The institutional setting of the 1994 local elections was characterized by a by law introduced limitation of campaign expenditures and the increased share of female candidates. In spite of compulsory voting rules, the turnout decreased with 1,2%. The proportion of blanc or invalid votes increased slightly with 0,3%. The results of the local elections followed the trends drawn by the 1991 general election. This means general losses for the traditional parties and large progress for the extreme right-wing parties. In the (...) Flemish region, the winners were the extreme right-wing Vlaams Blok, the ecologist AGALEV and the VLD liberals. The others parties lost votes. This was particularly the case for the Flemish-nationalist VU, followed by the socialists and the christian-democrats.In the Walloons region, all the traditional parties were set back or stagnated. The socialists suffered the largest decline, but the liberals and christian-democrats lost voters too. The ecologist ECOLO only kept a modest status quo position. On the other hand, the extreme right-wing parties Front National and Agir realised a breakthrough. In Brussels, we notice the same tendencies, set-backs for the traditional parties and progress for the extreme rightwing parties. The ecologists belonged there also to the winning side. Nevertheless, the fragmentation of the local political system should not be dramatized.In general terms, parties supporting the leaving political majorities in the municipalities were no langer electorally favoured. On the contrary, the liberals realized better results in these municipalities where they belonged to the opposition. (shrink)

In the Flemish region the greatest losers are the Flemish nationalists VU and the Socialist Party, followed by de christian-democrats of the CVP. The liberal party PVV, the ecologist AGALEV and the extreme right-wing Vlaams Blok are the winners. The results of the Walloon region show a gain for the socialists, christian-democrats and the ecologists and a sligtly liberal recede. The high number of winners is caused by the disapearrance of the socialist-Walloon nationalist alliances and the anti-tax party UDR T. (...) Another important factor is the fall in of the walloon nationalist party RW.The elections in the Brussels region are characterized by the further set-back of the once so strong French-speaking party FDF. The three traditional political families and the ecologists benefit by this decline.In Flanders the christian-democrats and the socialists profit by their participation in the boards of mayor and aldermen, in the Walloons the socialists. The data concerning the profits by this participations show no evidence for the other parties. (shrink)

This article confronts several theoretical role-models about mayor's behaviour with their own perception. For this purpose, the statistical data is drawn from a survey among Flemish mayors. Mayors perceive the ''father of the community" role as the most prevailing one. This perception is reflected in their timespending. More than 1/4 of their time is dedicated towards activities such as participation in the community life, individual service rendering to citizens and having individual contacts with them.The father of the community' role lives (...) strongly among mayors with a lower educational degree and less among the higher educated ones. It is also more perceived among mayors being recent office-bolders, while the more experienced ones seem more to maintain a certain distance from this role. Moreover, mayors with a lower educational degree are recordholders in having individual contacts with citizens. Finally, no relation has been found between roleperception and timespending on the one hand and party background on the other hand. (shrink)

There is only few information available about the use of preferential votes at local elections, since the Belgian Home Department does not publish that particular statistical material. This article registers the size of preferential voting and discusses its consequences for the local political system, based on statistical data collected in the 43 municipalities of the Limburg province where local elections were held in 1988.Nearly 9 of the 10 voters used the preferential vote to express their choice. This is a much (...) higher level than the one noticed at the general elections. The use of preferential votes is varying according to the size of the municipalities and differs from one party to another.The local election system and the size of preferential votes at local elections explain why nearly 7 of the 10 local councillors broke through the order of the candidate-list. For the comparison, this occured only twice at the 1991 general elections. (shrink)

Earlier research pointed out that the processing of the results of the municipal council elections shows a serious distorsion favouring the strongest lists and prejudicing the weaker ones. The Belgian Parliament will discuss at an early date two different proposals of law on that problem. One prefers the "D'Hondt"-method, the other suggests the "Niemeyer"-technique, which is used in Germany. Both systems seem to be more proportional than the "Imperiali"-way. However, the "Niemeyer"-technique is not always able to transform an absolute majority (...) of votes into a majority of seats in the municipal councils. A modification of the seatsdistributionsystem will seriously reduce the number of absolute majorities in the municipal councils. This could pose problems of political and administrative stability in local government. A modification will also produce negative ejfects on the positions of the christian-democrats in Flanders and the socialists and christian-democrats in the Walloons. Nearly all the other parties and particularly the small ones will improve their positions. (shrink)

Due to the financial crisis of the Belgian central administration and the financial difficulties of local government, municipal taxes are gradually taking a higher place in the rank of municipal income sources. One could expect a differentiation between the presence of some political parties in the board ofmayor and aldermen on the one hand and the burden of taxation on the other hand. Concerning this amount of increase, the data showed no evidence to prove that differentiation in the Flemish municipalities. (...) Still we noticed a small variation in the burden of taxation according as to theweight of the socialist group within the local majority. Nevertheless factors as population and the level of mean income in the municipalities were more important to explain the burden of taxation. The results of the municipal-council elections of 1988 are not affected by the increase of the local burden of taxation. (shrink)

In spite op compulsory voting, the number of non-voters increased at the last general elections in Belgium to 7.3 per cent. This evolution can largely be explained by demographic factors. The number of blank or invalid voters reaches nearly the same level. Concerning this form of political non-participation, we noticed considerable differences occur between the types of elections due to factors such as the importance and the proximity of the proper institution, the social distance between candidate and citizen and the (...) main issue of the elections.The analysis of both phenomena over time at the level of the individual voters based on surveys shows that electoral absenteeism is rather accidental, white blanc and invalid voting is more permanent. From the analysis of absenteeism and blanc and invalid voting emerge on the one hand socio-economic factors which jeopardize electoral participation in a direct or indirect way, and on the other hand, attitudes and behaviour reflecting political indifference, alienation and hostility. (shrink)