Suchergebnisse

This article studies the extent to which Dutch political parties fulfil their electoral mandates. The central question is how collective mandate fulfilment has developed over the last sixty years. Increasing electoral volatility, changes in party organizations and the rise of populist parties could have resulted in a decrease of party mandate fulfilment. Contrary to previous studies, this article studies the mandate in terms of congruence between the electoral and parliamentary party competition. This allows for the study of opposition parties' mandate fulfilment. Election manifestos and parliamentary debates are studied for six elections and the subsequent parliaments (between 1950-2006). The structure of the party competition is rather congruent before and after elections for all of the cases, except 1972-1977. There is no evidence for a decline of the degree to which parties collectively fulfil their electoral mandates. Adapted from the source document.

Corporatist opposition against a system of proportional representation in Belgium can essentially be reduced to the opposition by Joris Helleputte. Antiproportionalism was mainly due to a fear that proportionalism would endanger the growth of a Catholic corporatist party. In the struggle concerning introduction of proportional representation, 2 periods can be distinguished: before 1895 & after 1895, when Helleputte resigned as president of the Belgische Volksbond. Even after 1895 Helleputte continued his struggle, together with Charles Woeste. They proposed that Parliament institute a uninominal system, but this proposal did not receive sufficient support & proportional representation for legislative elections was introduced in 1899. Modified HA.

Reality, observation and reporting. The epistemology of qualitative and quantitative research
Reality, observation and reporting. The epistemology of qualitative and quantitative research
In recurring debates on philosophical presuppositions, the opposition of qualitative versus quantitative research is often mixed up with other oppositions like positivism versus humanism. Restriction to empirical research may help to clear the debate. With that restriction, qualitative and quantitative research do not differ in their philosophical presuppositions. All empirical research presupposes (1) a reality apart from our senses, (2) the ability of humans to observe reality, (3) the ability to report observations to others, and (4) the ability to test the validity of reports. These presuppositions are necessary and self-evident in daily life, but cannot be proven. One crucial problem is the relationship between reality and language in communicating facts (empirical observations).

Examined is the voting behavior of the three major Belgian parties -- CVP (Christian Democrats), BSP (Socialists), & PVV (Liberals) -- during three legislatures in which all three parties were twice in government & once in the opposition. The cohesion between the government parties & within each party was very high: cohesion within the government was 99.97% in 1958-1961. Deviations from the "party line" were minimal, especially within the BSP: 0.32% of BSP members voted against the party line in 1954-1958; the highest deviation (2.51%) was found among CVP members in 1961-1965. In the final votes two voting patterns dominate: government vs opposition & unanimity. All amendments except those introduced by the government were rejected. It is concluded that the role of the public session of the House of Representatives is reduced to a mere registration function. 5 Tables. Modified HA.

In 1975/76, the Belgian government gave high priority to the restructuring of local government. By means of mergers, the total number of communes decreased from 2,359 to 596. The decision-making process that led to the mergers is studied. The single most important factor was the personality of & the initiatives taken by the Minister of the Interior. He dealt with the delimitation of the new communes as well as personnel, finances, & transfer of goods. Local governments had only the option of advising on the delimitation of the new communes' territory (in some cases even that option was de facto & denied to them). These new delimitations were approved by the legislative assemblies at the end of 1975, after difficult & heated debates. At the same time, important resistance to the mergers developed on the part of the communes & opposition parties, particularly the Belgian Socialist Party, which did not participate in the government that drew the new map of communes according to its own objectives. Opposition parties were in agreement with the principle of the mergers; they mainly contested the way in which they were executed. Abolition of the federations of communes around the Brussels agglomeration, which was decided at the same time, must be understood in the context of the typically Belgian problem of the coexistence of two different linguistic groups. Modified HA.

This article presents a close reading of gothic features in Simone Atangana Bekono's novella Zo hoog de zon stond ('As high as the sun stood', 2022). This analysis serves as a way to comment on recent academic debates about the end, or ends, of critical theory, more specifically about ways of reading: surface reading or symptomatic reading. Supporting Esther Peeren's recent plea for a return to symptomatic reading, I argue that a clearcut opposition between surface and depth is untenable.