Joris Boonen

The Intergenerational Transmission of Voting Intentions in a Multiparty Setting An Analysis of Voting Intentions and Political Discussion Among 15-Year-Old Adolescents and Their Parents in Belgium

The intergenerational transmission of political orientations has been the topic of considerable research over the past few decades, but much of the evidence remains limited to two-party systems. In this study, we use data from the first wave of the Parent–Child Socialization Study conducted among 3,426 adolescents and their parents in the Flemish region of Belgium. Even in this multiparty system, we find a strong correspondence between voting intentions of parents and children, enhanced by the degree of politicization within the family. Talking about politics among parents and children has a significant positive effect on parent–child party correspondence, and more particularly political discussion with one’s father seems to have a stronger effect on father–child party correspondence than discussion with one’s mother does on mother–child correspondence.

The Development of Stable Party Preferences Explaining Individual-level Stability among Adolescents in Belgium

This article investigates to what extent party preferences learned during adolescence are stable over time. Using a recently administered two-wave panel survey among 15- and 16-year-old adolescents and their parents in Belgium (Parent–Child Socialization Study, 2012–13), we find that more than 50 per cent of the adolescents intends to vote for exactly the same party in both waves. The data suggest that the traditional explanations for this stability that apply for adult voters do not apply for younger adolescents. The strength of one’s party preference and the consistency between attitudes and a vote choice do play a role in explaining party preference stability in this age group, but the main explanation can be found in the correspondence with one’s parents. Adolescents who have the same party preference as their parents, are far more likely to have a stable preference than those who formed their initial preference independently.

The effect of political sophistication and party identification on voter–party congruence. A comparative analysis of 30 countries

ABSTRACT Partisanship and cognitive mobilization are generally seen as independent and counter-balancing influences on vote choice. While the former is typically regarded as a shortcut, reducing the need for close ideological congruence with one’s preferred party, the latter is associated with increasing levels of political sophistication and the importance of ideological proximity in voter decision-making. This paper tests the strength of these arguments in comparative perspective using data from Wave 3 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES). Our results show that in general higher levels of political sophistication are associated with higher levels of voter–party ideological congruence and that a strong party identification reduces this proximity. For voters with both high levels of sophistication and strong partisanship, however, congruence remains high. In a second step we examine whether these relationships are affected by the complexity of the party environment. Our findings show that party system size has no effect on levels of ideological congruence at the individual level, and this holds for different levels of voter sophistication. We conclude that for the most part voter sophistication and party identification are best seen as counter-weights in determining vote choice.

Political equality within the household? The political role and influence of mothers and fathers in a multi-party setting

This study aims to contribute new insights into the way ‘political labour’ is divided in the household. I use data from a large-scale panel study, the Parent–Child Socialization Study 2012–2013, conducted among adolescents and both their parents in Belgium, to analyse the different ways in which family members engage in politics and influence each other’s political preferences. First, I analyse differences in political engagement between fathers, mothers and adolescents. Second, I present a full triadic structural equation model to measure the political influence that fathers, mothers and adolescent children exert on one another. The findings suggest that fathers are (still) more engaged in politics, but when it comes to preferences for political parties, both parents influence their partners and their adolescent children in equal measure.

The Structure of Prejudice and Its Relation to Party Preferences in Belgium: Flanders and Wallonia Compared

We test two assumptions of the generalized prejudice literature. First, that the structure of generalized prejudice (i.e. how prejudices are interrelated) is dependent on the intergroup context. Second, that different types of prejudice have similar political consequences and run via the generalized prejudice component. We perform these tests in the two main regions of Belgium – Flanders and Wallonia – and investigate the influence of differences in the history of immigration, experience of the linguistic and autonomy conflict, and the separate party system and political discourse (i.e. the societal and intergroup context) on these premises. We make use of the Belgian Election Panel (BEP) data that included measures of prejudice toward multiple target groups (immigrants, Flemings, Walloons, homosexuals, and Jews) and voting propensities for the main political parties. Our results show that, regardless of the differences in intergroup experiences, the structure of prejudice is identical in Flanders and Wallonia. Flemings are, however, more tolerant toward homosexuals and immigrants than Walloons. The political context and the set of potential political outlets does play an important moderating role in the translation of prejudices to party preferences: While negative attitudes toward the other regional group seem to divide the electorate in Flanders, it does not affect voting intentions in Wallonia. Anti-immigrant prejudice is crucial in both regions, but affects voters in different ways at the right-side of the political spectrum.