The organizational strength of local party organizations in Flanders

Local party systems in Western democracies are often characterized by the presence of so-called ‘independent’ or ‘nonpartisan’ actors competing for local powers with local chapters of national parties. While local party branches are generally considered as institutionalized, long-term organizations with a stable organizational structure, independent lists have been criticized for being short-term and only loosely structured political groups with little representative accountability (Soos, 2005; Steyvers, Reynaert, Ceuninck, Valcke, & Verhelst, 2008). Other authors however, argue that the organizational characteristics of independent lists have evolved over time and today these lists diverge less from their national counterparts than previously assumed (Reiser, 2008; Van Tilburg & Tops, 1990). Yet, empirical research to substantiate these assumptions is deficient and our academic understanding of independent local lists is highly distorted by the simplified dichotomy between independent local lists and national party branches which neglects a variety of border cases. Moreover, the role and organizational characteristics of national party branches has changed drastically in recent decades, with the decline of membership figures and the decreasing public support for political parties. This paper aims to contribute to our academic understanding of non-national lists and their role in the evolving landscape of political parties. Based on a mixed methods approach this paper assesses the organizational strength of different types of non-national lists in Flanders

Mimicry or meltdown? On the greening of local new politics parties

By scrutinizing a specific type of local lists - interpreted as a local variant of ‘New Politics Parties’ - this paper aims to give an initial impetus to understanding the internal variations concealed by the all-purpose denominator of local lists. Local New Politics Parties are identified as local policy-seeking parties based on a grassroots democratic and post-material values. Based on a qualitative analysis of three local New Politics Parties their common characteristics, developments and strategies are analysed and clarified. These small parties’ quest for political relevance urges them to adopt office-seeking objectives, also implying a moderation of their profile and a move towards mainstream parties. In response to the increasing organizational costs of public office, as well as to societal changes local New Politics Parties are compelled to look for cooperation formulas with other political actors in the form of local cartels or by affiliating with a national (green) party

How local are local lists? A quantitative and qualitative analysis of local lists in Flanders

Local party systems in Western democracies are characterized by the presence of so-called independent local lists, giving a distinct place-bound flavour to local politics. Moreover, the presence of these local or non-national lists is generally assumed to counterbalance the entry of national parties into municipal elections and considered as an indication for the incompleteness of the party politicisation process. However, political reality suggests that not all local lists are as independent or as local as their label indicates and instead are related to national parties in varying degrees. This paper aims to contribute to a more detailed and refined understanding of these non-national lists. To do so, the first part of the paper develops an innovative and contingent classification model based on local lists’ vertical and horizontal autonomy. Consequently this classification model is applied to all non-national lists in Flanders over two electoral periods (2006 and 2012) allowing to establish the occurrence of the different types of local lists in Flanders. The second part of this paper aims to uncover the rationales of the different types of local lists. Based on a qualitative comparative case-analysis, the cost-benefit assessments relating to vote-seeking, office-seeking and policy-seeking goals of the different types of local lists are explored. This analysis enables to revealing the local causal mechanisms influencing the strategic choices of the different types of local lists and to interpret and clarify the established variation within the large group of local lists in Flanders

Independent relics or heralds of party decline?: the role of non-national lists in local politics

This doctoral dissertation aims to contribute to a more profound academic comprehension of the role of non-national lists in local politics. It is innovative in the proposed conceptual refinement of non-national lists and elaborates some analytical tools to add nuance to the analysis of this heterogeneous local phenomenon. The proposed tools are applied in the local multipartisan context of Flanders to study the differentiated meaning of non-national lists in Flemish municipalities. The analysis focusses on two crucial dimensions: 1) the actual independence of non-national lists in Flanders and 2)de extent to which they perform traditional local party functions. Political parties thus serve as main point of reference and the extensive party literature provides some valuable conceptual frameworks to analyse these two central characteristics of non-national lists. Yet, political parties have evolved substantially and are increasingly less able to perform some traditional representative functions. In a context of increasing dealignment of the electorate and rapprochement to the state, their legitimacy seems waning and despite their adaptive character, many contemporary scholars suggest that parties are in decline. These national party evolutions represent an additional analytical dimension to study the differentiated role of non-national lists in Flemish municipalities by assessing how these lists are associated with national party changes. Based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods this dissertation reveals the differentiation in how different sub-types of non-national lists in Flanders are related to (developing) political parties both at national and at local level. The analysis demonstrates that non-national lists are closely intertwined with traditional parties and are guided by a similar electoral partisan logic. The adaptive and stratarchical character of political parties is confirmed as local party branches demonstrate a substantial degree of autonomy to respond to local challenges and engage in specific local alliances with other parties or independent candidates. By nominally dissociating from national party politics and emphasizing their focus on local political problems, non-national lists aim to re-integrate dealigned candidates and voters in local politics. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the autonomous position of local party branches fosters elite formation in local parties. Formal party organs and control mechanisms have little grip on the elected councillors who assume a dominant position in local policy decisions. Lastly, the analysis suggests that non-national lists give a different meaning to their representative function as these lists are presented as open and responsive local networks with pragmatic and flexible party programs. The study concludes that non-national lists in Flanders cannot be considered as independent relics of an ancient political era, but neither as heralds of party decline. Rather they seem to reflect a change in the representative claims on which political parties rely

Rokkanovih pedeset nijansi? Rekoncepcija nacionalizacije lokalnog političkog sustava u belgijskom kontekstu

This paper scrutinises local party system nationalisation beyond the national versus non-national dichotomy in the context of Belgium. Three main points stand out. First, a more close-knit assessment of the vertical autonomy of the parts comprising the system invokes the subtypes of national, pseudo-national, pseudo-local, and independent local lists. Applying this to all those who took part in the last two rounds of local elections demonstrates the Belgian municipal scene is predominated by lists having at least implicit links with a national party (even when their label is non-national). Second, this typology has been inserted to assess the nationalisation of the place-bound partisan assemblage. We have developed discrete indices of local party system nationalisation expressing the ratio between the subtypes outlined above in the electoral and the parliamentary arena. Scores pointed to relative local party system nationalisation, without reaching its alleged end-state. Nationalisation is also more prominent in the council than in the electoral offer. Third, the paper tried to explain variation in local party system nationalisation by considering the conjoined effect of place-bound social morphology and political ecology variables. Binary logistic regression shows that overall political ecology matters more (often) than social morphology (being more predictive for the parliamentary than for the electoral variant of the index). Also, further particular effects appear. First, morphological factors do not significantly increase the odds of the electoral local party system being nationalised. Second, specific morphological factors do matter for the parliamentary local party system to be nationalised. Third, the same specific ecological factors matter in the case of both electoral and parliamentary party system nationalisation. Here, the particular relevance of path dependency as the preceding degree of national party organisation comes to the fore. Ultimately, a substantial amount of variance remains unexplained. Herein lie the limits of a quantitative approach focusing on the effect of exogenous conditions on local party system nationalisation. To fully understand this, the interaction with endogenous within-party decisions should be tackled. Future research also needs to assess if, how far, and under which conditions our insights travel comparatively.U radu se istražuje nacionalizacija lokalne politike u belgijskom kontekstu. Problematici se pristupa detaljnije od tradicionalne podjele stranaka na nacionalne i nenacionalne, te se izvode tri glavna zaključka. Prvo na temelju analize vertikalne autonomije stranaka možemo zaključiti da postoje četiri podtipa liste: državne, pseudodržavne, pseudolokalne i nezavisne lokalne liste. Podjela sudionika posljednjih dvaju krugova belgijskih lokalnih izbora na navedena četiri podtipa pokazuje da prevladavaju, što se belgijskih općina tiče, liste koje su makar neizravno povezane s državnom strankom (čak i kada nemaju državni predznak). Nadalje, ova se tipologija koristi kako bi se procijenila nacionalizacija lokacijski ograničenog skupa stranaka. Razvijeni su indeksi nacionalizacije lokalne politike koji pokazuju omjer između navedenih podtipova u izbornoj i u parlamentarnoj areni. Rezultati upućuju na to da je riječ o relativnoj, a ne o potpunoj nacionalizaciji lokalnog političkog sustava. Nacionalizacija je izraženija u slučaju lokalnih vijeća nego lokalnih izbora. Konačno, u radu se nastoji objasniti varijacija u nacionalizaciji lokalnog političkog sustava razmatranjem zajedničkog učinka varijabli lokacijski ograničene društvene morfologije i političke ekologije. Binarna logistička regresija pokazuje da je politička ekologija (češće) važnija od društvene morfologije (predvidljivija je u slučaju parlamentarnog indeksa nego u slučaju izbornoga). Javljaju se i drugi učinci. Morfološki faktori ne utječu znatno na vjerojatnost da će doći do nacionalizacije izbornoga lokalnog političkog sustava, no pojedini morfološki faktori ipak utječu na nacionalizaciju parlamentarnoga lokalnog političkog sustava. Nadalje, isti ekološki faktori utječu na nacionalizaciju kako izbornog tako i parlamentarnog lokalnog političkog sustava. Tu je izražena važnost dotadašnjeg razvojnog puta i prethodnih odabira (path dependance) koji utječu na nacionalizaciju lokalne politike. Ipak, varijacija u velikoj mjeri ostaje naobjašnjena, što je povezano s ograničenjima kvantitativnog pristupa usmjerenoga na učinak vanjskih utjecaja na nacionalizaciju lokalne politike. Kako bi se postiglo cjelovito razumijevanje, valja proučiti interakciju s unutarnjim stranačkim odlukama. Buduća se istraživanja također trebaju usmjeriti na komparativnu primjenu rezultata - u kojoj je mjeri i u kojim uvjetima moguća

Kwalitatieve analyse van de kenmerken, de evolutie en de betekenis van lokale New Politics Parties in Vlaanderen

Onafhankelijke lokale lijsten zijn een vaak voorkomend politiek fenomeen in democratische Europese landen en geven een geheel eigen kleur aan het lokale politieke landschap. Gezien de context van toenemende nationalisering en particratisering werd dit fenomeen in het verleden eerder als van voorbijgaande aard beschouwd en door politicologen vaak genegeerd of louter als restfractie behandeld. Het algemene en zelfs toegenomen succes van dergelijke lokale lijsten noopt ons tot een vernieuwde wetenschappelijke focus op lokale lijsten. In deze paper wordt een aanzet gegeven om de interne variatie die schuil gaat achter de algemene noemer van lokale lijsten te duiden. We beargumenteren het bestaan van een specifiek type van lokale lijsten die we interpreteren als een lokale variant van de New Politics Parties. Op basis van een kwalitatieve analyse van drie cases identificeren we de gemeenschappelijke kenmerken en strategieën van dit type lokale lijst en de betekenis ervan voor het lokale politieke landschap