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The study of the linguistic parity within the Council of Ministers, constitutionalized in 1970, reveals the political complexity of Belgium. At the heart of community relations, it is part of the permanent debate between the Dutch- and French-speaking. In 36 years of constitutional existence, the parity rules have never been questioned; however, linguistic tensions often wavered, sometimes caused the fall, of government. The article intends to determine the rule of linguistic parity between Dutch and French-speaking people: one give-give situation that is supposed to solve the community disputes through the introduction of a federal system 1) at the national level (majority Flemish); 2) at the level of Brussels (minority Flemish); 3) on the level of political application (majority Flemish). In addition, does the linguistic parity ensure in concrete terms a linguistic balance within the Council of Ministers? Based on subjective criteria (the attribution of points by politicians and observers of the political life) as on an objective criterion (the budget of the government departments) the presence of a linguistic balance is then confirmed, from which each linguistic group profits; the Dutch-speaking ones by the post of Prime Minister and a greater number of state secretaries, the French-speaking people by an over-representation on the level the country's management. Figures. O. van Zijl

A historical sketch is presented of how the relationship between Dutch political parties & newspapers has changed since the 1950s, when both relied on support from narrowly defined social class & religious groups. Depillarization & the emergence of a large segment of the electorate with variable party allegiance led to the independence of newspapers from political parties. Despite the diminished influence of newspapers on voting behavior during the 1980s, favorable newspaper comments toward a specific party correlate positively with a higher share of party voters among subscribers. It is concluded that, in contrast to the earlier situation, parties now are dependent on newspapers. 9 Tables, 1 Figure, 20 References. M. Meeks

Recently, scholars have propagated a 'claim-based' approach towards the study of women's substantive representation. In this article, we challenge the relativism of such a 'claim-based' approach and explore the relevance of the concept of 'responsiveness' as a democratic criterion. We do so, more specifically, through a study of Muslim women's substantive representation in the Flemish headscarf debate. We identify claims to speak for Muslim women formulated by (1) political parties and (2) Muslim women and (minority) women's associations and examine the congruence between their respective claims. The important incongruence found between the claims formulated by right-wing and liberal parties and those of Muslim women/women's associations provides empirical backing to the acclaimed relevance of a relational evaluation of women's substantive representation. We conclude that the criterion of responsiveness is invaluable because it allows us to evaluate if actors' claims to speak for women account for women's capacity to speak for themselves. Adapted from the source document.

The relationship between voters' perceptions of party leaders' personality traits & their subsequent party identification & voting behavior was examined in the Nov 1981 Belgian national elections based on evaluations made by 201 voters of 4 well-known leaders of the main Flemish political parties. Factor analysis reveals 3 main dimensions of personality traits -- reliability, expertness, & self-control -- & 4 types of voters -- convinced, policy-oriented, routine, & indifferent. Party leaders' personality traits variably affected voting behavior depending on voter type. Overall, the personality profiles of each leader were quite similar; however, Rs identified with a certain party tended to rate politicians from that party more favorably, particularly on reliability & attractiveness dimensions. 6 Tables, 1 Figure. Modified HA

In the public debate and amongst scientists anxiety prevails concerning the situation of modern parliamentary democracy regarding nearly all established of nearly democracies. The concern focuses on the electoral loss of middle parties and heavily fluctuating election results, and the rise of radical Left and Right, where words such as pallet democracy, crisis and Weimar republic are used. The author sketches the outlines of different research directions he studied regarding European politics: voter behavior; decreasing importance of the Left-Right antagonism; decreasing political faith; increasing numbers of extreme Right parties. This to study more closely the different aspects of the alleged crisis of European party democracies (do citizens have unrealistically high expectations of government; the evolution from cartel parties to campaign parties, including the growing importance of the media; lack of party representation for large groups of citizens). Foremost, the author mentions that neo-liberal economic policies of the European Union do not parallel public opinion of EU member states. Figures. O. van Zijl

An empirical test of hypotheses that explain Left/Right political preferences on the basis of economic self-interest or of status. The diagonal mobility models developed by Michael E. Sobel (see SA 30:3/82M2954) are applied to survey data from the Netherlands for 1970/71 & 1977. The hypothesis that yields the best fitting model is that based on the assumption that individuals behave according to economic self-interest, but with a time-lag before taking on the political preferences of a newly entered status category. Macro-effects on society can thus be expected to reflect net structural mobility rather than total mobility, as would be suggested by status hypotheses. 10 Tables, 30 References. Modified HA

In the Netherlands, the rise of new parties such as the Lijst Pim Fortuyn, the Partij voor cle Vrijheid, lead by Geert Wilders & the movement Trots op Nederland, lead by Rita Verclonk, have attracted much attention. In an attempt to interpret & explain the (temporary) advance of these parties, both commentators & political scientists have often used the notion of populism. In most commentaries however, it remains unclear what the term exactly means & whether it has any explanatory value. The aim of this article is to investigate whether Rita Verclonk & Geert Wilders & their movements may actually be labeled as populist. By discerning the presence of the features of an ideal-typical populism in discourse & performance of both politicians their 'degree of populism' is measured. The differences in degree of populism also helps to explain why Geert Wilders & his party proved (thus far) more successful & durable. Adapted from the source document.

We analyze the presence of a cost of ruling and/or incumbency advantage in the municipal elections in Flanders of 1988, 1994 & 2000. The empirical work concentrates on vote share evolutions of the three main parties: CD&V, Sp.a & VLD. We find evidence that being in power leads to an incumbency advantage, especially for those parties who provide the mayor. The results indicate that this electoral advantage is not uniform among parties (the socialist party appears to benefit more) and, importantly, the incumbency advantage seems to dampen over successive elections. From the perspective of the local politicians, it is important to keep in mind that this incumbency advantage at the local level was insufficient to compensate for the general trend of the major parties to lose votes at all levels of government. Indeed, even in the 1988 elections -- where a clear local incumbency (mayor) advantage could be identified for each of the three parties -- it was the case that government parties on average lost votes. Tables. Adapted from the source document.