Suchergebnisse

The fact that Belgian politicians did not succeed in forming a government coalition following the June 2010 elections did not prevent public managers and civil servants to guarantee the continuity of government operations. Leading civil servants, whether as departmental managers or as ministerial advisors simply continued to function. Complying with caretaker government conventions, they followed a line of permanence and caution, while urgent matters occasionally released the break on new policy initiatives. It has to be noted that the absence of a federal government for more than a year did not lead to strong negative effects in the delivery of government programmes. Yet, in absence of a political mandate for change, civil servants and public managers cannot implement policy adaptations or drastic reforms that are considered as necessary for the long-term stability of the Belgian economic and social system. Adapted from the source document.

Over the past two decades the practice of public administration has moved away from a monocentric understanding of the nature of policy-making and implementation towards a pluricentric one. Since the European Union conforms even less closely to a monocentric model of bureaucracy than do the government structures of member states, pluricentric theories have a particular relevance to European Union administration since they offer the possibility of devising new methods of giving direction to government in pluricentric systems. This paper offers a critical review of the analytical and empirical claims of these new models of government steering and control, their normative problems and the extent to which they present an answer to the challenges for the future of public administration in Europe.

Local government reorganization has been widespread throughout Europe in the postwar era. Three broad types of theory have set out to explain this phenomenon in a cross‐national context; a welfare state perspective, a functional revolution perspective and a political perspective. The validity of these theories is assessed in the specific context of Belgium. The evidence suggests that none of the prevailing theories can make much headway in explaining the timing and form of reorganization. More promising explanations are to be found through examining broader values, and beliefs and more specific political constellations. The claim or implication that the major local government reorganizations of the postwar era were, in the different countries that experienced it, independent events produced by a common pattern of domestic social, economic or political development has the trappings of scientific theory without its true substance – the ability to explain.

On the 24th of november 1991 the Belgian voters elected the 716 members of the nine provincial councils.The socialists are the biggest losers of this election, with the Volksunie as a close second. Also the Christian Democrats suffered a serious decline, mainly caused by the loss of the CVP in Flanders. The electoral gain of the Flemish Liberals is neutralized by the decline of the Liberal party in Wallonia. The Greens gain 32 seats, the Far Right 35. These national aggregates hide striking regional differences. The national success of the Green is mainly due to the spectacular growth of Ecolo in the Walloons. The success of the Far Right is the sole result of a multiplication of votes for Vlaams Blok in Flanders. These results show that both the Flemish and the Walloon voters have sanctioned the traditional parties in a similar way. They opted, however, for totally different alternatives: the Flemish for the Far Right, the Walloons for the ecologists.The outcome of the provincial elections in the bilingual province of Brabant neatly mirrors these tendencies.In 1991 the outcome of the provincial elections showed a profile quite different from that of the national elections which were held on the same day. This is explained by the fact that the Flemish party Rossem, which won 3.2% of the votes, only ran for the national elections and not for the provincial elections. Hence, a considerable difference in voting behaviour on the national versus the local level. The comparison of the results of the national elections with those of the provincial confirms the claim that smaller parties generally score better at a lower level. In 1991 it can, however, not be said that the bigger parties did better on the national level.

This open access book centres on the advisory roles of political scientists in Europe. Based on a cross-national survey, the book offers a comparative analysis of the viewpoints and activities of university-based political scientists on external engagement. Political scientists in Europe appear more extrovert as academics than sometimes thought. In their professional functioning they engage in delivering knowledge and advice to all kinds of stakeholders in the policy process. This volume contains twelve in-depth country studies where different trends are visible, from political regime change to pressure for impact of academic work. The findings from this comparative analysis may inform our orientation on interaction between academics and their social and political environment, and what this means for education and training in university programs in political science.