Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy pp 189–211Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

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

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

Candidates face a strategic dilemma either to campaign the length and breadth of the district, or to concentrate their efforts on some part thereof. Using unique new data from the Belgian Candidate Survey, we inquire into the important question regarding the degree to which candidates’ geographical patterns of electoral support originate in their strategies as to where to campaign. More specifically, we match official election results regarding candidates’ preference vote tallies to candidate survey data indicating in which of the electoral cantons that make up the district they personally campaigned. We explore what are the contextual and individual-level determinants that make a candidate opt for a concentrated or a constituency-wide campaign, and what is the impact of his or her campaign strategy at the polls.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ames, Barry. 1995. “Electoral Strategy Under Open-List Proportional Representation.” American Journal of Political Science 39 (2): 406–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • André, Audrey, and Sam Depauw. 2016. “The Electoral Impact of Grassroots Activity in the 2012 Local Elections in Flanders.” Acta Politica 51 (2): 131–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • André, Audrey, Sam Depauw, Matthew S. Shugart, and Roman Chytilek. 2017. “Party Nomination Strategies in Flexible-List Systems: Do Preference Votes Matter?” Party Politics, 23 (5): 589–600.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, Matthew E., Matthew S. Shugart, and Kevin A. Watt. 2013. “Patterns of Intraparty Competition in Open-List & SNTV Systems.” Electoral Studies 32 (2): 321–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler, Shaun, Todd Donovan, and Joseph Snipp. 1993. “Local Sources of Information and Voter Choice in State Elections: Microlevel Foundations of the ‘Friends and Neighbors’ Effect.” American Politics Research 21 (4): 473–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, Rosie, and Philip Cowley. 2014. “What Voters Want: Reactions to Candidate Characteristics in a Survey Experiment.” Political Studies 62 (4): 745–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carty, R. Kenneth. 1983. Electoral Politics in Ireland: Party and Parish Pump. Dingle: Brandon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carty, R. Kenneth, and Munroe Eagles. 1999. “Do Local Campaigns Matter? Campaign Spending, the Local Canvass and Party Support in Canada.” Electoral Studies 18 (1): 69–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carty, R. Kenneth, D. Munroe Eagles, and Anthony Sayers. 2003. “Candidates and Local Campaigns Are There Just Four Canadian Types?” Party Politics 9 (5): 619–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crisp, Brian F., and Scott W. Desposato. 2004. “Constituency Building in Multimember Districts: Collusion or Conflict?” Journal of Politics 66 (1): 136–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darcy, R., and Ian McAllister. 1990. “Ballot Position Effects.” Electoral Studies 9 (1): 5–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denver, David, Gordon Hands, Justin Fisher, and Ian MacAllister. 2003. “Constituency Campaigning in Britain 1992–2001: Centralization and Modernization.” Party Politics 9 (5): 541–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Winter, Lieven, and Pierre Baudewyns. 2015. “Candidate Centred Campaigning in a Party Centred Context: The Case of Belgium.” Electoral Studies 39: 295–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, David M., and Paul Webb. 2000. “Political Parties as Campaign Organizations.” In Parties without Partisans : Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies, edited by Russell J. Dalton and Martin P. Wattenberg, 102–25. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fenno, Richard F. 1978. Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Boston: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, Michael, and Michael Marsh, eds. 1988. Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gimpel, James G., Kimberly A. Karnes, John McTague, and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz. 2008. “Distance-Decay in the Political Geography of Friends-and-Neighbors Voting.” Political Geography 27 (2): 231–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Górecki, Maciej A., and Michael Marsh. 2012. “Not Just ‘Friends and Neighbours’: Canvassing, Geographic Proximity and Voter Choice.” European Journal of Political Research 51 (5): 563–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gschwend, Thomas, and Thomas Zittel. 2015. “Do Constituency Candidates Matter in German Federal Elections? The Personal Vote as an Interactive Process.” Electoral Studies 39: 338–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karp, Jeffrey A., Susan A. Banducci, and Shaun Bowler. 2008. “Getting Out the Vote: Party Mobilization in a Comparative Perspective.” British Journal of Political Science 38 (1): 91–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddens, Bart, and Gert-Jan Put. 2013. “Office Effects and Campaign Spending in a Semi-Open List PR System: The Belgian/Flemish Federal and Regional Elections 1999–2010.” Electoral Studies 32 (4): 852–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddens, Bart, Bram Wauters, Jo Noppe, and Stefaan Fiers. 2006. “Effects of Campaign Spending in an Open List PR System: The 2003 Legislative Elections in Flanders/Belgium.” West European Politics 29 (1): 161–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maisel, L. Sandy, and Walter J. Stone. 1997. “Determinants of Candidate Emergence in U.S. House Elections: An Exploratory Study.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 22 (1): 79–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcinkiewicz, Kamil. 2014. “Electoral Contexts That Assist Voter Coordination: Ballot Position Effects in Poland.” Electoral Studies 33: 322–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Middleton, Alia. 2015. “The Effectiveness of Leader Visits During the 2010 British General Election Campaign: The Effectiveness of Leader Visits in 2010.” The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 17 (2): 244–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myerson, Roger B. 1993. “Incentives to Cultivate Favored Minorities Under Alternative Electoral Systems.” American Political Science Review 87 (4): 856–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norris, Pippa. 2004. Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pattie, Charles J., and Ron J. Johnston. 2003. “Local Battles in a National Landslide: Constituency Campaigning at the 2001 British General Election.” Political Geography 22 (4): 381–414.

    Google Scholar 

  • Put, Gert-Jan, and Bart Maddens. 2013. “The Selection of Candidates for Eligible Positions on PR Lists: The Belgian/Flemish Federal Elections 1999–2010.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 23 (1): 49–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weekers, Karolien, and Bart Maddens. 2009. Het geld van de partijen. Leuven: Acco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiteley, Paul F., and Patrick Seyd. 2003. “How to Win a Landslide by Really Trying: The Effects of Local Campaigning on Voting in the 1997 British General Election.” Electoral Studies 22 (2): 301–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zittel, Thomas. 2015. “Constituency Candidates in Comparative Perspective—How Personalized Are Constituency Campaigns, Why, and Does It Matter?” Electoral Studies 39: 286–94.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Audrey André

  2. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Sam Depauw

Authors
  1. Audrey André
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sam Depauw
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Audrey André .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Audrey Vandeleene

  2. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Lieven De Winter

  3. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Pierre Baudewyns

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 7.7.

Table 7.7 Variables’ operationalisation and descriptive statistics
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

André, A., Depauw, S. (2019). The Electoral Impact of Local Campaigning in the 2014 Regional and Federal Elections. In: Vandeleene, A., De Winter, L., Baudewyns, P. (eds) Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96460-7_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation