Suchergebnisse

Questions re whether politicians make deductions re the formal pol'al power constellation on the nat'l level from the approach or results of municipal elections are raised. Data from the elections in Belgium over the past 100 yrs are examined in this context. The elections of 1921, 1926, 1938, & 1958 had no influence on the nat'l power constellation. Since WWI not a single municipal election has led to changes within the nat'l gov. It is traditional in Belgian pol that the nat'l opposition, when the results of municipal elections are in its favor & prejudicial to the party in office (as in 1946, 1952, & 1964), tries to question the legitimacy of the gov by way of motions & appeals in parliament. Gov's have never given in to these attempts. The elections of 1857, 1884, & 1932 show an element of power in the dissolution of the then gov's. The gov'al crisis of 1884, however, can only be explained through the constitutional position of King Leopold II. The municipal elections of 1932 anticipated the legislative elections of that yr & served as an indicator of the electoral condition. But in view of the diff between nat'l & local positions, it was an unreliable indicator. Modified HA.

UNTIL 1971, THE BELGIAN SOCIALIST PARTY (BSP) WAS THE ONLY POLITICAL PARTY THAT CLOSELY & SYSTEMATICALLY INVOLVED ITS MEMBERS IN THE DESIGNATION OF SOCIALIST CANDIDATES FOR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. THIS WAS ACHIEVED THROUGH A SYSTEM OF PREELECTIONS WITHIN THE PARTY ('POLLING'). THE TREND AWAY FROM 'POLLING' ALREADY PERCEPTIBLE IN 1971, HAS ASSERTED ITSELF IN 1974. ABOUT 56% OF THE ELECTED MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT OWE THEIR SEAT TO THEIR PLACE ON THE CANDIDATE- LIST AT THE 'POLL'. MORE THAN 40% OF THEM WERE DESIGNATED BY A PARTY-CONGRESS. THIS CHANGE IS NOTICEABLY TRUE IN FLANDERS. THE CHOICE BETWEEN A 'POLL' & A CONGRESS AS A DECISION-MAKING TECHNIQUE IS NOT RELEVANT AS TO THE RENEWAL OF PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS. THIS RENEWAL IS MAINLY DUE TO THE INTRODUCTION OF AN AGE-LIMIT (65) & OF A GAIN IN SEATS. A GROWING LACK OF INTEREST IN PARTY MEMBERS IS EVIDENT, IN THE COMPOSITION OF CANDIDATE-LISTS: PARTICIPATION HAS AGAIN SLIGHTLY DECLINED. 8 TABLES. MODIFIED HA.

A survey is presented of the difficulties which the Christian Party has met since the '20s & the resulting changes in its forms of organization, based on historical documents & writings. Discussions on related problems & suggestions for further reading are included. The survey consists of three parts concerning a decade of Belgian political history & concentrating on the years during & after WWII, the period in which the form of the party was founded & which exists to the present. Modified AA.

A report of a policy evaluation of the personnel situation in Belgium's amalgamated municipalities, investigating the degree to which amalgamation has achieved its objectives & which instruments have contributed to that achievement. It appears that the number of personnel in local administration grew more than in regional ones, particularly in public welfare agencies. This growth is probably due more to social evolution than to the amalgamation operation. The fact that large municipalities have relatively more personnel than small ones is not due to increase of the population. The diachronic study of the % of total expenditures for personnel shows that they have decreased, which could indicate a scale effect. However, there is insufficient information to ascribe this change to amalgamation. It is concluded that amalgamation as a policy measure has not brought many changes in policy implementation, which is explained by the lack of a strategy for change. It does not suffice merely to pass a law to bring about fundamental change. 11 Tables, 1 Figure, 1 Appendix. Modified HA.

From the outset, the Belgian press has been a political press. The evolution of each opinion trend in Belgian newspapers since 1950 is analyzed. 5 main trends can be distinguished: the catholic, the liberal, the socialist, the communist, & the 'neutral' trend. Each of these is examined & newspapers which reflect the various trends are reviewed. The sales history of these newspapers is considered. It is almost impossible to verify the total circulation of the French newspapers & the circulation figures of the Flemish newspapers were exaggerated. The relationship between the number of readers of political newspapers & the number of voters for the corresponding political parties was examined & the disproportion between these is noted. 15 Tables. I. Verluyten.

Most theorists on international relations agree on recognizing natural resources, economic strength, technological development, political stability, & military strength as the five bases of a state's power. This unanimity is in sharp contrast with the divergences in the operationalizations of the power of states. Most operationalizations use only one or two bases of a state's power & thus are very limited in scope. Therefore, the demand for an operationalization sticking as closely as possible to the unanimity among theorists forces itself on the researcher. An attempt is made to transform the theoretical unanimity into an operational measure. Each power basis represented by partial indicators is listed: (1) natural resources--area, population, production of energy, (2) economic strength--gross national product, energy consumption, monetary stability, (3) technological development--level of alphabetization, number of students in higher education, scientific production & infrastructure, (4) political stability--length of independence, internal stability, & (5) military strength--number of men in the armed forces, conventional weapons, nuclear strength. The operationalization was obtained by granting all five power bases an equal share in the index & by giving an equal weight to the sums of the arithmetical values for fifteen partial indicators & thus, for the five indicators. The nation's power-index, thus obtained, was applied to 110 nation states as they existed at the beginning of the '70s. On this power scale, ratings differ from 29,046 indexpoints of world power (IWM) for the US to 276 IWM for Gambia & even less for a number of the smaller states that could not be investigated. Modified HA.