Jean-Benoît Pilet

Electronic Voting in Belgium: A Legitimised Choice?

Computer voting was introduced in Belgium in 1994. Paradoxically, no action had been taken to ascertain the opinion of electors confronted with this original method of voting. This article verifies the social and empirical dimensions of legitimacy of this new method through several empirical indicators used in a survey conducted on the occasion of the federal elections of 18 May 2003: (a) how easy/difficult it was for electors to vote on a computer; (b) to what extent they trust voting on a computer; (c) if they have a philosophical/social opposition to voting on a computer.

THE FUTURE IS IMAGINATION, THE PRESENT IS REALITY: WHY DO BIG RULING PARTIES OPPOSE MAJORITY SYSTEMS? A BELGIAN CASE STUDY

To most, electoral reforms are motivated by the self‐interest of parties. They compare the outcome of several electoral rules and choose the one that maximises their share of seats. The problem with this ‘seat‐maximising’ or ‘office‐seeking’ model is that it does not explain why electoral reforms are rare. In most countries, status quo is the favoured option for parties. If parties were simply guided by the hope of gaining extra seats, we would expect to observe more reform proposals. The reason for the stability of electoral rules is that parties are not always ‘bankers’; they are sometimes ‘peasants’. Before going into a risky reform, they will first assess how satisfied they are with the extant electoral laws. Only those that are dissatisfied with the political influence they have will push for a reform.

The Electoral Sweet Spot in the Lab

Carey and Hix ( 2011 ) propose that a proportional electoral system with a moderate number of seats per district offers the best compromise between (1) accurate representation and (2) strong accountability. The argument is that there is a district magnitude (DM) level where the trade-off between proportionality and fragmentation of parties is optimal. This DM is called the sweet spot. We explore this proposition through lab experiments conducted in Brussels and Montreal. We find that the probability of achieving a “good” outcome on both proportionality and the number of parties is slightly higher at moderate DMs. We note, however, that this probability remains low.

Regional and european election in Belgium: The Greens still at low tide

On the occasion of the federal, regional and European elections of 13th June 1999, the two Green parties in Belgium achieved wins that were exceptional by their own electoral standards and even more so in terms of Green party average results across Europe: 14.35% at the federal level and 16% at the European level. This remarkable election result enabled them to gain government positions in the Federal Executive and in several federalised entities. For four years, Ecolo (the French-speaking Green Party) and Agalev (its Dutchspeaking counterpart) together had eleven ministers in Belgian governments. The Belgian Greens’ experience in exercising power has already been analysed (Deschouwer & Buelens, 2003; Delwit & Hellings, 2004). In the federal elections of 18th May 2003, both Ecolo and Agalev suffered a severe election setback. Ecolo was left with only four seats and one senator, while Agalev lost all parliamentary representation at federal level (Hooghe & Rihoux, 2003; Delwit & van Haute, 2004). Did the regional and European elections of 13th June 2004 confirm this spectacular voting decline, or did it on the contrary show a new change in voting patterns? This paper tries to answer that question, after first presenting the context.

Scale Matters in Contextual Analysis of Extreme Right Voting and Political Attitudes: Scale Matters in Contextual Analysis

A large body of literature has explored the rise of extreme right parties since the 1980s in Europe. A number of studies have assessed whether the context, particularly the level of unemployment and immigration, impacts support for the extreme right and found contradictory results. We argue in this paper that these contradictions might simply result from differences in the scale used to assess the context. We systematically test the impact of immigration and unemployment, measured at various scales, on extreme right voting and attitudes towards immigrants and immigration, using two alternative approaches with data for Belgium. In the concentric approach, we measure the unemployment and the presence of migrants within various radii around each respondents residence. In the polarized approach, we consider the actual polarization of space, using the very local scale (statistical district), the living pool (municipality), and the employment pool. We show that the scale choice changes the results and that the most significant impacts are generally found at intermediary scales.

Still religious parties in Belgium? The decline of the denominational cleavage in the Belgian consociational democracy

The Belgian consociational model as it was instituted in the early 20th century was built along the denominational cleavage. It opposed three pillars: a catholic one, a socialist one and a (smaller) liberal one. The religious difference was not only observable in the political goals of each pillar, but also in the background and attitudes of their members. Catholics were hardly present in either the socialist and liberal organizations. Non-catholics were very rare within catholic organizations. Voting behaviours confirmed the religious base of Belgian politics and society. From the 1960s onwards, the picture changed a lot. The ongoing process of secularization has reduced the religious division among citizens and has affected pillar organizations from parties to trade unions. Yet, not very much has been said on the consequences of this evolution. Scholars hypothesised a “secularisation of the minds”, while noting that pillar organisations remained very strong. Nevertheless, few empirical studies demonstrate whether or not the religious division is in practice no longer decisive in shaping the belongings and attitudes of Belgian citizens. In this paper we aim at studying more accurately the salience of the religious cleavage in nowadays Belgium in two directions. First, electoral behaviours are studied to determine whether religion remains a decisive variable (with a new perspective of voting behaviours of Muslims). Second, party membership is analysed in order to verify whether contemporary Belgian parties remain or not religious- and pillar-based parties. This empirical evidence will help in determining whether Belgium faces a “believing without belonging” or a “belonging without believing” phenomena.