Suchergebnisse

People want more say in the democratic process – by voting in referendums and taking part in town hall debates, for example. But in fact these kinds of democratic innovation are rare. Caroline Close and Lidia Núñez explain how parties in power have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are, particularly given how risky referendums can be (as David Cameron knows only too well).

The Norwegian left and the Finnish centre : what, no capital "L" liberal parties? / David Arter -- The Danish liberal parties / Karina Kosiara-Pedersen -- The Centre Party and the Liberals : the Swedish members of the Liberal party family? / Niklas Bolin -- Liberalism in the Netherlands : the VVD and D66 / Gerrit Voerman -- Belgian liberals : living apart together / Vivien Sierens -- Diversity, unity and beyond : the Swiss liberals / Oscar Mazzoleni -- Liberal parties in Austria / Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik and Anita Bodlos -- It's (not only) the economy, stupid? : past and future of the German Liberal Party / Sebastian U. Bukow -- The UK Liberal Democrats : liberalism at a crossroads / Alan Wager and Tim Bale -- Fianna Fáil : in the liberals but not of the liberals / Conor Little and David M. Farrell -- Nuanced liberalism : the weakness of liberal parties in Spain / Lidia Núñez -- Liberal parties in Central and Eastern Europe : between success and failure / Blagovesta Cholova and Jean-Michel De Waele -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia / Daunis Auers -- The liberals in Europe : the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe / Wouter Wolfs and Steven Van Hecke -- Liberal parties and elections : electoral performances and profile of voters / Caroline Close and Pascal Delwit -- Governmental participation and alliances of liberal parties in Europe / Johan Hellström and Daniel Walther -- The liberal party family ideology : distinct, but diverse / Caroline Close -- How liberal parties organize / Stefanie Beyens, Emilie van Haute, Tom Verthé -- Conclusion : liberal parties in Europe / Caroline Close and Emilie van Haute.

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. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Party cohesion is a central issue in legislative studies. The way cohesion is reached in parliamentary parties has therefore attracted a lot of attention. A frequent assumption states that party cohesion stems from party agreement measured as the homogeneity of preferences among MPs. This paper argues that the two concepts –agreement and homogeneity– cover different realities, and shows that the relationship between them is not as straightforward as often suggested. The paper contends that party ideology works as a mediator between the heterogeneity of preferences and intra-party disagreement. The analysis is based on attitudinal data collected among 840 MPs from 15 European national assemblies and is computed at the aggregate –party– level. The results bring new perspectives on the relationship between ideology, homogeneity of preferences and agreement within parliamentary parties. ; 0 ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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.

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. . ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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.

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. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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.