Like mother, like daughter? Linkage between local chapters and their national party headquarters in Belgium

Abstract

This article scrutinises local-national linkage in Belgium to better understand terri‐torial power relations in multilevel parties. Drawing on a survey of local chairs ofnational parties, it adopts an innovative, informal and bottom-up approach. The descriptive analysis reveals two central axes in the morphology of linkage: scope(downward support and upward influence) and surplus (benefits versus costs). However, (the valuation of) this interdependence appears as a matter of degree. The explanatory analysis therefore probes into the effect of macro- (between envi‐ronments), meso- (between parties) and micro- (within parties) level factors. It demonstrates that variance is explained by different parameters. For scope, differ‐ences between parties trump those within them. For surplus, specific differences between parties as well as within them matter. The answer to our guiding questionis therefore variegated: it depends on for what and for whom.