Jérémy Dodeigne

Beyond linguistic and party homogeneity: Determinants of Belgian MPs’ preferences on federalism and state reform

Political parties are often thought of as unitary actors that have consistent preferences. This ‘hidden assumption’ means that heterogeneity within parties, and therefore intra-party dynamics, are overlooked in explaining attitudes. When it comes to devolution and federalisation, parties or MPs belonging to the same region are also often implicitly considered to have homogeneous viewpoints and attitudes. Relying on an original survey of MPs carried out during the Belgian political gridlock of 2010–2011, this article uncovers some of the key dimensions of the intra-party dynamics through analysis of MPs’ preferences towards institutional reform in Belgium. Far from being explained along party or community lines, our results demonstrate how MPs’ political and sociological background, national/regional identity, political career, and inter-community relations strongly shape their preferences.

Changing your political mind: The impact of a metaphor on citizens’ representations and preferences for federalism

ABSTRACT Federalism is often presented through metaphors, but little is known about the impact of such metaphors. Two experiments were conducted in Belgium presenting federalism as Tetris – with control and treatment groups – in order to grasp the influence of this metaphor. The first experiment reveals that being exposed to text with the Tetris metaphor influences respondents’ representations of federalism towards a more institutional representation and towards more regional autonomy. The second experiment confirms the importance of the text, and more specifically of the metaphor, if political knowledge is taken into account. Respondents with a lower level of political knowledge are those who are influenced by the metaphor, whereas respondents with a higher level are not. Therefore, framing the future of Belgian federalism using the metaphor of Tetris does matter: it affects both individuals’ representations of the federalization process and, consequently, their preferences vis-à-vis the institutional future of the country.

The Mayors’ Political Career: Between Local and National Ambition

In this chapter, the authors identify and explain variation in the mayors’ political career by identifying different career patterns. First, they focus on pre-mayoral experience examining seniority in municipal council and other political positions prior to the mayoral mandate. Second, they examine the professionalisation of mayors in office. Third, they analyze mayors’ ambition to remain in local politics or move on towards upper tiers of government. Mayors’ different career paths question the interconnectedness between the tiers of government as well as the emergence of local political actors across these levels. This empirical analysis shows that European mayoral careers are primarily locally oriented in terms of recruitment, occupation and future ambition. Differences within and across countries, however, can be explained by the specific national institutional and municipal socio-demographics configurations.