Do changing institutions matter? : the role of the local councillors in Flanders after the local government reform

Due to the 2001 federal state reform in Belgium the authority on local government has been transferred from the federal level to the regional level. This resulted in 2005 in the first Flemish Local Government Act. To strengthen the role of the local council and its councillors was one of the main formal goals of this reform. This implies a reinforcement of the councillors’ controlling role, a quality improvement of the council meetings and a reorientation from detail handling towards broad long term issues during the debates. The Local Government Act offers the councillors several tools to achieve a stronger council. This paper deals with two questions: 1. To what extent do the local councillors use these tools? 2. To what extent does the use of these tools lead to a strengthened local council? Our analyse is based on Bekkers’ framework, distincting the rational, the political, the cultural and the institutional policy approach. We examine to what extend these approaches can explain the shifts in the local councils behaviour. Our data material result from a survey organized in 2009. This survey was directed at all local councillors (including mayors and aldermen) and all city managers. We are able to compare these different actors’ views on the Local Government Act. We conclude that the impact of these models is rather limited to explain the potential strengthening of the local council. At least we must conclude that the strengthening of the local council, as a result of institutional innovation, will not occur from one day to the next

Meer gewicht voor voorkeurstemmen op lokaal vlak: broodnodige of overbodige hervorming?

Lokale overheden hebben recent hervormingen ingevoerd, waaronder het verhogen van het gewicht van de voorkeurstem, om een meer directe band tussen burgers en politici mogelijk te maken. We hebben onderzocht in welke gemeenten kiezers meer geneigd zijn om een voorkeurstem uit te brengen en waar de hervorming die het gewicht van voorkeurstemmen verhoogde het meest effect had. Onze resultaten tonen dat de hervorming voornamelijk in steden waar relatief weinig voorkeurstemmen werden uitgebracht effect had, terwijl elders de lokale politiek al in hoge mate gepersonaliseerd was.Local governments have recently introduced instruments to establish more direct links between citizens and governments, amongst others giving more weight to preferential voting. We have investigated for the Flemish local elections in what kind of municipalities voters are more likely to cast a preferential vote and where the electoral reform granting voters more power had most effect. Effects mainly occur in urban municipalities with low shares of preferential votes, because elsewhere local politics is already to a large extent personalized by locally well-known politicians.Les autorités locales ont récemment introduit des réformes afin d'établir un lien plus direct entre citoyens et politiques. L'une de ces initiatives consistait à attacher une plus grande importance au vote préférentiel. Dans le cadre des élections régionales flamandes, nous avons examiné le type de municipalité où l’électorat est davantage tenté de donner un vote préférentiel et où cette réforme a eu le plus d'effet. Les résultats révèlent que la réforme a été la plus efficace dans les villes où on comptait relativement peu de votes préférentiels, et ce car la politique locale est déjà fortement personnalisée dans les autres communes

Designing the selenium and bladder cancer trial (SELEBLAT), a phase lll randomized chemoprevention study with selenium on recurrence of bladder cancer in Belgium

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Belgium, bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in males (5.2%) and the sixth most frequent cause of death from cancer in males (3.8%). Previous epidemiological studies have consistently reported that selenium concentrations were inversely associated with the risk of bladder cancer. This suggests that selenium may also be suitable for chemoprevention of recurrence.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>The SELEBLAT study opened in September 2009 and is still recruiting all patients with non-invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder on TURB operation in 15 Belgian hospitals. Recruitment progress can be monitored live at <url>http://www.seleblat.org.</url> Patients are randomly assigned to selenium yeast (200 μg/day) supplementation for 3 years or matching placebo, in addition to standard care. The objective is to determine the effect of selenium on the recurrence of bladder cancer. Randomization is stratified by treatment centre. A computerized algorithm randomly assigns the patients to a treatment arm. All study personnel and participants are blinded to treatment assignment for the duration of the study.</p> <p>Design</p> <p>The SELEnium and BLAdder cancer Trial (SELEBLAT) is a phase III randomized, placebo-controlled, academic, double-blind superior trial.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This is the first report on a selenium randomized trial in bladder cancer patients.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00729287">NCT00729287</a></p

De burgemeestersfunctie in België. Analyse van haar legitimering en van de bestaande rolpatronen en conflicten.

status: publishe