This book focuses on the triadic relationship between electoral candidates and the two other poles of the delegation and accountability triangle—political parties and voters. The chapters rely mostly on the Belgian Candidate Survey (CCS project), gathering about 2000 candidates belonging to 15 parties represented in Parliament and running for the 2014 federal and regional elections, and the authors’ conclusions serve at answering broad political science questions linked with elite recruitment, party and candidate electoral strategies, personalisation, party cohesion, and descriptive and substantive representation. Its multilevel semi-open electoral system, atypical federal structure, extreme party system fragmentation and volatility make Belgium an exceptionally rich but complex case that offers findings highly relevant to research on candidates in other democracies.
Table of Content
1. Introduction. Candidates Between Parties and Voters: A Triadic Relationship in the Belgian Partitocracy.- 2. The Effects of the Political Parties’ Selective Filter Bias on Descriptive Representation: Analysis of the Candidates’ Sociological and Political Background.- 3. The More, the Smoother? Candidate Selection and Intraparty Competition.- 4. Who Wins More? Understanding Preferential Voting by Means of Context and Candidates’ Background and Campaigning.- 5. The Puzzle of Personalization of Politics: Evidence From Candidate Campaigns in Belgium 2007–2014.- 6. Campaigning and Candidates: Different Strategies for Different Candidates.- 7. The Electoral Impact of Local Campaigning in the 2014 Regional and Federal Elections.- 8. Constituting the List Amid Time of Personalization of Politics: The Balance of Congruent and Popular Candidates in Belgian Political Parties.- 9. Who Do You Feel and What Future Do You Want for Belgium? A Comparison of Candidates and Voters’ Identities and Institutional Preferences.- 10. From More or Less Integration to Status Quo? Explaining Candidates’ and Citizens’ Attitudes Towards European Integration.- 11. Between Parties and Voters: Candidates’ Role Conception in the Belgian Partitocracy.- 12. Critical Candidates: Elite Attitudes Towards the Functioning of Representative Democracy.- 13. Conclusion. Studying Candidates, Parties and Voters. Lessons Learned and New Questions.
About the author
Audrey Vandeleene is Researcher in the Department of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden.
Lieven De Winter is Senior Professor of Political Science at the Centre of Political Science and Comparative Politics (CESPOL), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
Pierre Baudewyns is Professor of Political Science at the Centre of Political Science and Comparative Politics (CESPOL), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
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