Rankings of politicalparties are often used to map the multiple party preference of the electorate. This article shows how the obtained rankings may be analysed by means of the exploded logit-technique, which allows for testing both the difference between the rankings and the effect of either categorical or quantitative independent variables on the rankings. An analysis of the effect of age on the party preference rankings of the christian democratie electorate in the 1991 Belgian parliamentary election shows that the older (...) CVP-voters tend to rank the liberal and the socialist party equally, white the younger voters hesitate between the liberal and the green party. The younger CVP-voters are also significantly less averse of the far-right Vlaams Blok. (shrink)

Voters probably do not take a series of relevant issues into consideration but rather vote on the basis of the few issues that happen to be on their minds at the moment of the decision. Issue salience, i.e. the availability of issue-schema's, is to a certain extent determined by the political communication during the election campaign. A content analysis of the debates during the 1991 campaign shows that the socio-economic issues, the ethnic issue and the immigrant issue were on top (...) of the agenda. A similar analysis of the party political broadcasts and the ads in the national newspapers indicates that the parties tried to focus the campaign on the socio-economie issues, the functioning of the political system and to a much lesser extent on the environmental issue and the communal issue. Only the latter nationalist party attempted to prime the immigrant issue. Survey data show that this issue was exceptionally salient in the electorate, as were the ethnic issue and the political system issue. (shrink)

A sample survey of 3000 Belgians shows that a large majority in both Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels is in favour of the monarchy. This support is based mainly on an attachment to tradition and a belief that the monarchy is the only institution capable of holding the nation together. Comparison with earlier research indicates that the influence of the king, as perceived by the population, has increased during the last 15 years. Older generations and catholics tend to be more royalistic. (...) Opposition against the monarchy is strongest amongst non-religious groups, younger generations, ecologists and - in Flanders - socialists and Flemish nationalists. (shrink)

In various parliamentary democracies, institutional reformers have proposed to directly elect the prime minister, but it is only in Israel that this reform has been implemented. In this article, the Israeli model is compared to the proposals involving the direct election of the prime minister in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. The analysis focuses on three crucial characteristics: the object of the election, the electoral system and the relationship between the assembly and the executive. It is shown that there (...) is substantial variation among the models. Some of proposed models are close to the presidential idealtype. Other models combine a direct election of the executive with the possibility of censure by the assembly, and thus constitute a new regime type which can be labelled as 'neo-parliamentary'. The Israeli model belongs to this group, although it is atypical because of the investiture requirement. Finally, some models approach the parliamentary idealtype as they allow the assembly to replace the elected prime minister. White most models involve a concurrent but separate election of the prime minister and the assembly, it is argued that a linked election offers better possibilities to bring about an executive majority in the assembly. (shrink)

The political socialization of a sense of national belonging is problematic in a socio-political environment where children are confronted with multiple national identities. A survey was administered to a diversified sample of 1000 Flemish secondary school pupils, aged 17-18. The data show that most Flemish preadults,when asked, hesitate between the Flemish and the Belgian identity, which they moreover hardly consider as contradictory. This lack of a single evident fatherland somehow results in an absence of genuine patriotism. Significant in this respect (...) is the fact that identification with the local community takes preference over allegiance to the nation. In addition, Flemish youth adopt a low-profile attitude towards both Flanders and Belgium. The political socialization process apparently does not effect an emotional attachment to either the Flemish or the Belgian political system. Obviously, respondents who vote fora Flemish-nationalistic party,or whose parents do so, tend to prefer the Flemish identity. (shrink)

The 1995 simultaneous election of three legislative assemblies offered the Belgian voters an opportunity to split their ballot between three different parties. An analysis of Flemish individual level survey data shows that 76.1% cast a straight ticket vote, white 20.9 % split their tickets between two and 3 % between three different parties. Ticketsplitting occurs most frequently amongst voters who mention the personality of individual politicians or the issues as a reason to support a party. In addition, the likehood of (...) ticket-splitting increases amongst the higher educated and the non-partisans. No support was found for the hypothesis that ticket-splitters in a multi-party system tend to lean towards one party on some issues and towards the other party on others. Instead, ticket-splitters generally take a position in between two parties. No evidence was found of a differential issue impact across elections, in this sense that regional issues are more critical to regional elections and federal issues to federal elections. (shrink)

Since 1989 candidates in Belgian elections have to declare their campaign expenses, but there is a widespread doubt as to the validity of the declared expenses as an indicator of the real cost of the campaign. After the 2000 local elections, data were collected concerning the campaign expenses of 2762 candidates spread over 134 municipalities in the Flemish region of Belgium. An analysis relating the declared expenses to a number of predictor variables reveals a sensible and systematic pattern, which can (...) be interpreted as an indirect indication of their validity. There is a limit on spending, but the research shows that, on average, the candidates only spend 25% of what they are allowed to. Controlling for a number of relevant background variables, the campaign expenditures were found to have a substantial effect on the preference votes for the candidates. (shrink)

A survey amongst 602 Flemish secondary school pupils, aged 17-18, shows that a distinction can be made between two different, albeit closely related, dimensions of royalism : the emotional attachment to the king as a person and to the royal family on the one hand, and the political support for the monarchy on the other. Respondents are predominantly indifferent or negative about the monarchy, particularly on the emotional dimension. A multivariate analysis shows that male and non-churchgoing pupils are more negative (...) on both dimensions. Pupils from migrant families are more positive on the emotional dimension. The scores on both dimensions are higher amongst pupils who identify with Belgium rather than with Flanders, who have strong patriotic feelings and who tend towards an authoritarian attitude. The scores are lower amongst pupils with apreference for a regionalist party. The hypothesis that intense royalist feelings coincide with a general attitude of trust in the political authorities was only confirmed with regard to the emotional dimension, while the political support for the monarchy appears to be detached from the trust in the political authorities. (shrink)