Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvi

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2. Introduction: Candidates Between Parties and Voters—A Triadic Relationship in the Belgian Partitocracy

   • Audrey Vandeleene, Lieven De Winter

   Pages 1-44

3. Candidates’ Background

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 45-45

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   2. The Effects of the Political Parties’ Selective Bias on Descriptive Representation: Analysis of the Candidates’ Sociological and Political Background

      • Jérémy Dodeigne, Ferdinand Teuber

      Pages 47-76

   3. The More, the Smoother? Candidate Selection and Intraparty Competition

      • Audrey Vandeleene, Giulia Sandri

      Pages 77-103

   4. Who Wins More? Understanding Preferential Voting by Means of Context and Candidates’ Background and Campaigning

      • Marta Gallina, Stefano Camatarri, Maximilien Cogels

      Pages 105-128

4. Campaigning

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 129-129

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   2. The Puzzle of Personalisation of Politics: Evidence from Candidate Campaigns in Belgium 2007–2014

      • Lieven De Winter, Pierre Baudewyns, Maximilien Cogels

      Pages 131-160

   3. Campaigning and Candidates: Different Strategies for Different Candidates

      • Maximilien Cogels, Pierre Baudewyns

      Pages 161-188

   4. The Electoral Impact of Local Campaigning in the 2014 Regional and Federal Elections

      • Audrey André, Sam Depauw

      Pages 189-211

5. Policy Congruence

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 213-213

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   2. Constituting the List Amid Time of Personalisation of Politics: The Balance of Congruent and Popular Candidates in Belgian Political Parties

      • Jérémy Dodeigne, Conrad Meulewaeter, Christophe Lesschaeve

      Pages 215-244

   3. Who Do You Feel and What Future Do You Want for Belgium? A Comparison of Candidates and Voters’ Identities and Institutional Preferences

      • Sophie Devillers, Pierre Baudewyns, Lieven De Winter, Min Reuchamps

      Pages 245-272

   4. From More or Less Integration to Status Quo? Explaining Candidates’ and Citizens’ Attitudes Towards European Integration

      • Samuel Defacqz, Jérémy Dodeigne, Ferdinand Teuber, Virginie Van Ingelgom

      Pages 273-310

6. Representation and Democracy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 311-311

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   2. Between Parties and Voters: Candidates’ Role Conception in the Belgian Partitocracy

      • Chloé Janssen, Mihail Chiru, Lieven De Winter

      Pages 313-339

   3. Critical Candidates: Elite Attitudes Towards the Functioning of Representative Democracy

      • Christoph Niessen, Nathalie Schiffino, Vincent Jacquet, Ludovic Deschamps

      Pages 341-363

   4. Conclusion: Studying Candidates, Parties and Voters. Lessons Learned and New Questions

      • Audrey Vandeleene, Lieven De Winter, Pierre Baudewyns

      Pages 365-380

7. Back Matter

   Pages 381-398

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This book focuses on the triadic relationship between electoral candidates and the two other poles of the delegation and accountability triangle—political parties and voters. The chapters rely mostly on the Belgian Candidate Survey (CCS project), gathering about 2000 candidates belonging to 15 parties represented in Parliament and running for the 2014 federal and regional elections, and the authors’ conclusions serve at answering broad political science questions linked with elite recruitment, party and candidate electoral strategies, personalisation, party cohesion, and descriptive and substantive representation. Its multilevel semi-open electoral system, atypical federal structure, extreme party system fragmentation and volatility make Belgium an exceptionally rich but complex case that offers findings highly relevant to research on candidates in other democracies.

• candidates
• political parties
• voters
• Belgium
• electoral campaigns
• Comparative Candidate Survey (CCS)
• Western Europe
• representative democracy
• congruence
• principal-agent theory
• partitocracy
• democracy

“This book successfully frames the triadic relationship between candidates, voters and parties within the principal–agent theory by making theoretically relevant the distinction between realistic and non-realistic candidates and by approaching the Belgian multilevel elections of May 2014 as a comparative test. It greatly improves our knowledge on political representation.” (Paolo Segatti, University of Milan, Italy)

“This book is a major and timely contribution to the important and growing field of studies about democratic representation. The authors cover important dimensions of the triadic link between voters, parties and candidates that help explain differences and similarities in candidates’ background, campaign activities, policy congruence and views on representation and democracy.” (Eva H. Önnudóttir, University of Iceland, Iceland)

• Lund University, Lund, Sweden

  Audrey Vandeleene

• Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

  Lieven De Winter, Pierre Baudewyns

Audrey Vandeleene is Researcher in the Department of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden.


Lieven De Winter is Senior Professor of Political Science at the Centre of Political Science and Comparative Politics (CESPOL), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.


Pierre Baudewyns is Professor of Political Science at the Centre of Political Science and Comparative Politics (CESPOL), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

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