, this research contends that it depends on practitioners' learning, practices and experience ofpast applications, their specific socio-economic context and income maximization.

Party rules, party resources and the politics of parliamentary democracies

This article introduces the first findings of the Political Party Database Project, a major survey of party organizations in parliamentary and semi-presidential democracies. The project's first round of data covers 122 parties in 19 countries. In this article, we describe the scope of the database, then investigate what it tells us about contemporary party organization in these countries, focusing on parties' resources, structures and internal decision-making. We examine organizational patterns by country and party family, and where possible we make temporal comparisons with older data sets. Our analyses suggest a remarkable coexistence of uniformity and diversity. In terms of the major organizational resources on which parties can draw, such as members, staff and finance, the new evidence largely confirms the continuation of trends identified in previous research: that is, declining membership, but enhanced financial resources and more paid staff. We also find remarkable uniformity regarding the core architecture of party organizations. At the same time, however, we find substantial variation between countries and party families in terms of their internal processes, with particular regard to how internally democratic they are, and the forms that this democratization takes

Nationalistes flamands (et el Brexit): Aubaine ou casse-tête?

Judicial Globalization, Europeanization and (G)localization: Evidence from the Balkans

Over the last decades, academic interest in judicial globalization and judicial reforms has increased. The literature has gone through three distinctive waves of research. One part of this literature examines judicial reforms from a top-down perspective, revealing the origins and evolution of European/international prescriptions related to rule of law consolidation. By looking at the motivations and actions on the ground, another strand of the existing research examines the effects of these prescriptions at the domestic level. In addition, in recent years, a more reflexive and critical approach to judicial reforms has emerged, questioning not only the modest outcomes of these reforms but also the limitations of the international rule of law community in promoting them. This introductory article reviews this growing body of studies, highlighting the main findings and pointing out new avenues for research. In its final section, it provides an overview of the lines of reasoning and the content of this special issue. Overall, it endeavors to shed more light on judicial reforms in the region and to promote this research agenda, which implies to examine the complex relationship between judicial globalization, Europeanization and glocalization.

The Electoral Sweet Spot in the Lab

Carey and Hix (2011) propose that a proportional electoral system with a moderate number of seats per district offers the best compromise between (1) accurate representation and (2) strong accountability. The argument is that there is a district magnitude (DM) level where the trade-off between proportionality and fragmentation of parties is optimal. This DM is called the sweet spot. We explore this proposition through lab experiments conducted in Brussels and Montreal. We find that the probability of achieving a good outcome on both proportionality and the number of parties is slightly higher at moderate DMs. We note, however, that this probability remains low.

Délégitimer l'Europe. Et si l'UE le faisait exprès?

Numéro spécial "Sotchi 2014 : La Russie à l'épreuve de ses Jeux, les Jeux à l'épreuve du Caucase"

Afscheid van het sociaaldemocratisch model

Welfare Markets and the Democracy of European Integration

As the latest crisis of financial capitalism which broke out in 2008 in the USA put the European banking sector in turmoil, its rescue by public funding caused public debt to skyrocket in the overwhelming majority of European countries.1 Since then, the policies of austerity implemented across Europe have strongly targeted the welfare state(s). Of course, countries receiving financial assistance from the so-called “Troika” (the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund) have experienced the most radical debasing of their social model as drastic cuts in public spending was a condition for their financial rescue. In Greece and Portugal, this has notably translated into large scale privatization plans which included the sale of companies in the sectors of energy, transport, and post as well as public infrastructures such as ports, railways or motorways. In Italy, 120˙000 school teachers have been laid off since 2008, and public funding of universities has dramatically decreased. Vulnerable economies in Central and Eastern Europe have taken drastic measures; like in Bulgaria, where the budget for hospitals fell by 24 per cent in 2009 with many public hospitals being closed or privatized. 380˙000 lost their right to free healthcare as a result of changes in the Public Health Act adopted in January 2010.2 In Ireland too, the austerity plan adopted in response to the bank crisis has brought about a degradation of healthcare services and the adoption of a plan for privatization of the sector by 2016. But the debasing of welfare services3 has not only affected the most vulnerable econo-mies in Europe. In the UK, a country which is not directly involved in the salvage of the euro, the government has implemented a major plan of austerity since the conservatives came to power in 2010. The viability of the National Health Service has been hotly debated and is cause of much concern, as creeping privatization has been on-going over the past years. The funding of schools is equally problematic as needs increase. Even Germany, the economic hegemon of the European Union, adopted the “package for the future” in June 2010, the largest austerity plan in the post-war period. Similar concerns about the sustainability of public funding of healthcare and education under austerity are being debated. France, under the socialist President Hollande, first resisted austerity. The creation of 60˙000 jobs in the Education nationale was a main theme of Francois Hollande's presidential campaign, and the French government has assured that this would not be questioned. In 2014, the government nevertheless adopted a plan foreseeing 50 billion euros cuts in 2015-2017, including 20 billion euros from the funding for healthcare and other social expenses. In Belgium and France, public funding of culture or public broadcasting has been significantly reduced. Besides the consequences of “fiscal consolidation”, some problematic aspects in the liberalized network industries have been more salient as the crisis hit societies. The price of energy, in particular, has significantly increased in proportion to stagnating or decreasing wages. Similarly, the affordability of housing has become problematic in many European countries, thus putting pressure on social housing policies.

Changing democracy? Why inertia is winning over innovation

There is a widespread belief that in order to cure the so-called crisis of democracy, citizens' involvement in decision-making processes needs to be fostered. However, despite the fact that there is a move towards more inclusive institutions in Europe, changes implementing democratic innovations at the national level remain rare. Why are democratic innovations not implemented more often? In this article, we provide explanations on why inertia seems to win over change through an analysis of party elites' willingness to enact democratic innovations across 15 European democracies, by using the PartiRep Comparative MP Survey. This research concentrates on party-level factors: party age, time in government and party ideology. Findings suggest that institutional inertia is partially rooted on the fact that party elites' support for democratic innovations is heavily related to anti-establishment parties, to left-wing parties and to parties with limited access to power.

2015

Radical and Populist Eurosceptic Parties at the 2014 European Elections: A Storm in a Teacup?

The roles of Eurosceptic Members of the European Parliament and their implications for the EU

The 2014 European elections demonstrated the scale and success of the EU's opponents. Radical and populist parties topped the polls in some countries while others gained parliamentary representation for the first time. At the same time, Euroscepticism has entered the mainstream, with an increase of anti-EU rhetoric among government parties and the European Conservative and Reformist group becoming the third largest party in the European Parliament. In this context, this article aims at analysing the strategies developed by Eurosceptics from the left, the right and the mainstream once elected to parliament but also at providing food for thought regarding the implications of an (increased) presence of Eurosceptic MEPs. It provides a typology of four roles played by Eurosceptics, showing the diversity of their strategies. It then argues that the presence of these dissenting voices might be an asset for the EU's legitimacy.

Introduction: Euroscepticism, from the margins to the mainstream

With the advent of the Eurozone crisis, Euroscepticism has become increasingly mainstreamed. This is discernible across Europe at the level of public opinion, among political parties and civil society groups, within the EU institutions themselves and in terms of changing and more challenging media discourses. Against the backdrop of the 2014 European elections and a potential referendum on UK membership of the EU, the purpose of this article is to introduce an evolving debate. It begins with discussion of the ‘state of the art' with regard to the study of Euroscepticism, before focusing on the significance of the latest European elections themselves. It then provides an overview of the various articles in the collection, explaining their relevance in helping to unravel the complexity and diversity of opposition towards ‘Europe' and the extent to which Euroscepticism has become part of the mainstream with regard to European political debate.

The international diffusion of electoral systems: The spread of mechanisms tempering proportional representation across Europe

There is an assumption in much of the electoral engineering literature that domestic episodes of electoral system choice occur in a vacuum, isolated from international influences. Yet this assumption remains largely untested, despite the comparative focus of much of that literature. This article focuses on part of this gap by considering two electoral mechanisms that seek to limit party system fragmentation under proportional representation - low district magnitudes and high electoral thresholds - and shows that the mechanisms have spread across many European countries during the post-1945 period. Analyses reveal that national legislators are more likely to adopt one of these electoral mechanisms when a large number of peer countries have made similar choices within the last two or three years. This effect is robust to various model specifications and to the inclusion of multiple controls. The article also offers some qualitative evidence from case studies and parliamentary debates.

The gap between public preferences and policies on immigration: A comparative examination of the effect of politicisation on policy congruence

The existence of a gap between public preferences for more restrictive immigration policies and relatively expansive immigration policy in Western democracies has received considerable attention. Sometimes, this gap has been explained by the nature of immigration policies: dominated by elites while the public remained uninterested. In many countries, however, immigration has gained considerable salience among the public. There are competing expectations and accounts relating to whether policy-makers ignore or follow public demands on immigration. In this article we examine the potential drivers of variations in the opinion-policy gap on immigration in seven countries (1995-2010). We analyse the effect of the politicisation of immigration on this opinion-policy gap. The strength of anti-immigrant parties is unrelated to the opinion-policy gap on immigration. The salience of the issue and the intensity of the public debate are associated with the opinion-policy gap, and the combination of negative attitudes with extensive media coverage seems particularly conducive to policy congruence.

Neo-fascist mobilization in contemporary Italy. Ideology and repertoire of action of CasaPound Italia.

Although the most researched extreme right actors take the form of political parties, social movements research has recently started analysing extreme right organizations that go beyond ordinary politics and that take the form of 'groupuscular' organizations. However, most existing contributions rely on secondary data and focus mainly on public networks and online activism of extreme right actors and their strategies of action. Very few ethnographic studies of extreme right social movements exist with the result that we still need a deeper understanding of their off-line mobilization, ideological discourse and militancy and how these in turn interact with the choice of specific repertoires of action. In this framework, the aim of this paper is to present the findings of a research project that explored dynamics of militant participation and forms of activism promoted by a neo-fascist organization: CasaPound Italia. Combining ethnography, semi-structured interviews and content analysis, we analyse the communicative, organizational and ideological nature of CasaPound's political engagement, and its heterogeneous, unconventional melange of political references, communication strategies and choices of protest action.

Strengthening the Rule of Law at the Supranational Level: The Rise and Consolidation of a European Network

The aim of this article is to show how (new) modes of governance emerge in EU politics. It seeks to find out how European institutions manage to define new policy tools and modes of governance when their legitimacy is not only contested but it also reveals a regulatory gap. By examining recent debates concerning the ability of the EU to safeguard the rule of law at the supranational level, this article shows that in a field in which politicization raises the pressure to act at the EU level but member states do not delegate more hierarchical powers, the European Commission applies a network approach that spans beyond the EU. This article shows that, in order to strengthen the EU's input, output, and throughput legitimacy, the Commission is creating a complex multi-institutional framework and has introduced a ‘division of labour' between several international bodies and organizations. The article focuses not only on the emergence of this network, but also on its evolution and expansion.

Between faith, expertise and advocacy.

This article analyses the place of religion in European immigration policy. Focusing on the role of faith-based organizations, the purpose is to know how religious issues, actors and references are dealt with in the policy-making process. The method relies on document analysis and qualitative interviews. Our conclusion is mixed: overall, the logics of interactions between religion and immigration are the same at the European and national levels. Religion is neither a proper policy issue nor a legitimizing resource. It is an ethical inspiration and gives credentials to actors from majority denominations, but religious contents have to be translated into secular terms. However, whereas at the national level tensions surrounding Islam have strengthened the political role of minority religions, this is not the case in the European Union. Rather, the policy field is dominated by Christian organizations, who utilize their expertise and influence to act as immigrants' advocates rather than immigrant representatives.

Adieu au modèle organisationnel social-démocrate

Commission Entrepreneurship and the Debasing of Social Europe Before and After the Eurocrisis

The bulk of the literature on 'social Europe' has suggested that social policy at the level of the EU remains to be characterized by the interplay of courts and markets. While we do not disagree with this argument, our objective is to shed light on the European Commission's entrepreneurship, an element which appears to be somewhat bereft of scholarly attention. We show how, by displaying social acuity, defining problems and building teams, the Commission has actively promoted a policy agenda focused on liberal market building at the expense of socially minded regulation. This was however only made possible by a new constellation among the Member States after 2004. We substantiate this claim by documenting the activity of the Commission in two crucial policy domains of the post-Lisbon era: the liberalization of service provision, and the impact of the new macro-economic governance on social policy after the financial and debt crisis.

How to not speak the 'F-word'

The recent financial and debt crisis has resuscitated the debate about European federalism - a theme that seemed not to have survived the painful constitutional adventure that ended with the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. With the adoption of significant policy and institutional measures for tightening macroeconomic and budgetary coordination (including a constitutionally enshrined debt brake), the reforms of the monetary union have undisputedly brought the European Union further on the path towards an ever closer union. In an era where EU integration has been increasingly politicised, and Euroscepticism has been on the rise and exploited by anti-system parties, national leaders have to face a political hiatus and respond to increased needs for symbolic and discursive legitimation of further federalisation. This is all the more crucial for French and German leaders who have brokered the main decisions during the crisis of the eurozone. Against this background, the purpose of this article is not to assess whether, or to what extent, the recent reforms of economic and monetary union have made the EU more federal. Rather, the purpose is to tackle the following puzzle: How have EU leaders legitimised the deepening of federal integration in a context where support for more European federalism is at its lowest? To elucidate this, a lexicographic discourse analysis is conducted based on all speeches held by the German Chancellor Merkel and the two French Presidents Sarkozy and Hollande, previous to, or after European summits from early 2010 until the spring of 2013. The findings indicate that federalism is both taboo and pervasive in French and German leaders' discourse. The paradox is barely apparent, though. While the 'F-word' is rarely spoken aloud, two distinctive visions co-exist in the French and German discourse. The coming of age of a political union through constitutional federalism is pictured as ineluctable, yet as a distant mirage out of reach of today's decision makers. At the same time, the deepening of functional federalism in order to cope with economic interdependence is a ubiquitous imperative that justifies further integration. The persisting gap between the constitutional and the functional vision of European federalism has crucial implications. Insofar as the Union is held responsible for not delivering successful economic policy, political leaders will fail to legitimise both functional and constitutional federalism.

The new Belgian Senate. A (dis)continued evolution of federalism in Belgium?

The 2012-14 reform of the Belgian state has deeeply transformed its Senate. Not only does the reform reduce the legislative powers of the Belgian upper chamber, but it also alters its composition. The former appointment of Senators based on a system of direct and community-based election is replaced by a system of indirect and mixed regional and community-based designation. This article presents this important reform. On the basis of a comprehensive dataset of federal and regional political careers, it also comparatively analyses the profile of the Senators, before and after the reform. Overall, although rules regarding seats allocation have been thoroughly remodelled, we conclude that the reform had neither dramatically affected the subtle balances upon which the Belgian federal state relies nor altered the patterns of Senators' profiles.

2014

Het Front National en de Europese Verkiezingen van 2014

Voting correctly in lab elections with monetary incentives. The impact of district magnitude

Whether people make the right choice when they vote for a given candidate or party and what factors affect the capacity to vote correctly have been recurrent questions in the political science literature. This paper contributes to this debate by looking at how the complexity of the electoral context affects voters' capacity to vote correctly. Correct voting is defined as a vote that maximizes one's payoffs in lab elections with monetary incentives. We examine two aspects of the electoral context: district magnitude and the distribution of preferences within the electorate. The main finding is that the frequency of correct voting is much higher in single-member than in multi-member district elections. As soon as there is more than one single seat to be allocated, voters have more difficulty figuring out whether they should vote sincerely for their preferred party or opt strategically for another party in order to maximize their payoffs. By contrast, the distribution of preferences within the electorate has no significant effect.

To vote or to abstain? An experimental test of rational calculus in first past the post and PR elections

We test the rational choice model of turnout in the lab. We performed laboratory experiments in which participants had to decide whether to vote or not in a number of first past the post and proportional representation elections. We test the predictions of rational choice theory from three different angles:(i) First, we compare aggregate turnout with the Nash equilibrium predictions.(ii) Second, we compare individual decisions with those derived from a rational calculus and count the number of decisions which are consistent with the rational recommendation, and.(iii) Third, we determine, still at the individual level, whether, at the margin, people are more likely to vote as the expected payoff increases.The overwhelming thrust of the evidence is inconsistent with the rational calculus paradigm.

French MEPs and religion: Europeanising ‘laïcité'?

What French members of the European Parliament (MEPs) believe and what they do as a result of these beliefs can be understood in comparison with what we know about MEPs from other member-states on the one hand, and about French national members of Parliament (MPs) and citizens on the other hand. French MEPs do not diverge much from MEPs of other nationalities in the way they deal with religion at the policy level. Significant French specificities remain regarding religion as a cultural and memory reference. The heritage of ‘laïcité' leads to an emphasis on the separation between religion and politics and may be reactivated as a symbolic material to reassert French national identity in confrontation with other political traditions. Religious issues do not make for consensus and are still used as markers of ideological and party boundaries, between right and left and within each side, as they are a relatively costless resource to build a distinctive political profile. Beyond these distinctions, a ‘French way' of handling religion is commonly acknowledged and ‘laïcité' works as an encompassing and resilient framework. The European Parliament (EP) may offer a structure of opportunities and constraints to reformulate slightly the national narrative about religion, but it does not alter the beliefs and practices of French MEPs, who appear largely similar to French MPs and citizens to the extent that they are largely secularised and consider religion as a secondary purpose submitted to political rules and individual choice.

Religion at the European Parliament: An overview

Conclusion

Religion at the European Parliament. Introduction

‘Religion at the European Parliament': purposes, scope and limits of a survey on the religious beliefs of MEPs

The normative power of the EU and Contentious Europeanization: The case of judicial politics

This article explores the relationship between Europeanization and EU integration in the field of judicial politics. It claims that the process of Europeanization engenders contention which creates demands for increased supranational governance. To illustrate this duality, the article draws on the waves of reforms aiming to consolidate the independence of the judiciary in the new Member States of the EU. What is at stake from a political and normative point of view is the post-conditionality debate, the discussion around the Copenhagen dilemma and — conversely — the need to define at the EU level a set of effective mechanisms and instruments of compliance. Empirically, the article discloses the dead angles of Europeanization and reveals that policy implementation in the Copenhagen framework creates functional and political pressures for further integration. In the field of judicial politics, the power of the EU oscillates between spill-over and spill-back.

Quo vadis judicial reforms? The quest for judicial independence in Central and Eastern Europe

This article examines judicial reforms in the new member states of the EU in a comparative perspective. It explores the interactions between domestic and European actors in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and explains why the EU has had a differential impact on the way the principle of judicial independence has been implemented nationally. The differential impact of the EU is explained by considering both the nature of EU conditionality and the relationship between the judiciary and the political actors at the domestic level. The comparison reveals that the power of the EU is greater when tensions at the domestic level between judicial and political actors increase. © 2014 © 2014 University of Glasgow.

A Comparative Perspective on the State of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

A Critical Assessment of the Concept of Europeanization in Light of the State of the Union

Does associational membership affect extreme right voting and anti-immigrant attitudes? An individual and contextual analysis in Belgium

Religion at the European Parliament and in European multi-level governance

Democratic representation and religion

The Politics of Values in EU Governance.

Représentation démocratique et religion.

Siberian chronicles

Aude Merlin, a professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Free University of Brussels, shares her encounters with different people in Tomsk in October 2011. Her short stories draw the past and present experiences of the people and the city together, and contemplates their possible futures. Aude listened to the people's opinions regarding the forthcoming elections, their evaluation of the Soviet past and today life, as well as their inspiration, hopes and concerns. These findings were complemented by her observations of local people going about their everyday business, in cafes, universities, saunas, and on the street. Her understanding of the past and present were enhanced by additional experiences, such as an interview with the Director of the Museum of Political Repression, Vassiliy Khanevich, and attendance at TSU documentaries on human rights activists Anna Politkovskaya and Nataliya Estemirova. Aude begins her work contemplating Tomsk as a 'closed city' but ends asserting that it is in fact an 'open city'. Her subtle observations and philosophical reasoning offer the insight of the experienced traveler and European specialist on Russia.

« Partis et paysage politiques dans l'espace francophone en Belgique »

Attitudes et comportements des électeurs lors du scrutin du 25 mai 2014

Dans le cadre du scrutin multiple du 25 mai 2014, PartiRep a collecté une masse de renseignements relatifs aux positions des partis politiques et des électeurs, tant au Sud qu'au Nord du pays. Cette vaste entreprise a été menée grâce à deux outils. D'une part, le « Test électoral », application en ligne qui a sondé les opinions des principales formations politiques et a mesuré la proximité entre les idées des électeurs et celles prônées par les partis. D'autre part, une enquête pré- et post-électorale, menée auprès d'un échantillon représentatif de 2 000 électeurs de Wallonie et de Flandre concernant leur comportement électoral et leurs motivations de vote.Ce Courrier hebdomadaire dévoile les premiers enseignements de cette recherche. Ceux-ci sont présentés en trois chapitres. Tout d'abord, Ruth Dassonneville et Pierre Baudewyns se penchent sur les transferts de voix qui se sont opérés entre partis politiques entre 2010 et 2014 (en réservant une attention toute particulière à l'électorat de la N-VA) et tentent de dresser le profil des électeurs volatils. Ensuite, Émilie van Haute et Marc Hooghe s'intéressent au degré de satisfaction et au niveau de confiance des électeurs envers les institutions politiques, en opérant une ventilation entre régions, entre partis et entre niveaux de pouvoir. Enfin, Conrad Meulewaeter, Benoît Rihoux, Stefaan Walgrave et Christophe Lesschaeve étudient les différences entre les opinions publiques wallonne et flamande, établissent dans quelle mesure des familles politiques existent encore en Belgique, et analysent les processus de formation des coalitions gouvernementales en Wallonie, à Bruxelles et en Flandre.

The clash of titans: France, Germany and the discursive double game of EMU reform

This paper investigates why and how French and German leaders converged on an agreement for reforming the European Monetary Union in response to the outbreak of the debt crisis in Europe. To answer these questions, we begin by revising Putnam's two-level game in order to offer a constructivist account of the politics of 'grand bargains' in the European Union. The Eurozone negotiations, we argue, are better viewed as a simultaneous double game in which preferences are constructed and reconfigured as leaders address simultaneously the other European decision makers and their own constituencies. In a discursive institutionalist perspective, a frame analysis is conducted on the basis of press conference speeches and press interviews in 2011 and 2012. It is demonstrated that the Franco-German agreements on new policy and institutional arrangements were only possible because the respective leaders resorted to differing discourses in terms of paradigms, norms and values. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Les avatars du néolibéralisme dans la fabrique des politiques européennes

A dialogue of the deaf? Conflicting discourses over the EU and services liberalisation in the WTO

Research Highlights and Abstract: The role of the European Union (EU) in services liberalisation-and the impact thereof on the provision of services of general interest-has been highly contentious both globally and in the EU. Besides other policy issues, services liberalisation contributes to make the EU a 'conflicted trade power' (Meunier and Nicolaïdis 2006). The study of conflicting discourses and, in particular, the EU's responsiveness to criticism towards the conduct of its trade policy can help to understand the legitimacy issues the EU has to face better than approaches focused on negotiating positions shaped. The study finds that the EU's trade policy is characterised by continuity in spite of the a) potentially various ideological profiles of EU Trade Commissioners b) in the face of contention by civil society, c) external events such as the global financial crisis and the EU debt crisis. However, specific institutional settings can prompt political responsiveness from the Commission in a greater extent. In the European arena, unlike in the more loosely structured global arena, the existence of a parliamentary debate and formal as well as informal contacts with organised civil society (NGOs, interest groups and unions) constrain the EU Commission to more discursive responsiveness and provides for better accountability. This article examines interactions between two conflicting discourses over the EU, public services and negotiations during the WTO Doha Round (2001-2012): on the one hand, the discourse of the anti-GATS transnational advocacy network, and on the other, that of the two EU Trade Commissioners. Conducting a frame analysis in a discursive institutionalist perspective, the eventfulness of political interactions is found to be more important than Commissioners' personal views, but differentiated institutional settings are even more crucial: the presence of a parliamentary arena in the EU arena, in particular, constrains Commissioners to engage with the discourse put forward by its critics; whereas in the global arena they tend to stick to their own framing of services liberalisation as a win-win process. The stalling of the Doha Round and the rise of the debt crisis have brought about new ways of framing threats related to the EU's trade policy. © 2013 The Author. British Journal of Politics and International Relations © 2013 Political Studies Association.

Deliberative democracy and the legitimacy of the European Union: A reappraisal of conflict

Connecting the relevant literature in sociology, political theory and European studies with original empirical research, this article calls for a reappraisal of conflict when addressing the issue of the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. It offers a critical account of rationalistic and consensus-based deliberative democracy both in the classical theories of deliberative democracy and in the practices institutionalised in the EU. Drawing on the model of 'discursive democracy' theorised by John Dryzek, it provides an account of the contentious debate over the EU Services Directive (also known as the Bolkestein Directive). It is argued that the EU can function as a polity where democratic legitimacy is granted by deliberation. However, this holds only under two conditions. First, deliberation must be conflict based; that is, it must allow for the voicing of dissent and its channelling into political institutions. Second, supranational institutions and decision making can only be responsive and engage in alleviating conflict through deliberation when conflict is structured along transnational - as opposed to national - lines. © 2013 Political Studies Association.

Reassessing Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe and the Role of the EU

Over the past two decades, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have completed a long transition from authoritarian rule, and joining the EU has been considered to be an indication of the end of the consolidation process. However, this path was anything but linear and in many cases it was marked by concentration and abuse of executive power, a systematic political patronage and a plebiscitary interpretation of democracy. In order to shed light on the meaning of these phenomena, this paper provides for an analysis of democratic consolidation in these countries by way of comparing the cases of Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia. © 2014 © 2014 University of Glasgow.

Le Fonds social européen à l'épreuve des régions en voie de désindustrialisation

L'abolition symbolique du politique, de nécessité vertu. Les réformes budgétaires dans les discours du président du Conseil italien

La récente crise de la dette dans la zone euro a conduit à des plans d'austérité présentant une série de caractéristiques communes. Au-delà des débats surl'efficacité et les conséquences politiques de ces mesures, cet article cherche àcomprendre le discours spécifique qui l'accompagne. Le contexte de crise estconsidéré comme un moment d'exacerbation d'un discours dominant dépolitisé.L'article pose comme hypothèse que les stratégies discursives de dépolitisationse déclinent suivant trois registres distincts : un registre technique etdes références à la globalisation et à l'UE, présentées comme des contraintesexternes justifiant les réformes. L'analyse porte sur le cas italien - considérécomme paradigmatique - étudié à travers 41 discours prononcés par MarioMonti durant son mandat. Les résultats montrent une tendance à présenterl'UE à la fois comme une contrainte (voulue) et comme le lieu approprié pourfaire face aux défis de la globalisation, tandis que la dimension technique dudiscours s'exprime à travers une métaphore clinique des finances publiquesomniprésente.

La partecipazione politica fra crisi dei partiti e democrazia partecipativa - Political Participation between Party Crisis and Participative Democracy

Discourse and practice of violence in the Italian extreme right: frames, symbols, and identity-building in CasaPound Italia

Populism in Bulgaria: The politics of resentment

This article explores the success of populist parties in Bulgaria during the last decade. The first section focuses on the definition of populism and identifies the main populist parties in this country. The second part presents the development of these parties and their specific characteristic as well as the evolution of the "three waves" of populism in Bulgaria. The last section addresses the reasons for the success of these parties both in terms of supply side (the electorate) and the demand side (the strategy of the parties). The main conclusion is that this country is a fertile ground for populist movements due to the attitude of the electorate and the niche on the right-side of the political spectrum and that newly created parties use this opportunity of win elections but they remain short-lived because they cannot continue to mobilize populist rhetoric when they are in office and often face rapid decline.

Chantier de recherche: Poor linkage and lacking representation, a thorn in the side of the European Parliament only

2013

Erasmus, vecteur de citoyenneté européenne? Témoignages d'étudiants belges francophones.

The Challenges of Territorial Representation at Supranational Level: the Case of French MEPs

Mechanisms of Europeanization and compliance in Judicial Politics. Understanding the Past and Anticipating the Future

Religion and Fundamental Rights in European Politics: Convergences and Divisions at the European Parliament

European legislators must increasingly deal with issues related to fundamental rights. Religion is a frequent topic obliging them to do so. It is not directly part of the EU's competences but is a source of values underlying policy choices and a tricky political object. Relying on the findings of a survey about what Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) believe and what they do with these beliefs, the article analyzes potential tensions created by religion in the implementation of human rights by the EU. A first part shows how and to what extent European law meets religion, and how it leaves ample room for flexibility but also for divergent interpretations. A second part states that MEPs agree largely on the principle of separation between politics and religion, but may be divided when it comes to drawing boundaries between the two domains. The conclusion points out the limits of the rule of law to prevent conflicts and suggests that human rights may inspire support as well as cause resistance to Europeanization. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

The End of Voters in Europe? Electoral Turnout in Europe since WWII

Over the past twenty years, the scientific community and politicians in consolidated democracies have been regularly alarmed by political and electoral participation, portrayed as undergoing a brutal and linear decline. Each election is now scrutinized in terms not only of its results but also of its level of electoral turnout. This paper deals with two important issues—the reality of changes in electoral turnout in Europe and the impact of the institutional constraint of compulsory voting in voter turnout levels—through an analysis of 402 elections held in thirty-five States from 1944 until December, the 31st 2009. We do ob- serve a contemporary erosion of voter turnout but at this stage voters are not so impossible to find as some claim they are. Furthermore, the assumption that interest in, and the importance of, compulsory voting as an institutional constraint encouraging voter turnout is confirmed.

Deliberative democracy and the European Union: a reappraisal of conflict

Comment le rideau est tombé sur ACTA.

Développer et communiquer une contre-expertise ou comment la gauche européenne a résisté à la directive Bolkestein

Building Social Dialogue Institutions in Bulgaria

The aim of this article is to examine the evolution of institutions of socialdialogue and actors' perceptions in Bulgaria within the context of the processof Europeanization. The research question addressed by the paper is how andunder what external and internal conditions the institutions of social dialoguein Bulgaria have been built and have evolved over time. The methodology isbased on previous academic research in this field, official national and EUdocuments, newspapers and semi-structured interviews with representativesfrom trade unions and employers' organisations as well as foreign experts.The overall conclusions comprise two interrelated points. First of all, EU conditionality became the main source of change in the area of social dialogue at the national level through technical assistance and the dissemination of ideas and “best practices”. However, it didn't have the same impact in respect of negotiations at sectoral/branch and local levels. Secondly, its role was limited to the time of enlargement negotiations, and above all the effects of its influence were strongly dependent on the commitment of internal actors. These findings therefore support the idea of an impact of the EU mediated primarily by internal actors. However, it is necessary to add a furtherconsideration regarding the intrinsic reasons for the limited and temporary influence of the EU. Concerning the notion of a European social model, the development of integration in this respect can in fact be considered as being only embryonic at the present moment. This becomes even more evident when we look at the secondary role played by those issues during accession. Therefore, if it is possible to draw conclusions about the more general process of Europeanization, these inevitably comprise recognising the causal link between the delay of European integration in the field of social dialogue, and the subsequently limited ability of the EU to play a role in candidate countries and even Member States.

Party members in a pillarised partitocracy

This study examines the pillarised and partitocratic nature of Belgian political parties via an empirical overview of their party on the ground. Two main research questions guide the study: To what extent can party membership figures in Belgium be considered as ideal-typical of pillarised or partitocratic parties? And how does the social and political profile of party members in Belgium correspond to what one might expect from pillarised or partitocratic parties? The study relies on two types of data set: party membership figures since WWII and membership survey data of the four ‘dominant' relatives in each party family in Belgium. The article shows contradicting results. Although party membership figures have nuanced the idea of partitocratic and pillar parties, the analysis of the profile of party members has produced more conclusive results. The members of some parties (PS, CD&V) still display a strong encapsulation in their sociological world, report specific reasons for joining, as well as lower levels of activism than in other parties.The pillar parties in Belgium seem to have reached a paradoxical situation in which their anchorage in civil society is still very strong, yet it relies on a shrinking social basis. These results raise the question of the incentives that parties offer to their party on the ground to mobilise citizens for participation. They indicate a need to look more systematically and empirically at this neglected aspect of party organisation, as it provides important information for the debate on party decline

The appeal of neo-fascism in times of crisis. The experience of CasaPound Italia

Euroscepticism at the supranational level: the case of the 'untidy right' in the European Parliament

For the last 20 years, Euroscepticism has become a stable component of European politics and has attracted much attention. European elections have provided Eurosceptic parties with an opportunity to get parliamentary representation. While there is a burgeoning literature on the Eurosceptic stances of these parties, there remains relatively little research on their strategies once inside the European Parliament. This article analyzes how Eurosceptic MEPs from the ‘untidy right' conceive and carry out their representative mandate in an institution they despise. First, it takes an historical perspective to show that despite the persistence of Euroscepticism in the European Union's elected chamber, the body of research remains comparatively limited. Second, it examines the institutional constraints faced by Eurosceptic representatives resulting from the institutional environment and the ideological heterogeneity of these actors. The final part proposes a typology of parliamentary roles to account for their attitudes and behaviours inside the chamber.© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

2012

Attitudes towards the focus and style of political representation among Belgian, French and Portuguese Parliamentarians

This article analyzes the attitudes of members of parliament towards representation. Based on the PARENEL project dataset, it takes an individual-level approach to examine the focus and style of representation of Belgian, French and Portuguese representatives. It shows that, given the complexity of the process of representation, MPs have various principals and develop multiple foci of representation. It also demonstrates the impact of electoral rules, career patterns and MP's goals on their focus of representation.

« Le conflit tchétchène à l'épreuve de la reconnaissance »

La dynamique démocratique du Brésil (1985-2012)

Contester par l'action collective dans la Russie des années 2000

« Repenser le lien entre violences et Etats au Caucase »

L'état de la démocratie en Roumanie. Difficultés nationales, solutions européennes

Les nouveaux Etats membres et les vieux malentendus de l'intégration européenne

Cet article examine les discours sur la nature de l'Union européenne (UE) promus par les élites politiques slovènes, tchèques, hongroises et polonaises dans le contexte de la présidence tournante du Conseil. Il se propose, d'une part, de voir comment, dans un contexte d'incertitude politique et économique, les nouveaux États membres prennent en charge les défis de l'intégration européenne et, d'autre part, de saisir les tonalités normatives dominantes relatives à la nature du projet politique européen. L'analyse des discours politiques des représentants de l'exécutif de ces quatre États membres révèle la confrontation entre un point de vue « national civique » défendu par le Premier ministre hongrois Viktor Orban et le Président de la République tchèque, Václav Klaus et le développement encore embryonnaire d'une forme de « fédéralisme républicain » soutenu par le Premier ministre polonais, Donald Tusk.

Executive-Legislative Relations without a Government

Traditionally, it is assumed that the executive strongly controls Parliament within the Belgian political system. The absence of a federal government following the 2010 elections had three consequences on the activity of the Belgian Parliament. Some actions were put on hold, and essential reforms were delayed. On other issues, however, Members of Parliament took the lead, developing ad hoc majorities that cut across earlier cleavages between majority and opposition. Third, however, parties continued to vote along the majority of the caretaker government. While it could be expected that this situation, in the long run, might lead to a stronger position of Parliament vis -à- vis government, it is to be expected that traditional power relations will be restored once a full government has been formed. © 2012 European Consortium for Political Research.

Political Representation in Belgium, France and Portugal. MPs and Their Constituents in Very Different Political Systems

Ballot Structure, District Magnitude and Constituency-Orientation of MPs in Proportional Representation and Majority Electoral Systems

Many studies have been devoted to the way electoral institutions shape the representative process in general, and of the relation between legislators and their local constituency. Yet, the majority of these have been hardly comparative. And when they compared countries, these countries rarely differed in many aspects of the electoral system. This article takes a different perspective by looking at the effect of the electoral formula, district magnitude and ballot structure on how important the constituency is for MPs in three countries that differ on these three components of the electoral system: Belgium, France and Portugal. And the results, though they should be confirmed by analyses on more countries, provide interesting insights. In particular they show that the difference in nature between single and multi-member districts is more important for constituency-orientation than differences between multi-member districts. Second, the article shows that the effect of electoral institutions is not straightforward: its impact is stronger on attitudes towards the constituency than on actaul behaviours of legislators regarding their constituency. © 2012 Copyright McDougall Trust, London.

It's Not Only About Lists: Explaining Preference Voting in Belgium

This article analyses the decision of Belgian voters to cast a preference vote on the occasion of the 2009 regional elections. And what appears is that preference votes could be given three meanings. First, preference voting appears to be a sophisticated voting behaviour more accessible to politically interested and involved voters. Less politically active voters more often limit themselves to marking their ballot on the top of the list without differentiating their support among candidates. Second, preference voting is very much a token of voter-candidate proximity. Voters are more likely to support candidates when they know one or several specific candidates directly or via the media. Finally, preference voting is also very much dependent on the structure of institutional incentives. The more influence a preference vote has on the process of intra-party seat allocation, the more likely voters are to make the effort. All in all, this article shows the diversity of motivations behind preference voting, and more importantly the different meanings it could take in elections. © 2012 Copyright Elections, Public Opinion & Parties.

La mémoire européenne en action

Face au pouvoir russe, des mobilisations ténues mais vivaces

Expliquer l'impuissance partisane dans le policy-making européen. Social-démocratie et régulation des services publics

Qualitative Approach to the Quality of Government

Ideological Misfits: A Distinctive Class of Party Members

In this article, we identify a distinctive type of party member; namely, those who identify themselves as ideologically at odds with their party. Using survey evidence from nine parties in Belgium and Canada, we measure the prevalence of these ‘ideological misfits' and explore the characteristics that define them. While there appears to be no systematic cross-party pattern, it is striking that mass parties of the left have disproportionately large numbers of such members. To the extent that those parties pride themselves on intra-party democracy, this raises questions about their capacity to respond to Downsian drives towards the centre and suggests that May's law may be one of left-wing disparity.

Ideological identification of medium-level party cadres in Poland

Beyond the pro/anti-Europe divide: Diverging views of Europe within EU institutions

This general introduction aims at explaining the rationale behind this special issue. EU institutions have long been seen as bastions for Europhile actors and they indeed seem to have, over time, promoted further European integration. This pro-integration bias is here examined through the analysis of three interrelated factors: ideas, interests and institutional logics. But this introduction also shows that there have been diverging views of Europe among EU elites and therefore we argue that it is necessary to explore these views and their impact on EU institutions but also to go beyond the binary pro/anti-Europe divide. It exposes the main research questions that structure the special issue and briefly presents the different articles.

Eurosceptics in the European Parliament: Exit or Voice?

Euroscepticism at the supranational level has remained largely overlooked by scholars. In an attempt to fill in this gap, this article focuses on the persistent minority of hard eurosceptic MEPs. The objective is twofold. First, it aims to determine how Eurosceptic MEPs conceive and carry out their representative mandate. Second, it analyzes the impact of the institutional framework and of the visions of Europe on the strategies of these MEPs. Drawing on the insights of role theory and the dichotomy of A. Hirschman and using a qualitative methodology, the article proposes a typology of three main parliamentary roles (the absentee, the pragmatist and the public orator), corresponding to a continuum between exit and voice. It also shows that both the visions of Europe as well as the institutional context affect the parliamentary roles of MEPs.

Eurosceptycy w Parlamencie Europejskim

2011

1991 en Tchétchénie

Derrotas eleitorais e carreiras políticas. O caso do PT no Rio Grande do Sul

L'opposition politique en Russie aujourd'hui : enjeux et limites

L'opposition politique en Russie

Le système partisan en Russie, la dissymétrie à l'oeuvre. Idéologies, organisations, stratégies d'acteurs

Party Preferences and Electoral Reform: How Time in Government Affects the Likelihood of Supporting a Change

Bulgaria, a Fertile ground for Populism ?

Pour une approche renouvelée de l'opposition politique

En dépit du caractère central de l'opposition en démocratie, peu de recherches théoriques ont été menées sur cette question depuis les années 1970, alors même que le contexte dans lequel l'opposition a été conceptualisée à l'époque a changé de manière fondamentale. Pour cette raison, l'article vise à offrir une nouvelle perspective de l'opposition politique dans les démocraties contemporaines. Après une revue critique de la littérature classique et contemporaine sur le sujet, l'article propose une définition renouvelée de l'opposition qui permettrait de mieux saisir la complexité des dimensions de l'opposition politique. L'article propose également un nouvel agenda de recherche potentiel pour de futures recherches.

S'opposer au sein du Parlement européen: le cas des eurosceptiques

Political Opposition : Toward a Renewed Research Agenda

Despite the centrality of political opposition in democracy, limited theoretical research has been conducted on this issue since the 1970s. However, the previous context of conceptualizing has dramatically changed. This article offers a new perspective on political opposition in contemporary democracies. After a critical review of the classic and contemporary literature on the subject, it proposes a renewed definition of opposition that better grasps the complexity of political opposition in democracies. In addition, the article proposes setting a new agenda for future research on political opposition.

Oppositions Politiques et Politiques d'Opposition : une introduction

2010

New Parliament, Old Cleavages? The Conflict over the Services Directive as an Opposition between the Liberals and the Regulators

This article analyses the parliamentary debates and decision-making related to the highly contentious EU directive on services. It is intended as a contribution to the academic debate on political conflict lines in the European Parliament. Our argument is that neither the left-right cleavage nor a territorial one (old versus new MemberStates) can fully explain conflict at stake on socio-economic issues. Rather, what we can observe is cross-cutting opposition between ‘regulators' and ‘liberals'.

Voting Patterns among Ethnic Minorities in Brussels (Belgium) during the 2006 Local Elections

In recent years immigrant origin ethnic minorities have become a non-negligible electoral group in Belgian cities. Numerous studies have been undertaken in Belgium on the link between immigrant associational life and political participation and on the profiles of politicians of immigrant origin, but not yet on party choice and voting patterns among ethnic minority groups. In this article we present the first analysis of voting patterns of ethnic minority groups in Belgium, making use of exit-poll data on the local elections for three municipalities of the Brussels Capital Region. We investigate whether non-EU immigrant origin voters have a particular party preference which cannot be explained by other background variables such as educational level or socio-economic position. We also look into the issue of preferential voting for candidates of immigrant origin. According to the theory on political opportunity structures one would expect a lesser importance of ethnic voting in the Belgian context (in which ethnic mobilisation is discursively discouraged). Ethnic voting, however, turns out to be quite important in the Brussels' context.

Religion between nation and Europe.

One Country, Two Party Systems ?

Verschuivingen in het stemgedrag in het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest tussen de regionale verkiezingen van juni 2009 en de federale stembusgang van 13 juni 2010

Binnen de Brusselse politieke ruimte heeft de federale verkiezing van 13 juni 2010 niet zulke spectaculaire verschuivingen in stemgedrag teweeg gebracht als in Vlaanderen of in Wallonië wanneer we vergelijken met de verkiezingen van 2007. Desalniettemin zijn er belangrijke veranderingen vast te stellen, voornamelijk de vooruitgang van de Parti Socialiste (PS) en het electorale verlies van de Mouvement Réformateur (MR). Binnen het kader van de timing van het politieke en electorale leven is het toch interessant te kijken naar de laatste stembusgang - de Brusselse regionale verkiezingen van 2009 - om de bewegingen te analyseren die hebben plaatsgevonden op politiek 'korte' termijn, terwijl het politieke leven eigenlijk toch geritmeerd wordt door evenementen en veranderingen die soms zeer snel de percepties en de representaties rond de partijen en rond het politieke leven beïnvloeden. Het zijn de verschuivingen tussen de regionale verkiezing van 2009 en de federale verkiezing van 2010 die we in deze bijdrage analyseren. Deze analyse baseert zich op een 'exit poll' die door het Centre d'étude de la vie politique van de Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) afgenomen werd bij 3.000 Brusselaars.

Shifts in the Brussels-Capital Region electorate between the June 2009 regional elections and the 13 June 2010 federal elections

In the Brussels political area, the 13 June 2010 federal elections did not bring about shifts in the electorate which were as spectacular as those seen in Flanders or Wallonia if we refer to the 2007 elections. Significant changes may nevertheless be seen, in particular the progress made by the Socialist Party and the Reform Movement's loss of ground during the elections. It is nevertheless interesting, in the timing of political and electoral life, to turn to the last elections - the 2009 Brussels regional elections - in order to analyse the shifts which occurred in the Brussels spectrum in the ‘short' period of political life, punctuated by events and changes which affect - sometimes quickly - the perceptions and the representations of parties and political life. The shifts which took place between the 2009 regional elections and the 2010 federal elections are analysed in this article. The work is based on an exit poll organised by the Centre d'étude de la vie politique (CEVIPOL) at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), with 3,000 inhabitants of Brussels.

Les mouvements de voix dans la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale entre l'élection régionale de juin 2009 et le scrutin fédéral du 13 juin 2010

Dans l'espace politique bruxellois, l'élection fédérale du 13 juin 2010 n'a pas occasionné des mouvements de voix aussi spectaculaires qu'en Flandre ou qu'en Wallonie si l'on se réfère aux élections intervenues en 2007. Des changements importants s'y donnent néanmoins à voir, en particulier la progression du parti socialiste et le recul électoral du Mouvement réformateur. Il est néanmoins intéressant, dans le timing de la vie politique et électorale, de se reporter au dernier scrutin en date - les élections régionales bruxelloises de 2009 - pour analyser les mouvements intervenus dans le temps « court » de la vie politique, où cette dernière est rythmée par des événements et des changements qui affectent, parfois rapidement les perceptions et les représentations des partis et de la vie politique. Ce sont les mouvements entre l'élection régionale 2009 et l'élection fédérale de 2010 que nous analysons dans cette contribution. Le travail se fonde sur une enquête « sortie des urnes » organisée par le Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) auprès de 3.000 Bruxellois.

Religion de la politique, religion et politique.

European Political Rituals: a Challenging Tradition in the Making

Les comportements électoraux des minorités ethniques à Bruxelles

Ces dernières années, les minorités ethniques d'origine immigrée sont devenues un groupe électoral non négligeable dans les villes belges. Cet article présente la première analyse des comportements électoraux des minorités ethniques en Belgique, en utilisant des données à la sortie des bureaux de vote lors des élections locales de trois communes de la Région de Bruxelles-capitale. Nous cherchons à savoir si les électeurs immigrés d'origine non-européenne ont une préférence particulière liée à un parti qui ne peut être expliquée par d'autres variables sociodémographiques. Selon la théorie des structures des opportunités discursives, on pourrait s'attendre à une moindre importance du vote ethnique dans le contexte belge, dans lequel la mobilisation ethnique est découragée. Cependant, le vote de préférence pour les candidats Belges d'origine étrangère apparaît comme relativement important à Bruxelles.

Une année politique et électorale très communautaire

When ‘Bolkestein' is trapped by the French anti-liberal discourse

This paper investigates the bottom-up preference formation over the draft Directive over services liberalization and its impact on co-decision at the EU level from the theoretical perspective of discursive institutionalism. Firstly, it is demonstrated that the anti-liberal discourse framed by the French left led President Chirac to reconfigure his strategic interests and embrace a strongly anti-liberal stance against the proposed directive. Secondly, evidence that the anti-liberal discourse framed by the radical left was very efficient in politicizing the directive proposal is provided. This forced the governments to act responsively towards public opinions while using communicative discourse in the intergovernmental realm. Since the French position overlapped some of the key actors' preferences, it played a crucial role in altering the initial balance of powers. The quest for a compromise securing a superqualified majority within the European Parliament implied both the use of communicative discourse against the Bolkestein proposal and the relative neutralization of its anti-liberal aspects.

Avec la société civile: Contre « Bolkestein »

This article explains how, despite a wide consensus on the need to liberalize services as the very cornerstone of the Lisbon Strategy, opponents succeeded in significantly diluting the deregulatory force of the draft EU Services Directive. A study of organized mobilization by left-wing political parties, trade unions and the alter-globalist Attac movement in three countries Belgium, France and Germany reveals institutional and discursive explanatory factors that were closely interrelated. The opponents succeeded in Europeanizing the conflict, and their strategic discourse invoking a social Europe, on the one hand, and stressing the close nexus between the citizenry and the European Parliament, on the other, largely determined the fate of the Bolkestein Directive, which ended in a parliamentary compromise.

Le Parlement européen: des prérogatives croissantes

L'Europe en campagne : une analyse croisée des médias

À travers une étude de la presse écrite dans dix États, cet article analyse la nature des campagnes électorales pour le scrutin européen de juin 2009. Il évalue le caractère de « second-ordre » de ces campagnes et le degré d'européanisation des espaces publics nationaux. Nous démontrons que si ces campagnes restent dominées par des acteurs et thèmes nationaux, l'Europe n'est pas pour autant complètementabsente. Toutefois, l'européanisation des sphères publiques reste limitée : l'analyse montre un faible dépassement des frontières nationales, une rareté des références au niveau européen, une implication faible des acteurs supranationaux et un manque de substance des campagnes.

2009

From Euroscepticism to resistance to European integration: An interdisciplinary perspective

This article aims at contributing to the ongoing academic debate about European integration. It stresses the need for an interdisciplinary approach rooted in history and political science. The argument is twofold. Most of the existing literature overlooks the historical dimension of contention over the making of Europe and implicitly makes it a contemporary phenomenon defined as Euroscepticism. This, it is argued, has led to some major analytical deadlocks. Consequently, it is necessary to reframe the debate through the notion of resistances to Europe. Resistances can be defined as manifestations of hostility towards one (or several) aspect(s) of European integration perceived as a threat with respect to one's values. This notion, this paper suggests, is particularly adequate to the study of past and present contention over European integration, which is highlighted with various empirical examples. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.

Symbolic dimensions of EU legitimization

The European and Regional Elections of 7 June 2009 in Belgium

Religion: a solution or a problem for the legitimization of the European Union ?

Les institutions bruxelloises

From Europscepticism to Resistances to European integration

This article shall be a contribution towards the ongoing academic debate about the theorisation of contention over European integration. The historical perspective put forward prompts the questioning of explanations grounded on the “end of the permissive consensus” and the subsequent rise of Euroscepticism in the aftermath of the Maastricht Treaty. The European integration process shall actually be seen as intrinsically contentious, hence the need for an approach allowing to explain forms of contention since its origins. Therefore, an analysis of resistances to European integration is advocated. Compared to the notion of Euroscepticism, it can better grasp the diversity of actors, motivations, subjective representations of Europe and their variation over time in a less normative manner.

Europe centrale : une européanisation pour le meilleur et pour le pire

2008

Military Justice in Russia

Lectures critiques

The Federal Elections in Belgium, June 2007

The future is imagination, the present is reality. Why do big ruling parties oppose majority systems? A Belgian case study

To most, electoral reforms are motivated by the self-interest of parties. They compare the outcome of several electoral rules and choose the one that maximises their share of seats. The problem with this ‘seat-maximising' or ‘office-seeking' model is that it does not explain why electoral reforms are rare. In most countries, status quo is the favoured option for parties. If parties were simply guided by the hope of gaining extra seats, we would expect to observe more reform proposals. The reason for the stability of electoral rules is that parties are not always ‘bankers'; they are sometimes ‘peasants'. Before going into a risky reform, they will first assess how satisfied they are with the extant electoral laws. Only those that are dissatisfied with the political influence they have will push for a reform.

Les nouveaux souffles dans l'analyse des systèmes électoraux

Morphologie des partis politiques francophones en 2006 et 2007

Les derniers écueils vers la parité aux élections régionales en Belgique

La Belgique impose depuis les années 2000 la parité femmes-hommes sur les listes de candidats pour les élections aux différents niveaux de pouvoir (local, régional, fédéral et européen). Cette obligation a accru la féminisation des assemblées pour atteindre entre un quart et un tiers d'élues. Le progrès est donc réel mais la stricte parité reste éloignée. Cet article s'interroge sur les raisons de ce « plafond de verre ». Elles sont à chercher dans la réticence des partis à accorder les premières places sur les listes à des candidates, et encore plus à placer une femme en première position. Dans un scrutin proportionnel de listes semi-ouvertes, la part d'élues s'en trouve automatiquement réduite, surtout lorsque la magnitude des circonscriptions est faible. Parmi les motivations de ces réticences à la parité l'une des plus importantes est la conviction que les candidates seraient de moins bonnes « locomotives électorales » que leurs homologues masculins. Pourtant, et cet article le démontre, ces craintes ne résistent pas à l'épreuve des faits. Une analyse détaillée des résultats électoraux en Belgique montre bien que les femmes ne réalisent pas de moins bonnes performances électorales que les hommes lorsqu'elles sont placées en tête de liste.

Dieu loin de Bruxelles: L'européanisation informelle du religieux

June 10th 2007 : after the Halycon Years… Stormy days for the PS

La cristallisation des résistances de gauche à l'intégration européenne

Dissent over the European Constitutional Treaty within the French Socialist Party

2007

"Le pluralisme politique en Russie : destin d'une peau de chagrin ?"

Etudier le communisme et le postcommunisme en histoire et en sciences politiques

La consolidation des garanties d'indépendance de la justice dans la Roumanie postcommuniste

Electoral Reforms in Romania

After the fall of the communist regime, Romania chose to adopt a very inclusive electoral system, namely PR with low threshold and a guaranteed representation of minorities. Since then, the story of the Romanian electoral system is the story of a movement to make the electoral law less inclusive. Legal thresholds have been introduced and raised, and proposals to shift to a majoritarian system are gaining ground among Romanian politicians. In this article, the main motivations pushing for a less inclusive electoral law are examined. It appears that the largest Romanian parties hope the reform will strengthen their political representation. Yet, by proposing a less inclusive electoral law, they are playing a risky game in a political system still marked by high electoral volatility. Furthermore, the dominant model of democracy that guides the choice of electoral rules has evolved. The new model of democracy gives a reduced role to parties and a bigger role to individual politicians. Finally, the memory of the democratic interwar period is losing influence among the Romanian political elite. Consequently, the proportional representation (PR) system in use during this period is losing its attractiveness.

Eerste lessen uit de automatische benoeming van burgemeesters in Wallonië

Strategies Under the Surface: the determinants of redistricting in Belgium

Most of the time, electoral reforms are seen as decisions taken by political players aiming at increasing their seat share.1 According to Benoit's model, parties rank reform plans according to whether they maximize their share of seats (Benoit,2004). In that respect, the decision of the Belgian government to change district boundaries for the 2003 federal elections is rather strange, as the reform adopted has no mechanical impact on the allocation of seats among parties. This does not, however, mean that this redistricting is one of the few reforms not driven by strategic considerations. Belgian parties are driven by other forms of strategy lying under the surface. As a matter of fact, four power-related elements have played a part in the decision to change district boundaries. Firstly, the change to province constituencies was made to reduce the uncertainty of parliamentary careers caused by the two-tier system in use up to 2003. Secondly, promoters of redistricting tried to introduce a new campaign structure, which they hoped would be more appropriate for their party. Thirdly, large parties required to introduce a 5% threshold jointly to the redistricting. The threshold was meant to block smaller parties and consequently to favour larger ones. And finally redistricting was also pushed by centralized parties expecting this reform to increase their control over decentralized party structures. All these strategies show that in the study of electoral reform, political science will have to go beyond merely considering its impact on each party's share of seats.

Le profil des élus et des candidats francophones aux élections fédérales du 10 juin 2007

De impact van kieskringgrotte op de geografische vertegenwoordiging in België. Een onderzoek bij de federale en regionale verkiezingen van 2003 en 2004

The issue of territorial representation is at the very heart of many studies about elections under majority rule. As concerns PR systems, representation is most of the time associated with social and political representation, but hardly with geographical representation. This lack of interest for territorial diversity in PR systems is rather surprising as in most PR countries the legislator took the geographical dimension into account by opting for subnational constituencies (except in the Netherlands and Israel). In order to bring territorial representation in PR systems on the research agenda, this article investigates the relation between district magnitude and the territorial profile of candidates and elected politicians. The aim is to verify whether smaller districts lead to candidates and MPs with a stronger local anchorage and whether in larger constituencies candidates and deputies have a more national stance.

Electoral Reforms in Romania: Towart seds a Majoritarian Electoral System?

L'européanisation informelle du religieux. Etat de la question

Les partis socialistes d'Europe du Sud, des organisations performantes

Le schéma organisationnel et le poids politique des partis socialistes du sud de l'Europe a souvent été décrié eu égard au modèle social-démocrate des partis d'Europe scandinave et centrale voire à la tradition travailliste britannique. Cette contribution teste le caractère performant des organisations des partis socialistes français, italien, grec, et portugais dans une perspective évolutive et comparée. La comparaison est réalisée entre partis socialistes du sud et entre partis socialistes du sud de l'Europe et partis sociaux démocrate du centre et du nord de l'Europe. Les indicateurs utilisés sont, pour les performances externes, les résultats électoraux et le potentiel de coalition et, pour les performances internes, l'évolution des affiliés et la qualité du leadership.

Les élections communales du 8 octobre 2006 en Belgique

Le 8 octobre 2006 se sont tenues les élections communales. Celles-ci revêtent toujours une importance marquée en Belgique eu égard au poids des communes dans la structure institutionnelle belge et compte tenu de l'enracinement local des mandataires politiques. Le scrutin a dégagé un certain nombre d'enseignements intéressants pour la vie politique belge, à une encablure des élections législatives du 10 juin 2007. Les élections communales sont intervenues dans un contexte institutionnel nouveau, suite à la régionalisation de la loi provinciale et communale. Elles se sont aussi déroulées dans un moment politique marqué, surtout, par les difficultés du VLD dans le spectre politique flamand et du PS, confronté aux « affaires » à Charleroi et au dossier ‘Sotegec' à Namur, dans l'espace francophone. Cette contribution se déclinera en trois temps. En première approche, nous rappellerons le cadre dans lequel est intervenu le scrutin municipal. Dans un deuxième temps, nous analyserons la performance électorale et politique des partis dans les trois espaces régionaux, flamand, bruxellois et wallon. Enfin, nous envisagerons l'impact des élections communales sur les partis et leur stratégie à l'horizon des élections fédérales du printemps 2007.

Les rapports entre droit et politique dans un contexte d'instabilité institutionnelle : Effet de contagion ? Le cas de la Belgique fédérale

Introduction

La cohésion des cadres intermédiaires

2006

Les élections brésiliennes de 2006

Coups et coûts d'un échec électoral

Les défis de l'européanisation dans la réforme du système judiciaire roumain post-communiste

Cet article se penche sur la réforme de la justice entamée les dernières années en Roumanie dans le contexte de l'adhésion à l'Union européenne. S'agissant d'un cheminement lent et difficile, dont les résultats ont conditionné l'adhésion en 2004 et en 2007, l'objectif est de décrire et expliquer la manière dont la Roumanie s'adapte aux exigences européennes relatives à la mise sur pied d'un système judiciaire indépendant. L'article propose un cadre théorique fondé sur le concept d'européanisation afin d'appréhender la façon dont les acteurs étatiques et non étatiques roumains répondent aux pressions d'adaptation européennes et d'interpréter ces réponses à la lumière de quelques facteurs explicatifs : exogènes (les mécanismes d'européanisation de l'Union européenne) et endogènes (la nature de la politique soumise à l'analyse et les préférences politiques des acteurs impliqués/concernés par ce processus de changement).

Towards Regulation Lobbying in Romania

This paper focuses on the functional representation in post-communist Romania, addressing the question of interest groups regulation. Taking into account the novelty of this matter in the Romanian political system, the aim of this article is to describe and understand why the question of regulating lobbying has entered the Romanian political agenda ten years after the collapse of the communism. In other words, this contribution tries to illustrate the reasons for, and the public reaction to a legislative proposal introduced in 2001 by a social-democrat Member of the Parliament (MP). By focusing on the point of view expressed by the main political and social actors involved in the subsequent political and public debate, the paper maintains that regulating lobbying has been put on the political agenda of this country in the hope of solving some dysfunctional aspects observed in the domestic process of decision-making. It argues that, in the Romanian political landscape, regulating lobbying become a multifaceted coin. For instance, when supporting the idea of regulating lobbying, the rationale of the Romanian Government was to reduce corruption, the main explanatory statement of the Social-Democrat MP was to change the modus operandi/behaviour of interest groups and to create a new profession, while among the reasons expressed by some of the social actors involved in the public debate the creation of a legal framework allowing the participation of non-state actors in the domestic process of decision-making occupied an importance place.

Morphologie des partis politiques francophones en 2004 et 2005

Regionalist Parties in Belgium (VU, RW, FDF) : victims of their own success ?

This paper tackles the question of regionalist parties, a quite underdeveloped aspect of the literature, even if the phenomenon is of increasing importance in European democracies. In that sense, Belgian regionalist parties (VU, FDF and RW) are an interesting case study. They recorded significant success in the 1960s-1970s. Yet, three decades later, they disappeared or declined severely. This paper shows how this ‘Icarus' fate' is explained by the fact that Belgian regionalist parties were victims of their own success. After having demonstrated the incomplete and indirect success of these parties using Harmel's dimensions, this study demonstrates how this success turned all favourable indicators red, leading to the decline and extinction of the three regionalist parties.

Political roof and sacred canopy ?

Quelle communication pour une Europe politique ? L'exemple du religieux.

Quels présupposés pour la démocratie européenne ?

L'échec de la négociation sur la circonscription électorale de Bruxelles-Hal-Vilvorde

La Moldavie entre deux mondes

Preface : Interest Politics in Central and Eastern Europe

Antimicrobial therapy for intra-abdominal infections: guidelines from the Infectious Disease Advisory Board (IDAB).

Intra-abdominal infection is a common cause of severe sepsis in a hospital setting and remains associated with a significant morbidity, mortality and resource use. Early adequate surgery or drainage remain the cornerstones of intra-abdominal infection management and impact on patients outcome. Concomitant early and adequate empiric antimicrobial therapy further influences patients morbidity and mortality. Multiple empirical regimens have been proposed in this setting, but rarely supported by well designed, randomized-controlled studies. The current manuscript summarizes the recommendations of the Infection Disease Advisory Board on the management of intra-abdominal infections. Empiric antimicrobial therapy for the most common causes of abdominal infections is proposed. In addition, particular attention has been paid on antibiotic treatment duration.

Interest Politics in Central and Eastern Europe

2005

From spirituality to governance ?

From spirituality to governance?

La Tchétchénie sans Maskhadov

Regional and european election in Belgium

The amendment of the Labour Code in Romania. Employer's associations and trade unions: from organisational fragmentation to interest aggregation

Entre personnalisation et réformes électorales. Le vote préférentiel aux élections régionales du 13 juin 2004

The adaptation of the electoral system to the ethno-linguistic evolution of Belgian consociationalisme

Complying with the idea that institutions could be used “to manage conflict democratically in divided societies” (Belmont et al., 2002, p. 3), the Belgian state has reformed its institutions in the past 40 years to accommodate ethno-linguistic tensions between Dutchspeakers and French-speakers. While less frequently mentioned, electoral rules have also been adapted to this ‘ethnicization' of Belgian politics. Interestingly, changes made to the electoral system for managing tensions between the two linguistic communities followed the core principles of consociationalism. This observation supports the idea that, when an existing pattern of conflict resolution has existed in a country for decades, it tends to remain the guiding line to accommodate tensions even when new types of conflicts emerge.

Les élections régionales et européennes du 13 juin 2004

Le profil des candidats francophones aux élections fédérales du 18 mai 2003

La démocratie représentative fonctionne avec un écart entre la composition sociologique des assemblées et celle de la population. Des revendications déjà anciennes et non spécifiques à la Belgique tendent à réduire cet écart en vue de rendre les assemblées moins élitistes. L'étude menée par le Centre d'étude de la vie politique (Cevipol) de l'Université libre de Bruxelles aborde cette question en se focalisant sur l'accès aux mandats représentatifs lors du scrutin de 2003 pour l'élection de la Chambre et du Sénat. Sont analysés les profils sociologiques des candidats en présence sur les listes des cinq partis francophones à représentation parlementaire, ainsi que les profils des candidats en place éligible, des élus, et enfin des députés et des sénateurs siégeant effectivement après le jeu des suppléances. Avant cela les auteurs rappellent le cadre dans lequel s'opère la sélection des candidats : les conditions légales d'éligibilité et les modifications récentes de la législation électorale ayant eu un effet sur les candidatures aux élections fédérales, ainsi que les règles propres aux partis en matière de confection des listes.

Le profil des candidats francophones aux élections régionales et européennes du 13 juin 2004

L'étude du Cevipol sur l'accès aux mandats représentatifs lors du scrutin de 2003 pour l'élection de la Chambre et du Sénat a permis de vérifier un constat récurrent des démocraties représentatives, à savoir le caractère élitaire de la classe politique. En étudiant les profils sociologiques des candidats en présence sur les listes des cinq partis francophones à représentation parlementaire, les auteurs mettent à jour les critères de sélection formels et informels mis en œuvre par les partis lors de la confection des listes, avec une sélectivité croissante pour les places éligibles. L'analyse du profil des candidats de 2004 confirme en grande partie les enseignements de 2003. Élitisme et renforcement de cet élitisme pour les places éligibles et les élus (effet d'entonnoir) se vérifient pour l'ensemble des variables considérées. Cependant, certaines différences entre les trois élections (régionale wallonne, régionale bruxelloise et européenne) sont à noter. C'est au Parlement européen que les barrières à l'entrée sont les plus fortes. À l'inverse, les élections régionales semblent à certains égards plus ouvertes, à tout le moins au niveau des candidatures.

L'européanisation de la représentation communautaire

Dans un contexte d'intégration européenne croissante, il convient de s'interroger sur la manière dont réagissent les partis politiques à cette européanisation. Plus particulièrement, il est pertinent d'analyser ce qui est européanisé et dans quelle mesure. A cette fin, nous nous sommes penchés sur la façon dont les évolutions de l'intégration européenne se reflètent dans les manifestes électoraux des partis belges francophones des prémisses de l'Acte unique européen aux récents débats sur le projet de Constitution européenne. A partir de l'approche fit vs misfit de Börzel et Risse, nous avons comparé les évolutions européennes des différentes formations du spectre politique francophone de Belgique. Dans un second, nous présentons comment leurs attitudes, positives ou négatives, se traduisent dans leur posture sur les questions économiques, sociales et environnementales (policies), ainsi que sur celles ayant trait aux évolutions institutionnelles de l'UE (institutions). Au final, la position pro-européenne, traditionnellement associée à la Belgique, ne se traduit pour autant pas par une totale satisfaction sur le contenu de l'intégration européenne. De plus, de réelles divergences, notamment entre le centre-droit et le centre-gauche, peuvent être épinglées sur la scène politique belge francophone.

Transformations du politique sous les regards des médias

Electronic voting in Belgium

The European Consociational Model: an Exportable Institutional Design ?

La Moldavie

2004

The march 2004 regional elections in France

L'Europe comme espace politique et médiatique

Les nouveaux européens aux urnes

Idool 2006 : Naar een rechstreekse verkiezing van de burgemeester in België

Het gebruik van de voorkeurstem bij de regionale en Europese parlements-verkiezingen van 13 juni 2004

Sur la voie d'une réforme du mode de désignation des bourgmestres

Le scrutin du 18 mai 2003 à l'aube de la nouvelle contrainte institutionnelle

The Belgian Federal Election, 18 May 2003

Les élections fédérales du 18 mai 2003

Le 18 mai 2003, les citoyens belges se sont rendus aux urnes pour désigner de nouveaux représentants à l'échelon fédéral. Le paysage politique en est sorti redessiné, tant du côté francophone que du côté flamand. Le succès grandissant de l'extrême droite, mais aussi la victoire des socialistes et des libéraux, ainsi que la défaite des verts et, dans une moindre mesure, celle des sociaux chrétiens sont les signes majeurs et les principaux enseignements de ce scrutin. Dans la série des cycles de 1995 et 1999, le scrutin 2003 entame un nouveau round électoral. Celui-ci prendra fin en juin 2004, avec les élections régionales et européennes. Dans cette optique, il est intéressant de se pencher sur ces élections «surprise». Dans un premier temps, nous effectuerons un rapide retour sur le scrutin précédent et l'expérience gouvernementale inédite en Belgique de la coalition «arc-en-ciel» (législature 1999-2003), avant de poser le contexte dans lequel se joue le suffrage 2003, pour enfin présenter les résultats de celui-ci.

Écolo et les élections du 18 mai 2003

2003

Russes et Caucasiens à la fin du XXème siècle

Européanisation et coopération paneuropéenne des partis

Révisions constitutionnelles et intégration européenne. La révision de la Constitution de la Roumanie (2003)

Le protocole européen ou la mise en forme d'un ordre politique inachevé

Le protocole européen ou la mise en forme d'un ordre politique inachevé

Le protocole européen ou la mise en forme d'une ordre politique inachevé

Les élections locales au Nord-Caucase

Les élections législatives en Ukraine

Les dérives autoritaires en Asie centrale

La Cour constitutionnelle de la République de Moldova

Les termes nouveaux du droit électoral aux élections fédérales

Du parti catholique au Centre démocrate humaniste

Les cadres intermédiaires du PSC et du mouvement réformateur

Les cadres intermédiaires du parti socialiste et d'Écolo

Parlamentele din Europa Centrala si Orientala

L'émergence, l'organisation et les spécificités des partis politiques dans les pays candidats

2002

Le parti travailliste face aux Communautés européennes (1979-1992)

Nationalisme ethnique et projets de partition au Nord-Caucase

Des Golden Sixties électorales pour le PCB ?

Européanisation et coopération paneuropéenne des partis

La coopération paneuropéenne des partis politiques

Justice constitutionnelle et transition démocratique en Arménie

Justice constitutionnelle et transition démocratique en Arménie

Les stratégies institutionnelles de la réforme du pouvoir local en Russie

La décision de la Cour constitutionnelle de Russie sur la constitutionalité de l'intervention militaire en Tchétchénie

La crise de l'unité étatique en Géorgie

Les élections législatives en Azerbaïdjan

La lutte contre l'opposition en Asie centrale et en Azerbaïdjan

les élections locales dans plusieurs Etats de la CEI

L'implosion et la fin d'un parti

Les accords du Lambermont - Saint-Polycarpe

La nouvelle réforme de l'État

2001

Dire l'Europe.

Les grandes familles politiques en Europe centrale

Dire l'Europe. Les publications grand public de la Commission européenne : entre rhétoriques politique et bureaucratique

Traduction de l'entretien avec Avtandil Demetrachvili, Président de la Cour constitutionnelle de Géorgie

Les conflits entre les pouvoirs au Kirghizstan

Traduction du russe vers le français.

La Cour constitutionnelle de Russie face au conflit de 1993 entre le Président et le Parlement

Le procès du PCUS

La mise en place des juridictions constitutionnelles dans l'ex URSS

La pratique de la Cour constitutionnelle de la Fédération de Russie dans le domaine du fédéralisme

La mise en place de la Cour constitutionnelle du Kirghizstan

Les élections législatives en Arménie et en Moldova

La composition du gouvernement en Arménie

La Belgique et l'Union européenne

Les élections communales et provinciales du 8 octobre 2000

L'extrême droite en Belgique francophone

2000

Réformes de l'administration, évaluation et partis politiques

La politique de légitimation symbolique de l'Union européenne

Les conflits armés dans la CEI

Crises politiques et insurrectionnelles dans la CEI

Belgique

La République d'Albanie et la question du Kosovo

1999

Communisme et extrême gauche

1997

Géopolitique de la crise albanaise

Promeny belgického systému

Les adhérents d'Écolo et le rapport au catholicisme

Le déclin et l'évanescence des communistes de Belgique

I socialisti francesi di fronte all'UE

Extrême droite et démocratie

Il socialisti francesi di fronte all'UE

L'Albanie face aux minorités

La difficile démocratisation albanaise

1995

L'Albanie face aux minorités

1994

La minorité hongroise de Slovaquie sous le gouvernement Meciar

Belgique

Aux origines des Communautés européennes

Nationalisme et internationalisme (1848-1914)

La crisi europea e l'impasse della sinistra

1993

Les élections législatives tchécoslovaques de juin 1992

1991

L'économie albanaise en 1990-1991

L'option de la Communauté européenne en matière culturelle

1990

La fin de l'immobilisme en Albanie ?

Les échanges entre l'URSS et l'Union économique belgo-luxembourgeoise (1975-1990)

1988

Évolution et perspectives du commerce entre la Belgique et les pays européens membres du CAEM (1975-1987)

Sans date

Alternative Patterns to Electoral Autocracy

La liberté n'est jamais donnée

Les partis politiques en Europe centrale et orientale

Organisation et politiques du sport dans les PECO après 1989

Les élites intermédiaires dans les partis politiques d'Europe centrale et orientale

Articles dans des revues sans comité de lecture

A paraître

La société civile russe à l'épreuve de l'invasion de l'Ukraine/Russian civil society put to the test by the invasion of Ukraine

2024

Online gewoonten: het socialemediadieet van kiezers

Dit artikel geeft een uniek inzicht in het politieke gebruik van sociale media door kiezers van verschillende partijen, in de context van de verkiezingen van 9 juni 2024. Daarvoor baseert de analyse zich op de enquêtegegevens van het kiespanel die zijn verzameld in het kader van het interuniversitaire consortium ‘NotLikeUs'. Onze analyse richt zich op de gegevens die werden verzameld onder Vlaamse (N=2.781) en Waalse (N=1.333) respondenten, tijdens de officiële campagne, gekoppeld aan de partijkeuze en verzameld na de verkiezingen. De gegevens werden gewogen op basis van leeftijd, opleiding, geslacht en stemkeuze op federaal niveau in 2024.

L'Arménie dans la tourmente

Brussel: de polarisatie is compleet

Comment les partis politiques francophones séduisent ou divisent sur le réseau social X

Ces dernières années, les démocraties semblent être confrontées à un double phénomène : celui de la fragmentation de leurs sociétés, et celui de la polarisation (idéologique, voire affective). Les représentant·es politiques sont régulièrement accusé·es d'attiser les sentiments négatifs entre groupes sociaux, notamment par l'intermédiaire de leur communication en ligne. Dans cette contribution, nous nous intéressons à la communication des partis francophones et de leurs président·e·s, sur le réseau social X.

Hoe spreken politieke partijen ons aan op X?

Traditionele partijen zoals CD&V en Open VLD verwijzen veel minder naar outgroups op X, terwijl populistische partijen zoals PVDA en Vlaams Belang bijna even vaak, of zelfs vaker in het geval van Vlaams Belang, verwijzen naar outgroups dan ingroups. Hetzelfde geldt voor N-VA.

Quand les nuages tentent de s'entremêler à l'arc-en-ciel: L'extrême droite et les personnes LGBTQIA+

À quelques mois des élections régionales, fédéraleset européennes de 2024, le spectre des partis de l'extrêmedroite plane sur la Belgique. Dans l'agendade ces partis, les questions touchant aux droits despersonnes LGBTQIA+ (lesbiennes, gays, bisexuelles,trans, queers, intersexuées, asexuées et autres) sontbien présentes. Parler de la relation entre les personnesLGBTQIA+ et l'extrême droite peut paraîtrecontradictoire du fait des liens de ces partis avecdes mouvements religieux, conservateurs et hostilesaux personnes LGBTQIA+ dans de nombreux payseuropéens. L'objectif de ce chapitre est de décrypterle lien complexe et les stratégies mises en place parles partis d'extrême droite autour des questions liéesaux personnes LGBTQIA+.

La Géorgie à l'heure de l'invasion de l'Ukraine

2023

Le Haut-Karabakh arménien : suite et fin

Horizon 2024: hoe staan PS, Ecolo en PTB aan de start?

De l'impérialisme russe

Vers un exode forcé des Arméniens du Haut-Karabakh?

Les élections de 2022 au Brésil, entre alternance et maintien

2022

Guerre en Ukraine : voix de Russie

L'année électorale 2021 en Amérique latine. Le temps des recompositions politiques

Les pasteurs et mouvements évangeliques mobilisés pour la démocratie au Brésil

2021

L'Union européenne et la protection sociale: c'est compliqué!

La liberté académique aux prises avec de nouvelles menaces

Le Haut-Karabakh aux prises avec les séquelles de la guerre : la vie sur fond de nouveau statu quo

« Le peuple n'est pas le nom d'une unité sociale »

Les élections municipales de 2020 au Brésil : un ancrage local du vote conservateur

Brésil : le gouvernement Bolsonaro tombe le masque

2020

New challenges to liberal democracy in times of COVID-19

Le virus de l'austérité

Crise des subprimes en 2008, crise sanitaire majeure en 2020 : ces deux épisodes ne sont pas étrangers l'un à l'autre. Ils procèdent d'une même histoire longue, celle de l'austérité néolibérale, et présentent de nombreuses ressemblances quant à leur déroulement et quant au discours du pouvoir à leur propos. Et surtout, ils nous laissent entrevoir le scénario d'un avenir bien sombre sur lequel il faudra agir.

Religion, European Elections and EU politics. A Resilient Second-Order Factor for a Second-Order Polity?

The purpose of this article is to make sense of the resurgence of religion on the political agenda of a secularizing Europe. Here, the focus is placed on the European Union (EU). The religious factor is considered alternatively as an influence on political attitudes and behaviours; as an ideological and party component; and as a controversial policy stake. Thus, we analyse the effects of the religious factor in past European elections as an element framing the perception of European integration and the vote. We then document the crisis affecting the Christian-Democratic family incarnated by the European People's Party (EPP) and competing narratives on religion aimed at claiming leadership in the redefining the core ideology and boundaries of this political family. Two cases studies are developed: The ‘Hungarian crisis' and identity politics promoted by Viktor Orban; and the Spitzenkandidaten process to select the EPP candidate running for the presidency of the European Commission. We finally study the treatment of religion as a policy issue within the European Parliament (EP) and discuss its potential to become a bone of contention in the 2019-2024 legislature.

«Belgique: la dernière crise? Les verts au balcon?»

Les tontons flingueurs de la politique environnementale brésilienne

2019

The EU Counter-Radicalization Strategy as 'Business as Usual'? How European Political Routine Resists Radical Religion

Vert de rage ? Une analyse du duel MR-Ecolo au coeur de la campagne électorale de 2019

Cet article propose de revenir sur les choix stratégiques des partis lors de la dernière campagne électorale et d'analyser l'impact que ceux-ci ont pu avoir sur les mouvements d'électeurs. En mobilisant une analyse du débat public durant la campagne ainsi que les premiers résultats d'un sondage à la sortie des urnes organisé par le Centre d'étude de la vie politique, nous proposons d'étudier et de donner des clefs de compréhension de la stratégie du MR dans son duel avec les verts au coeur de la campagne pour les élections législatives et européennes de 2019.

« Brésil : l'arrivée au pouvoir de l'extrême droite »

Brésil : l'arrivée au pouvoir de l'extrême droite

2018

In the war

“Trinta anos da “Constituição cidadã”: contribuições da História e da Ciência Política”

“”A Constituição de 1988 os paradoxos da democracia brasileira” - entrevista com Olivier Dabène”

Un système politique saturé ?

« Gemeenteraadsverkiezingen 2018. Versnippert Wallonië? »

« Plan large sur la Belgique. Une gauche en désordre de marche »

« Corruption et réforme politique : l'inertie politique du Brésil avant les élections de 2018 »

2017

Hoe links is Emmanuel Macron?

Testing Times for Turkey

Evaluation de l'allocation universelle. Etude de l'impact des métaphores.

Le débat relatif à l'allocation universelle concerne la question de l'avenir des systèmes de sécurité sociale, point central qui favorise l'émergence de véritables clivages idéologiques, mais aussi plus généralement la définition et l'organisation de la communauté politique. Il est frappant d'observer dans ce débat que divers éléments de langage sont utilisés afin d'illustrer le concept d'allocation universelle, tels que le socle, le filet de sécurité ou encore le tremplin. Or, il a été montré que les métaphores jouent un rôle clé dans la représentation que se font les individus d'un concept — politique — abstrait. Dans quelle mesure la confrontation d'individus à des métaphores peut influencer la manière dont ils se positionnent face à l'idée d'allocation universelle ? Nos résultats indiquent que la stratégie d'utiliser délibérément une métaphore dans un discours politique peut être payante, car elle peut influer sur l'opinion des individus qui y sont soumis. Il convient cependant de rester attentif, car une même métaphore peut influencer les opinions dans des directions opposées.

2015

L'amorce d'un virage à droite ?

2014

Le Caucase du Nord, une marge turbulente

« La Tchétchénie aujourd'hui: entre post conflit et violences institutionnelles”, in « Le Caucase au XXIe siècle »

Politiek vertrouwen in Vlaanderen en Wallonië

In de media wordt de stembusuitslag van 25 mei vaak voorgesteld als een logisch resultaat van het gebrek aan vertrouwen in de regering-Di Rupo. Een vaak terugkerende stelling is dat deze regering niet echt gesteund werd door de Vlaamse publieke opinie, wat allicht de uitslag mee kan verklaren. De vraag is echter of dit beeld correct is. In deze bijdrage gaan we na hoe het nu zat met het politiek vertrouwen van de kiezers en of er hierin verschil- len optreden tussen de Vlaamse en de Waalse respondenten. Vervolgens bekijken we of te- vredenheid en vertrouwen een factor waren voor de keuze voor een specifieke partij bij de verkiezingen. Terwijl de Vlaamse kiezer haar/zijn ongenoegen kon ventileren via een stem voor de N-VA, was dit aan Franstalige kant veel minder het geval.

Europe de l'Est : L'Ukraine aux prises avec la Russie et avec son histoire

Tchétchénie, enfances criblées par la guerre

L'Amérique latine aux urnes. Sept élections et peu de changements

Un illusoire consensus ? La densité politique de la Coupe du Monde de football de 2014 en Amérique latine.

Public confidence in Flemish and Walloon politics

2013

"Tchétchénie, images de la reconstruction et construction d'image"

De wankele pas van de PS

Margaret Thatcher ou la polarisation assumée

Simplifier le fédéralisme belge ?

Nouvelles droites et pouvoir en Europe

2012

L'improbable équation des Jeux de Sotchi

Chroniques sibériennes d'automne

Namur, dernière grande ville aux mains du CDh ?

Gemeenteraadsverkiezingen in Wallonië en Brussel

2011

L'évolution du cadre institutionnel en Belgique et ses effets politiques

2010

Lula, père des pauvres ?

2009

Brasília

Ecolo : de retour à marée haute ?

La N-VA : avancer à reculons ?

2008

Time to get strategic on terrorism?

Renforcer les liens institutionnels entre la Wallonie et Bruxelles

2007

Derrière les façades, la Tchétchénie, dans quel état ?

Retour à Grozny

Russie

2005

Grand nord russe: Vorkouta : le zek, la houille et le traîneau

2004

Les guerres de Tchétchénie et le Caucase du Nord

Rapporto della missione di Médecins du Monde in Induscezia e in Cecenia

2003

L'humanitaire d'Etat civil en Russie

Parlamentele din Europa Centrala si Orientala: Bulgaria, Polonia si România

2000

La Russie en quête d'une politique des nationalités

1998

Géographie électorale d'une région transfrontalière

1997

Les migrants forcés dans le Sud de la Russie

les Slaves et le Caucase

Universités et question nationale en Albanie

1995

L'Albania di fronte alle minoranze

A few remarks on the compatibility of political cleavages between Western Europe and Central and Balkan Europe in Integration and disintegration in contemporary Europe

1990

Tour d'horizons des conflits dans le monde en 1989

1988

Albanie

Rapports de recherche, comptes rendus, lettres à l'éditeur, working papers

2024

Anna COLIN LEBEDEV, Jamais frères ? Ukraine et Russie : une tragédie postsoviétique. Paris : Seuil, 2022, 224 p.

2022

Bakardjieva Engelbrekt (Antonia), Leijon (Karin), Michalski (Anna), Oxelheim (Lars) (dir.) - The European Union and the Technological Shift - Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 264p

Mirela Marcut, The governance of Digital Policies. Towards a New Competence in the European Union, Palgrave Macmillan

International populism: The radical right in the European Parliament

Book Review for "El Kurd, D. Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine. Oxford University Press, 2019"

El Kurd's book aims to examine the impact of international involvement on social polarization and demobilization, with evidence from Palestine. It entails accurate conceptual reasonings and empirical findings on authoritarian resilience supported by external powers. El Kurd investigates why, after decades of mobilization, the Palestinian society became acquiescent, torn apart by internal disillusionment. The author concludes that the United States has decisively influenced the entrenchment of authoritarianism and the repressive capacities of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The study, which addresses literatures on authoritarianism, democracy, and social movements, offers important insights beyond the Middle East.

2021

Authoritarian Gravity Centers A Cross-Regional Study of Authoritarian Promotion and Diffusion, Edited by Marianne Kneuer and Thomas Demmelhuber

M. Crotty, N.J. Diamant, M. Edele, The Politics of Veteran Benefits in the Twentieth Century. A Comparative History

Book Review for "Keil, S., & McCulloch, A. (Eds.): Power-Sharing in Europe: Past Practice, Present Cases, and Future Directions"

The study of power-sharing is a long-standing and discussed research field in Politi- cal Science. Since the end of the 1960s, following Arend Lijphart' footsteps, a tradi- tion of scholars has explored how democracy works in divided societies. The accu- rate collection of chapters edited by Soeren Keil and Allison McCulloch provides more and less versed students with fresh theoretical framing and new case-based evidence. It re-evaluates critiques and expands the frontiers of research on power- sharing, or its specific affiliate, consociationalism—namely, governing segmented societies through elite cooperation, proportionality, mutual veto, and autonomy.

Book review ‘Nordic Party Members. Linkage in Troubled Times' by Marie Demker, Knut Heidar and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen

2020

Book Review for "Martinico, G. Il diritto costituzionale come speranza. Secessione, democrazia e populismo alla luce della Reference Re Secession of Quebec, Giappichelli, 2019, pp. 1-233"

Book review: Imparfaites démocraties, by Yves Meny

2019

Book review: How democracies die: What history reveals about our future

Book review: L'Egitto tra rivoluzione e controrivoluzione. Da piazza Tahrir al colpo di stato di una borghesia in armi, by Gianni Del Panta, IL Mulino 2019

2018

Recension de L'Arménie à l'épreuve du feu.

'Who Will Care For Us? Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce'

2017

Russia's Wars in Chechnya

2016

Capitalism in Social Movements Studies

2015

Une paradoxale oppression, Les associations en Russie, éd du CNRS, ERIS

Protesting Culture and Economics in Western Europe

Reviewed Work: The Politics of Party Policy: From Members to Legislators by Anika Gauja

2014

Book review: European integration. From nation-states to member states

Recension de Fangs of the Lone Wolf ; Chechen Tactics in the Russian-Chechen Wars 1994-2009

Recension croisée. Françoise BOUCEK, Factional Politics. How Dominant Parties Implode or Stabilize , Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 288 p. et Daniel DISALVO, Engines of Change. Party Factions in American Politics, 1868-2010, Oxford University Press, 2012, 264 p.

Book review: European integration. From Nation-states to Member states

Fangs of the Lone Wolf. Chechen Tactics in the Russian-Chechen Wars 1994-2009

The Chechen Struggle. Independence Won and Lost, Palgrave Mcmillan

2013

Matthijs Bogaards and Françoise Boucek (eds), Dominant political parties and democracy: Concepts, measures, cases and comparisons

2012

Note de lecture- Mangenot M, Schirman S., Les institutions européennes font leur histoire. Regards croisés soixante ans après le traité de Paris

Note de lecture sur Barroche J., Etat, Liberralisme et Christianisme. Critique de la subsidiarité européenne, Paris, Dalloz, 2012

The European Union and its crises: through the eyes of the Brussels elite by George Ross

2011

Des squelettes dans le placard

Conflict, Negociation and European Union Enlargement

Book review: Conflict, Negotiation and European Union Enlargement, by Christina J. Schneider

Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage Introduction à l'Union européenne. Institutions, politique et société par F. Mérand et J. Weisbein

2010

Note de lecture sur Massignon B. Riva V., l'Europe avec ou sans Dieu ? Héritages et nouveaux défis, Editions de l'Atelier, 2010

Note de lecture on Drakeman D., Church, State and the Original Intent, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2010

Terror in Chechnya, Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War

2009

Brésil. Les élections intermédiaires de 2008

The Extreme Right in Europe by Paul Hainsworth

Europäisierung der SPD?

Recension. Laura Morales, Joining political organisations. Institutions, mobilisation and participation in western democracies, Colchester, ECPR Press, 2009

2008

Note de lecture sur Jo S-S, European Myths.Resolving the Crisis in the European Community/European Union, Lanham, University Press of America, 2007

Recension de Jean-Robert Raviot, Qui dirige la Russie ? Lignes de Repères, 2008

2007

Note de lecture

2005

Note de lecture sur Dacheux, Comprendre le débat sur la constitution européenne, Paris, Publibook, 2005

2004

Européaniser les intérêts ? Les groupes d'intérêt économiques et l'élargissement de l'Union européenne

2003

Film Review des films Dans Grozny Dans de Jos de Putter, et Danse avec les ruines de Mylène Sauloy

2002

La constitution de l'Europe (de Paul Magnette)

2001

Note de lecture sur Sciences de la Société, Leadership et arrangements territoriaux

Note de lecture sur le numéro spécial du Journal of European Public Policy, "The Social Construction of Europe"

1997

Religion et nationalisme

Romania in transition

Religion et nationalisme

1996

L'ONU dans tous ses États

Activités de vulgarisation

2024

Elections 2024: La lutte contre la pauvreté dans les discours et programmes des partis politiques francophones en Belgique

Les stratégies du Vlaams Belang en termes d'organisation et de communication

2023

Les chefs de cabinet, dans l'ombre mais au cœur du pouvoir

Liberal Parties in Europe Ahead of the 2024 European Elections

Liberal parties are among the oldest European political party groups. They have played a major role in the emergence of many modern democracies, the consolidation of political institutions, and the building of the European Union. This shared legacy conceals the considerable heterogeneity among liberal parties. This paper explores the positions of liberal parties in Europe ahead of the 2024 elections. Based on insights from an international group of scholars, this paper analyses three dimensions of liberal parties in Europe: their policy orientations, stressing commonalities and lines of fracture; their electoral performances and relationships to power and government, emphasising their pivotal roles in national party systems; and their collaboration at the European level. The paper by looking at what lies ahead as the 2024 European elections approach.

Les déclassés: un appât pour les extrêmes

La seconde évaluation du décret en Lecture publique

En Belgique francophone, la législation en lecture publique s'évalue, in Bibliothèques, objets politiques

2022

« Ook in Molenbeek rommelt het binnen de PS »

Conner Rousseau droitise son discours et fissure la famille socialiste : “Il utilise un langage populiste”

« Appels à la démission de De Croo: "Le Premier ministre est fragilisé dans l'espace le plus important pour lui" »

« En Belgique, la rémunération nette de nombreux députés atteint 10 000 euros par mois : découvrez leurs salaires »

«Hoe spoken uit het verleden PS-voorzitter Paul Magnette blijven achtervolgen»

« La culture du pré carré ne résout rien »

« Wallons et Flamands divisés sur les conséquences des sanctions contre la Russie »

« LR, pointe avancée de la dérive de la droite européenne »

« Marie Christine Marghem donne un coup de chaud à la Vivaldi »

« Bruxelles et Namur gagnent un siège sur Liège et le Hainaut »

« Politiques et syndicats louvoient face à une crise inédite »

«À Bruxelles, le plan Good Move n'avance plus »

De l'intérim à l'état de grâce : le leadership de Sophie Wilmès à la loupe du genre

Is Italian Democracy at Risk?

The installation of a neo-fascist Prime Minister has generated considerable fears for the future of democracy in Italy. Guido Panzano shows how the tools of political science can accurately monitor changes in the quality of Italian democracyItaly's election results did not come as a surprise. Polls predicted victory for the far-right, euphemistically referred to as the ‘centre-right' by Italian media. Much has been said about this latest change in the Italian party system, the transformation of Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) and its dominant position over the Lega (League) and Forza Italia (Go Italy). Commentators have reflected on the repercussions for the EU or Italy's place on the international stage. Some scholars see the far right as a direct threat to Italian democracy. Others contend that democracy is not endangered. How should we make sense of these contradictions?

Comment les partis politiques utilisent le numérique

Malgré certaines différences entre anciens et nouveaux partis, on observe une certaine timidité à utiliser pleinement les fonctionnalités qu'offre le web. La faute au centralisme de ces structures de pouvoir qui se méfient de la logique horizontale des outils numériques ?

« Les Tchétchènes et la guerre en Ukraine : mythes et réalités »

Guerre et mensonge

Peut-on en finir avec le virilisme en politique ?

«Paul Magnette VS Georges-Louis Bouchez : l'incarnation du clivage gauche-droite»

2021

« Désormais, chaque mesure du Codeco sera susceptible d'un recours devant le Conseil d'Etat »

« Je suis assez dubitatif sur la capacité de la Vivaldi à se maintenir jusqu'en 2024 »

«La Belgique envisage de fermer ses réacteurs nucléaires en 2025».

« Taubira, la dernière tentation de la gauche française ».

« Un nuevo comienzo para la socialdemocracia »

« PS-minister Dermagne kwam meermaals op gemaakte afspraken terug, en dat zorgt voor onrust binnen de Vivaldi-regering »

«Le virage ‘pragmatique' au PTB»

« Raoul Hedebouw, de marxist die de PS pisnijdig maakt »

La liberté académique aux prises avec de nouvelles menaces

« Mertens va quitter la tête du PTB, Pestiaux favori »

« Na 13 jaar aan het roer van de PVDA: welke erfenis laat Peter Mertens achter? »

« Hoe de clash tussen Paul Magnette (PS) en Georges-Louis Bouchez (MR) Vivaldi vergiftigt »

«Des nominations politiques teintées de vert»

« Europe's Social Democrats Show Signs of Life, but France Poses a Roadblock »

«Les quatre saisons de la Vivaldi»

« L'opposition radicale Les partis flamands de la Vivaldi résisteront-ils ? »

« Les élections allemandes confirment la transformation du paysage politique européen »

«Le succès d'Olaf Scholz, maigre réjouissance d'une social-démocratie européenne en petite forme»

« Le PS reste un parti de classe. Est-il cependant sur la voie du déclin ? »

« Assouplissements : pourquoi le PTB n'y va pas au bazooka »

«PS et Vandenbroucke : la désunion des gauches»

«Bruxelles : avec le Parti du Travail de Belgique, la gauche radicale au plus haut»

«La loi pandémie ne doit permettre aucune ambiguïté sur l'État de droit»

« Coalitions XL, partage du pouvoir : la démocratie belge mal en point »

2020

« Les experts jugés plus crédibles et légitimes que les politiques »

La Tchétchénie, révélateur et accélérateur de l'évolution de la Russie depuis 30 ans

« Gouvernement De Croo : un fort renouvellement du personnel politique ? »

Femmes politiques : des leaders pas comme les autres ?

« Mathieu Michel. Een portret »

« PS et Ecolo au prisme de la Vivaldi »

«Belgique: «Tu seras ministre, mon fils»

Jury duty for global warming: citizen groups help solve the puzzle of climate action (interview)

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/jury-duty-global-warming-citizen-groups-help-solve-puzzle-climate-action

Les réseaux contre-attaquent (interview)

« Chez les libéraux, l'informel compte plus que les statuts »

«Risque d'asphyxie pour l'opposition francophone»

«Risque d'asphyxie pour l'opposition francophone»

«Le nouveau gouvernement belge est-il solide ?»

Russie : le président, la foi et la loi

« Comment les partis se répartissent les portefeuilles ? Avec les points… »

« Er bestaat weinig twijfel: Magnette gaat voor de 16 »

«Comment le MR a remplacé le PS comme ennemi politique numéro un en Flandre»

«Un gouvernement sans la N-VA est devenu plus probable»

«Dans les coulisses du Conseil national de sécurité»

«Jeu de l'oie politique. Retour à la case départ»

«Dalla sinistra radicale alla destra: tutte le sfumature dei Verdi in Europa»

«Kans blijft klein dat N-VA en PS samenwerken»

«Quel est l'intérêt du PS d'entrer dans une coalition Arizona ?»

«Et la N-VA? On ne l'entend pas»

«Entre PS et MR, la place de premier parti francophone se joue»

La diaspora tchétchène au miroir de Dijon

La diaspora tchétchène au miroir de Dijon

« Deux abstentions parlementaires du PTB choquent les autres partis »

«À la FGTB, la domination du PS menacée par le PTB»

«Waarom Franstalig België de kop van Maggie De Block eist: “Dit is de slechtste minister van Volksgezondheid ooit”».

«Le Covid menace la place de parti leader de la N-VA».

«En Belgique, la crise du coronavirus révèle de façon inattendue la première ministre».

«Et si le coronavirus réveillait le démon communautaire?»

«Ils montent en politique. Nouer des relations de confiance prend du temps»

«Politique: quand aura-t-on enfin un gouvernement?».

Face au coronavirus, le chaos de l'Europe intergouvernementale

Comment l'autoritarisme a gagné du terrain en Europe centrale

2019

«Vooral bang dat geldkraan dichtgaat»

«La nomination de Paul Magnette comme informateur»

«Les socialistes danois, un exemple pour le PS»

«La nomination de Paul Magnette comme informateur»

Le poids de l'intox (interview)

https://www.laicite.be/magazine-article/poids-de-lintox/

« Fédéral. Ces rendez-vous manqués »

«A la recherche du socialisme perdu»

« Les huit grands travaux de Paul Magnette à la tête du PS »

«De sfinx die te lang bleef zitten»

«Elio Di Rupo restitue un PS debout et éreinté»

«Les partis changent de président, le fédéral en pâtit»

«Quand la Flandre grignote un maximum d'autonomie, que peuvent faire les francophones?»

«Ce que le duo Michel-Reynders lègue à la Belgique et au MR»

«Magnette devra renforcer la base du PS»

‘Wallonië moet zijn lot in eigen handen nemen'

«Elio Di Rupo gardera un pied au fédéral»

«Des ténors pour faire vivre l'arc-en-ciel»

«Le MR Peut-il survivre au départ de Michel et cie ? »

«Jean-Marc Nollet krijgt geen tegenstand bij Ecolo: 'Goede zaak voor de Waalse formatie'»

«Federale regeringsvorming is wiskundige vergelijking zonder oplossing».

« Ce qui se passerait si on revotait »

« Jan Jambon hors course, Alexander De Croo est favori pour le Seize »

« N-VA et PS peuvent-ils s'entendre? Demandez le programme »

« Pourquoi le SP.A est plus enclin à parler à la N-VA que le PS »

«Comme Alice au pays des merveilles, l'histoire du gouvernement des 'bonnes volontés', c'est un conte».

«Ecolo - Groen Deux partis proches, avec des contraintes différentes»

«Écolo et Groen : un groupe mais deux partis»

« L'argent des partis »

«Partis francophones : pourquoi personne ne veut s'allier au MR»

« Un collier pour les députés »

«PVDA/PTB-verkozenen: van de werkvloer naar het parlement. Een megafoon voor de gewone man»

«Les raisons de la fébrilité du parti socialiste»

«De prins Charles van de PS zit nog altijd niet op de troon»

«PS-machine piept en kraakt»

«A quoi rimaient les vraies fausses négociations PS-PTB?»

Comment Facebook met en péril nos démocraties? (interview)

https://www.levif.be/actualite/international/comment-facebook-empoisonne-la-democratie/article-normal-1153253.html.

«Le scrutin du 26 mai a (un peu) rebattu les cartes pour les partis francophones»

«Le cdH a cinq ans pour se refaire une santé»

«Les raisons de la lente et longue agonie du Parti social-chrétien»

«La N-VA a-t-elle commis la même erreur qu'Yves Leterme?»

« Athée, musulman, catholique… Qui a voté quoi »

Réseaux sociaux: indispensables (interview)

https://www.lavenir.net/cnt/dmf20190528_01341233/reseaux-sociaux-indispensables.

« La campagne du parti socialiste semble terne. L'est-elle vraiment ? »

«Une dernière semaine cruciale pour les partis»

«Gouvernance, survol et sécurité, les grands absents de la campagne »

« Esprit, es-tu là ? Six mots pour qualifier la campagne électorale »

Les partis aux extrêmes sont-ils les stars de Facebook? (interview)

https://plus.lesoir.be/224005/article/2019-05-13/les-partis-aux-extremes-sont-les-stars-de-facebook.

Comment les partis nous ciblent sur les réseaux sociaux? (interview)

https://plus.lesoir.be/224007/article/2019-05-13/elections-2019-comment-les-partis-nous-ciblent-sur-les-reseaux-sociaux.

«Élections 2019

« Brusselse groene golf dreigt koning auto helemaal te verdrinken »

La lutte contre les inégalités dans les programmes électoraux

«En Belgique, les résonances de la campagne française»

«Primo-votants : quel impact?»

«Sánchez se consolida como referente de la socialdemocracia europea»

«Portret. Zakia Khattabi, covoorzitster van Ecolo »

Nos universités ne sont pas égales face à la menace d'un Brexit dur (interview)

https://www.lecho.be/dossier/brexit/nos-unifs-ne-sont-pas-egales-face-a-la-menace-d-un-brexit-dur/10119348.html.

«Wat zijn de Kansen ? Niet Jambon, maar Rutten wordt premier»

«Partijen ‘hun' klimaatthema afpakken is niet makkelijk»

«Quel sera le prix d'Alain Destexhe pour le MR? »

« Le PTB a tout misé sur le fédéral, tant pis pour la Wallonie »

« Créer une Belgique confédérale, « c'est facile » ? Pas si vite… »

Climat: quand la grève des cours se transforme en mouvement social (interview)

https://plus.lesoir.be/202699/article/2019-01-25/climat-quand-la-greve-des-cours-se-transforme-en-mouvement-social

«Réunion de famille juste avant les élections»

En Hongrie, on peut critiquer l'UE à volonté, mais pas le gouvernement de Viktor Orban

En Hongrie, Viktor Orban prophète contesté en son pays

La Roumanie, le pays où le peuple est plus pro-européen que ses élites

Sur la transparence du Conseil de l'UE, la présidence finlandaise n'aura pas fait de miracle

2018

« Le PTB ose l'aventure du pouvoir »

«Pourquoi le PTB est parti est à l'assaut des villes»

Les experts au service de la démocratie

« Une nouvelle génération se présente dans l'isoloir »

«Le football est un objet politique»

«Pourquoi tant de candidats sont exclus des listes».

Le blues des adhérents

«Bruxelles : la population bouge mais le vote reste stable»

« Bruxelles : la population bouge mais le vote reste stable »

«La N-VA veut gouverner Bruxelles en 2019»

« Coalitions : PS et MR se positionnent, les autres se méfient, les jeux restent ouverts »

« Le malaise migratoire de la gauche »

« La stratégie bruxelloise de la N-VA »

«Het gewicht van de voorkeurstemmen»

«La réaction de Paul Magnette m'a franchement étonné»

«Franse PS wil Paul Magnette als lijsttrekker»

« Paul Magnette, tête de liste en France? »

Quand un attentat à Paris fait reparler de la Tchétchénie

Charles Michel en Ken Loach

« Charles Michel et Ken Loach. Un acte de campagne électorale »

«De wraak van Elio»

«Le vote communautaire ne fait pas une élection»

«Depuis un siècle, l'ouvrier est électeur, mais guère élu».

«Après l'euphorie, le PTB piétine»

«Le parti Islam s'attire les foudres »

«A quoi servent encore les Bureaux de partis?»

« Le socialisme européen joue sa survie »

« Au Parlement européen, petits arrangements avec les populistes »

« Des décisions politiques pour 2050 : courageux ou trop facile ? »

«In Wallonië is links soms ook rechts»

« Le MR, parti semi-libéral »

‘Alleen de N-VA heeft baat bij vervroegde verkiezingen'

2017

Svetlana Alexievitch, femme-polyphonie

« Vade retro N-VA »

« A la Région bruxelloise, la situation est inextricable »

« Maingain verkoopt zijn huid duur »

“Gratis onderwijs en belastingen op robots”

Traiter le populisme à la racine? Un parti loin d'être gagné

La Belgique veut tirer profit de la visite de Trump

rs d'un Chef d'Etat rassembleur

La gauche portugaise tient droit dans ses bottes européennes

EU-Turkey relations in the aftermath of Turkey's constitutional referendum

Le contrôle de nos élus

Le contrôle de nos élus : les clés de l'actu

Le Caucase du Nord, une marge volatile

2016

PTB: derrière le sourire du camarade Raoul

Le rapport au religieux des politiques reflète la sécularisation contemporaine

L'euroscepticisme en Belgique et en Europe

Trump a-t-il profité de l'important taux d'abstention?

Présidents d'assemblées : sous leurs faux airs d'arbitre

Turquie : vers la fin de la démocratie ?

Des présidents américains n'ont pas été très marquants

Wat bezielt Paul Magnette ?

Pourquoi les Wallons peuvent bloquer à eux-seuls le Ceta?

Ceta: pourquoi la Wallonie a pu dire “non”

Qu'une entité fédérée ait un autre avis, c'est banal

Dans les arcanes du PTB, le parti qui fait peur

QUO VADIS EU-TURKEY RELATIONS IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE COUP ATTEMPT?

Geen sprake van een belgicistische bocht bij de N-VA

Etre ou ne pas être électeur

PTB, la N-VA wallonne ?

Vote papier ou vote électronique? Il n'y a pas de déficité dmoécratique

Links-radicale PTB zoekt de macht op straat

Là où l'extrême droite ne perce pas

Pourquoi l'extrême droite progresse en Europe

Nous sommes plus que quatre

L'identité européenne

2015

Face au FN, l'éternele rengaine du changement

Comment le discours réac a pris le pouvoir ?

La dette belge, un boulet wallon ?

Saisir la lame frontiste

Un parti socialiste avantageusement « vitage »

Nouveaux défis du syndicalisme en Belgique

La route sinueuse vers un Michel II

Les syndicats maîtrisent-ils tojours leurs troupes ?

Une poussée générale de populisme et d'euroscepticisme

Tax shift: embarras au CD&V

Parti socialiste : la tentation autoritaire

Le gouvernement Michel, héraut de la rupture ou garant de la continuité ?

La N-VA est-elle populiste, xénophobe, d'extrême droite?

Les symboles européens

Pourquoi les partis verts n'en finissent pas de toucher le fond ?

Di Rupo : Mitterrand, au secours !

Ce n'est pas la fin des remous à la Suédoise

L'euro, nouvelle religion de l'Europe

« Geen trofeeën in zicht voor de Waalse regering »

La gauche radicalement en détresse

« Les autorités allemandes ont porté un coup à l'européisme »

Le sens et l'impact du référendum grec sur l'austérité et la dette

Le référendum en Grèce

Syriza, plus alternatif que radical

Le gouvernement va-t-il trop vite ?

Bruxelles et Wallonie: les électeurs diffèrent

Le profil type des électeurs wallons

Abaisser le droit de vote à 16 ans, une bonne idée ?

L'influence des valeurs chrétiennes en Europe

Les experts sont partagés sur la retraite à 65 ans

Adieux au socialisme ?

Bij de verkiezingen van 2019 eist het communautaire weer een grote rol op

Socialisme du bonheur, du peuple, du possible

« Tout autre chose » a trouvé la parade pour manifester autrement

C'è ancora posto per la religione nella vita politica europea?

La social-démocratie européenne joue désormais sa survie

La suédoise prend toute la place

Parti populaire, parti fantôme ?

"Si j'étais Benoit Lutgen, je m'inquièterais"

En Grèce, un scrutin à portée européenne

Alexis Tsipras et Syriza au pas de charge

L'idéologie, insulte à la bonne gouvernance

Qui sont ces partis qui soutiennent la gauche radicale en Europe ?

"ni glorieux, ni problématique"

Les partis traditionnels payent la crise économique

2014

Jeu(x) serré(s) dans le rapport de forces social

Tout autre chose : "Le défi, c'est d'afficher une spécificité dans le temps"

« Ce n'est pas dans l'accord de gouvernement »

La visite du pape au Parlement européen et au Conseil de l'Europe

A gauche, combien de divisions ?

Une opposition sociale vraiment fédérale pourrait contrarier la N-VA

Il faut bien sûr connaitre le passé... mais aussi le présent

Michel Ier, Magnette Ier. Le stratégo caché

Le CD&V est le moins à droite des quatre partenaires

Les partis socialistes : plus bleus que ruges

Une grande étude sur le comportement des électeurs

Entre 2010 et 2014, 41% des voix ont voyagé

Maudit soit le poste de Premier ministre

« Flandes busca autonomía sin ruptura »

Le 16, un traquenard pour le MR ?

Voici pourquoi le CD&V a retourné sa veste européenne

De MR zal een prijs betalen, maar heeft wellicht een strategie op middellange termijn voor ogen

Le CDH est-il appelé à disparaître ?

Le hollandisme n'a plus de colonne vertébrale

Vers un big bang politique ?

Le casting de la "suédoise"

la politique et les signes religieux en Espagne

La droite française va-t-elle exploser en vol ?

Franstalige liberalen staan voor moeilijke keuze

Pourquoi plus personne ne regarde les débats télé ?

Du comportement stratégique des "petits" partis

C'est au CDH et chez Ecolo que les électeurs sont les moins fidèles

Elections : les verts ont perdu des voix à gauche et (encore plus) à droite

Annulation de bulletins de votes: déni de démocratie ?

Le bug informatique à l'élection

Goede score, geen vrienden

Le résultat des élections européennes

La campagne passionne «ni plus ni moins que d'habitude»

Le lien entre résultats économiques et légitimité de l'UE

L'Ukraine, du souffle de maïdan au vent de moscou

Au-delà des enjeux nationaux, un message à l'Europe

L'engagement citoyen reste fort, la mobilisation est toujours très faible

Embellie nette, mais passagère ?

Faut-il craindre un « Hénin-Beaumont wallon » ?

La nouvelle génération débarque en force

Pourquoi les partis font autant de promesses ?

MR-CDH: la bataille des baisses d'impôts

Où sont les femmes dans les cabinets ministériels?

Magnette, Di Rupo : "On accélère SVP!"

Le vote dès 16 ans divise les partis

Ecolo. Les élections la peur au ventre

Le PS manque de cohésion

Quel rôle pour le FN à la veille des muncipales ?

Dat is niet hetzelfde als de zaak Vanackere

Dat is niet het zelfde als de zaak Vanackere

La caution démocratique des marxistes

Comment les partis jouent avec nos voix pour gagner

Gauche-droite : où se situent les partis ?

L'axe MR-CD&V irrite la N-VA et vexe le CDH

Le gouvernement papillon entre peur du vide et risque de déchirure

Les francophones aveuglés par le CD&V

Votre corps m'intéresse… Enjeux éthiques, religion et politique dans l'Europe d'aujourd'hui

Brésil : la Coupe est pleine

2013

De quoi Maggie De Block est-elle le nom ?

Nos élus manquent-ils de considération ?

Le jeu des quatre familles

Faut-il avoir peur du PTB

Comment Marcourt veut devenir numéro 1 en Wallonie

On est toujours peu de choses chez Ecolo

La N-VA hésitante, embarrassée devant la liesse populaire belgo-belge

Wilfried Martens: l'homme des années 80

Wilfried Martens : L'Union salue un "grand Européen"

Le PS a toujours été pragmatique vis-à-vis des entreprises

La N-VA et son "big bang"

Les tergiversations de Bart De Wever

Faut-il être de gauche pour être progressistes, progressiste pour être de gauche ?

Les socialistes dominent le jeu des nominations

L'Europe à la carte

La N-VA au fédéral. Le CD&V y pense

Mathilde fera-t-elle de l'ombre à Philippe ?

Le pouvoir est de plus en plus éparpillé

Le parcours ordinaire d'un prince de droite

"Il y a une fuite en avant de la N-VA"

Politique, foi et philosophies

Comme un avènement de campagne

De Tijd likt rijp om het koningschap sereen te hervorman

Le Standard est un vecteur d'image important

Di Rupo voert PS naar dieptepunt

Un député putatif voire plus pour le PTB

La cacophone s'installe à l'Open VLD

MR. La guerre fratricides clans Michel et Reynders

Une monarchie "plus moderne, plus transparente"

La Flandre isolée contre les amendes administratives

Ecolo n'a plus le même pouvoir d'attraction

Le MR inquieté sur son flanc droit

Le PS au pouvoir depuis 25 ans: le secret de sa longévité

Luc Trullemans, nouvel acteur de la vie politique

Une région trop faible

Après vingt-cinq ans de pouvoir, le PS est-il usé ?

25 ans au pouvoir du PS. Est-ce trop ?

"On est dans le registre du football panique"

Existe-t-il de la place à la droite du MR?

De SP.A gedraagt zich niet erg socialistisch

Ecolo s'est formaté à la vie politique belge

Ils se sentent si seuls dans l'isoloir

Experts ou chiens de garde ?

Le référendum : un outil vertueux mais également problématique

Wallonie et Bruxelles devront collaborer

Interview Público par María_González_Rodrigo sur les effets de l'intégration européenne sur l'Etat providence

Un possible retrait britannique de l'UE

Wie het cordon sanitaire laat vallen, doet een belangrijke politieke boodschap en grens vervagen

Politique et religion en France et en Belgique à l'heure de l'Europe

2012

Pas de vendetta à l'agenda

La droite française est-elle la plus bête du monde?

L'espace pour un nouveau parti de la gauche radicale n'est pas extraordinaire"

"Mais que fait donc le SP.a dans cette galère?"

"Pareil pour la N-VA au fédéral"

Dix clés pour se relancer

Ce qu'il faut retenir des élections communales

Des coalitions peuvent exclure le premier parti

Wallonie-Bruxelles. Certains partis jouent gros

Bart De Wever, sinon rien

Le retour du modèle fédéral pour l'Union européenne

Dopée par la crise, l'extrême gauche rêve de brouiller le scrutin

la réémergence des régionalismes comme menace pour l'intégration européenne en temps de crise

J-50 pour les élections communales, un scrutin local... très national

Après le décès de Guy Spitaels, cinq questions à Pascal Delwit

Wat politici kunnen leren van Michel Daerden

« Le double visage de Michel Daerden »

Grèce le laboratoire de la "gauche de la gauche"

Quel premier bilan pour le gouvernement Di Rupo?

"Moureaux cristalise les tensions"

La N-VA se présente dans dix communes à Bruxelles

Le message caché du vote frontiste

La montée de l'extrême droite en Europe

Hollande, le président du changement

Les socialistes européens croient à leur grand retour

Faut-il brûler les sondages ?

Sarkozy va imposer une campagne rude

Sarkozy près de la porte

La voie royale pour Hollande

La gauche radicale a le vent en poupe mais son créneau apparaît limité

Bruxelles gagnerait les sièges limbourgeois et hennuyer

Un Premier à une "réunion de famille", c'est fréquent

Schaerbeek, fatale attraction

BHV sera scindé cet été

Français, Wallons: si différents

Front national: een zootje ongeregeld in opmars

La mouche du coche

Le Pen mag meedingen naar presidentschap

Très difficile pour Marine Le Pen d'être présente au second tour

Sarkozy monte enfin sur le ring

Elio Di Rupo. Les ficelles de l'effet papillon

Kruisvaarder met een Bruin verleden, interview au journal De Standaard, 31 janvier 2012.

Le moment pour mener ce débat est mal choisi

Oude wijn in nieuwe zakken

Résultats et impacts des élections d'octobre 2012

2011

Kabinet-Di Rupo I: kwetsbaar kunststuk

Eurozone crisis forces Belgium to finally form a government

Geloofwaardig en politiek houdbaar, maar precair

Ministrables: 14 ou 15 ? Fameux débat

La nouvelle croisade d'Alain Escada

On n'est pas loin d'être au bord du précipice

On n'est pas loin d'être au bord du précipice

Les partis ne font plus rêver

Survivre à la scission de BHV...

De l'éthique sans traitement de choc

Le coup de blues des partis

Marque socialiste et contexte économique. Di Rupo accédera au 16 au pire moment

Di Rupo va réussir, mais son gouvernement sera fragile

La présence des verts est loin d'être acquise

Di Rupo maestro ? Paroles d'experts

Wallonië moet hand aan de ploeg slaan

Les Flamands ont-ils abdiqué sur Bruxelles?

Dotations, Clerfayt, groupes: le FDF devra céder

Het FDF de Franstalige tegenhanger van N-VA?

Le FDF menace de faire sauter la fédération MR

Geen wanhoop

Elio, futur premier ministrable

BHV n'était qu'une étape. Tout ce qu'il reste à faire...

Charleroi: l'installation d'un groupe néonazi a peu de chance de faire des émules dans la région

Quel bilan pour les années Milquet ?

Milquet était-elle "Madame non" ?

Kiezen tussen principes en de compromis

Di Rupo et les sept "jeunots"

Risico's en opportuniteiten

Belang qui pleure, N-VA qui rit

Establishment contra Vlaanderen?

Les multiples visages de la social-démocratie

Les arguments du CD&V ne tiennent pas la route

La N-VA prend un risque électoral

Des élections avant de préparer la scission du pays

Des élections pour rien avant de préparer la scission du pays

La note Di Rupo est-elle une rupture décisive ?

Radicalisation en périphérie

Polariseren om te blokkeren

Le MR est de nouveau en crise existentielle

Elio Schröder, Tony Di Rupo…

Sont-ils nuls en politique belge?

De bocht

Sont-ils en politique ?

Les politologues en scène

Pourquoi la crise n'intéresse plus grand monde ?

Les listes bilingues : une stratégie politique

De Nieuwe elementen in deze formatie

Elio Di Rupo reste en pole position

Kiezen Franstaligen voor loopgraven ?

La mission de Wouter Beke. Une réussite ou un échec ?

Les Bruxellois veulent être maîtres chez eux

N-VA : "Non au vote obligatoire"

La situation de la monarchie belge

Crise politique: à quand l'électrochoc ?

L'Europe de tous les populismes

Europe: la contagion du populisme

Lopende zaken en Democratie

PS: Archaïque, ou moderne ? Ni l'un, ni l'autre

De FN heeft succes ondanks zichzelf

La Belgique, une démocratie ? Bof...

Zand in motor PS

Lach niet met Michel Daerden

SOS Belgique

Futloze politiek

Moi, je vois un problème démocratique...

Pas de gouvernement, pas de sexe ?

Overbodig rondje Reynders

Il y a un espoir mais il est ténu

Consultations, ça rime avec élections

Wereldrecord "surplace" is ook geen oplossing

Johan Vande Lanotte au « 16 » : Plaudible ?

Le dangereux affaissement de l'Union européenne

2010

Une victoire électorale peut être dure à gérer

Charles en Didier

Les frontières de l'Union européenne

Alles behalve verduidelijking

Lula, président inoxydable

Le Brésil de Lula (entretien)

Schizophrénie au MR

Christendemocratie, op sterven na dood?

N-VA et PS ne pourront plus aller loin à deux

La séparation serait une menace our l'Europe

Modrikamen zuikt Brusselse MR leeg

De Bende van Maingain

Bouder les urnes?

Wat maakt BHV zo moeilijk ?

Le CD&V et le MR ont le plus à perdre

Politieke Versnippering tegengaan is geen panacee

Politieke Vernippering tegengaan is geen panacee

Un gouvernement Leterme III est peu plausible

De Franstaligen vragen gewoon respect

FDF is levensverzekering van Didier Reynders

FDF is levensverzekering van Didier Reynders

L'émergence éventuelle de « l'homme européen »

Décryptage. La politique belge

Politiquement, l'interview de Jean-Michel Javaux m'a surpris

Het geval Daerden

Le courage politique manque-t-il aux politiques ?,

Politique et religion en Belgique

2009

The multiple Faces of Euroscepticism

Wat goede raad voor Leterme van een Franstalig politicoloog

Van Rompuy, favori malgré lui

On sonde et puis des événements peuvent faire tout évoluer

Broederstrijd bij de MR

Le plus compliqué sera peut-être de résoudre BHV

Le cycle Van Cau, Daerden … est clos

« En wat moderenere PS, de jeunesse van Ecolo »

A reforma das instituições dentro da França

Vent de fraîcheur rue du Lombard

Wat groeut er aan de Franstalige olijfbomen ?

Les enjeux ne sont pas les mêmes au Nord et au Sud du pays

La présidence Barroso.

De l'extrême droite à la gauche la plus radicale

Les élections européennes

Le jeu reste ouvert

Waarom MR et PS zoveel modder naar elkaaar gooien

21 ans aux affaires et de sales « affaires »

Une législature difficile à gérer

L'affirmation confirmée d'une identité bruxelloise

Les présidents de partis jouent gros

Les ressorts d'un retour en grâce

Pourquoi il y a moins de F.C.

De opmars van de groene Teletubbies

Les difficultés de l'Union européenne dans sa relation aux citoyens

Bruxelles : un compromis à la Belge

Interview sur la clôture du procès sur l'assassinat d'Anna Politkovskaïa

Russie

Russie

Le SP.a en plein doute

La Région ? "Une réussite, mais fragile'

2008

Où sont les hommes (d'Etat) ?

The opportunities of Herman Van Rompuy

Surprise : le retour de la réforme de l'Etat

Le PS, un exemple du malaise de la gauche européenne

Dans la guerre

Leterme n'a présenté que des vœux

Russie, faut-il en avoir peur ?

De vlucht vooruit van Didier Reynders

Interview sur la guerre en Géorgie

Interview sur l'Ossétie du Sud

« Bélgica se resquebraja »

Qui veut la peau de Leterme ?

Het einde van de politieke grondslagen

Russie - la transition 'dé-démocratique' ?

Barometrele democratiei

The power of law versus the law of power

2007

Interview au sujet de la Tchétchénie

Religion et puissance en Europe aujourd'hui

Nord-Caucase, des républiques sous contrôle

Une paix nommée Kadyrov

How did they get away with it

Het CDH, alias de grote boosdoner

Leterme geeft blijk van amateurisme

Interview au sujet du conflit sur les anti-missiles

Conflits et déplacements forcés de populations

Interview sur les instabilités au Nord-Caucase

Reynders of Michel

CDH : "de partij van Joëllle" ?

Ecolo : “Geloofwaardigheid kwijt”

Société civile réveilles toi

Gouvernement wallon cherche ministres non candidats

Ségolène Royal est à un tournant de sa campagne

Renaissance d'un groupe d'extrême droite au parlement européen

Religion et puissance publique en Europe aujourd'hui

Le 10 juin, le scrutin du tournant pour Bruxelles

2006

Quels avantages, quels inconvénients ?

Pas de front... mais il faudra négocier !

Qui a vraiment gagné aux communales ?

Elio Di Rupo tente d'intégrer l'engouement pour Ségolène Royal"

L'éthique voudrait que l'on remette son mandat à sa liste