Yves Dejaeghere

Bridging the ideological space: A cross-national analysis of the distance of party switching

Scholars have investigated the characteristics of volatile voters ever since the first voter surveys were carried out and they have paid specific attention to the role of political sophistication on vote switching. Nevertheless, the exact nature of this relationship is still unclear. With increasing volatility over the past decades this question has furthermore grown in relevance. Is the growing unpredictability of elections mostly driven by sophisticated voters making well-considered choices or is the balance of power in the hands of unsophisticated �floating voters�? Several scholars have argued that even under conditions of increasing volatility switching is still mostly confined to changes to ideologically close parties. Most researchers, however, have used rather crude measures to investigate this �leap� between parties. To advance research in this field, this article directly models the ideological distance bridged by volatile voters when investigating the link between political sophistication and volatility. This is done using Comparative Study of Electoral systems (CSES) data that encompass a broad sample of recent parliamentary elections worldwide. Results indicate that voters with an intermediate level of political knowledge are most likely to switch overall. When taking into account the ideological distance of party switching, however, the confining impact of political knowledge on the vote choices made is clearly dominant, resulting in a linear decrease of the distance bridged as voters become more knowledgeable.

“Yes, But Suppose Everyone Turned Gay?”: The Structure of Attitudes toward Gay and Lesbian Rights among Islamic Youth in Belgium

Various quantitative studies have suggested the occurrence of hostile feelings toward LGBT rights among Islamic communities in Western societies. We know less, however, about the structure of these attitudes among Belgian Islamic youth. Based on focus groups and in-depth interviews, we try to disentangle these elements. The interviews suggest that feelings toward LGBT rights are not based on a discourse of individual rights but are considered within the background of dense family relations, strongly linked to notions of family honor and the duty of the individual to contribute to the stability of the family and the community. While the respondents endorsed the notion that the basic scriptures of Islam prohibit homosexual behavior, there was more disagreement about what this entails for the moral status of the individual involved in this kind of behavior. It is suggested that this form of disagreement might serve as a leverage point for the development of a more tolerant outlook toward LGBT rights among Islamic communities.

La non-participation politique des jeunes: une étude des barrières temporaires et permanentes de l'engagement

Resume. Avec une methodologie double, nous portons notre attention sur un groupe tres peu etudie : les jeunes non-engages. Grâce a des entrevues, nous distinguons quatre types de non-engages: les critiques, ceux qui manquent de ressources politiques, les occupes, et ceux en attente de mobilisation. Les critiques ne representent quune minorite des non-engages, alors que les jeunes manquant de ressources sont plus nombreux. Cette etude demontre quune grande proportion de jeunes presente un potentiel dengagement futur et que cest principalement des barrieres temporaires qui reduisent leur niveau dengagement. Lanalyse quantitative devoile des variations dattitudes, de profils demographiques et de volontes dengagement entre types de non-engages. Les non-engages ne sont donc pas un groupe homogene. Abstract. With a two-pronged methodology, this article takes a closer look at an understudied group: the disengaged youth. Using interviews, we discern four different types within this disengaged group: the criticals, those lacking political resources, the busy and those waiting for mobilization. The ‘criticals’ constitute only a minority of the disengaged group, while the young people who lack political resources are more common. Most importantly, a great proportion of young people show a certain potential for engagement. The quantitative analysis reveals that these types resemble distinct attitudinal and demographic profiles, and differ in their future willingness to participate. Thus the non-engaged are not a monolithic group.