Suchergebnisse

Cet article examine les facteurs du soutien à deux types de dispositifs alternatifs à la démocratie représentative : les référendums et les assemblées délibératives, via une enquête menée auprès d'un peu plus de 900 parlementaires nationaux dans 14 pays européens (2009-2012). Les données révèlent au niveau agrégé un soutien moins marqué aux référendums qu'aux événements délibératifs. L'analyse statistique met en avant des facteurs explicatifs distincts du soutien à ces deux types de dispositifs, liés à l'affiliation partisane des parlementaires, mais aussi à leur évaluation du fonctionnement du système représentatif et de ses protagonistes.

http://www.editions-universite-bruxelles.be/fiche/view/2778 ; Le fichier attaché à cette référence, version publiée de l'œuvre, est librement accessible, sans embargo, en accord avec les Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Party cohesion is a crucial aspect of parliamentary systems, and it varies across time, parties and systems. To explain these variations, scholars have set forth the influence of macro-level and individual-level factors. Although party-level factors have also been considered, the role of party family has been overlooked. This research seeks to fill this gap. To this end, I focus on one dimension of cohesion: the extent to which legislators have internalized the norm of party loyalty. The concept of party family permits to investigate the effect of party origin and party ideology beyond a policy-based approach and left-right dimension. Using attitudinal data of 829 parliamentarians elected in 14 European national assemblies, the analysis uncovers a party family effect, particularly in the green and radical right parties. The results suggest that a greater attention should be directed towards party family as a determinant factor of legislative cohesion.

Within the literature devoted to the study of political parties, scholars have recently directed more attention towards intraparty dynamics. The 'party as a unitary actor' assumption seems to have withered away in the last decades. The party is increasingly viewed as a heterogeneous entity, in which dissenting attitudes are frequent. Yet the causes of intraparty dissensions remain quite obscure. My PhD project aims at providing a better understanding of the causes of dissent within parties, especially within parliamentary party groups. Intraparty conflicts, dissent or 'voice' phenomena have been studied through different literatures that have developed independently from each other: studies dealing with party factionalism, social-psychological and economic theories of organizations (e.g. Hirschman's trilogy of exit, voice and loyalty), and legislative studies dealing with parliamentary party voting unity. Theoretically, the project will try to (re)conciliate these separated literatures, and will show how legislative studies, factionalism literature and theories of organizations can help to grasp why parliamentarians are more or less likely to dissent from their party line. At the empirical level, the project aims at analyzing the causes of dissent within parliamentary parties in a comparative perspective. The analysis examines parliamentarians' attitudes across 15 European national parliaments, by using the PARTIREP MP Survey dataset. The project draws on several theoretical approaches –institutional, rational and sociological– and will test different explanatory models of dissent. These models include variables at several levels (individual, party and system levels). This paper provides an overview of the project's substance. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Intra-party cohesion (IPC) is a concept extensively used to assess institutional change and behaviour in legislative and party politics. In spite of its popularity, there is confusion about its meaning mostly derived from its multidimensional nature. This article aims to clarify the understanding of this term across three different fields of research (legislative studies, party factionalism and Hirschman's theory applied to intra-party dynamics) and to build a conceptual framework that integrates several analytical dimensions. It uses quantitative network-based analysis of bibliographic data to provide a descriptive account of connections between these fields of the literature. Based on this, it identifies major challenges in the study of IPC and reveals the necessity to investigate it beyond ideology and legislative arena. To this end, we argue and illustrate how Hirschman's theory applied to three levels of analysis allows us to formulate a framework suitable for the study of IPC.

Intra-party cohesion (IPC) is a concept extensively used to assess institutional change and behaviour in legislative and party politics. In spite of its popularity, there is confusion about its meaning mostly derived from its multidimensional nature. This article aims to clarify the understanding of this term across three different fields of research (legislative studies, party factionalism and Hirschman's theory applied to intra-party dynamics) and to build a conceptual framework that integrates several analytical dimensions. It uses quantitative network-based analysis of bibliographic data to provide a descriptive account of connections between these fields of the literature. Based on this, it identifies major challenges in the study of IPC and reveals the necessity to investigate it beyond ideology and legislative arena. To this end, we argue and illustrate how Hirschman's theory applied to three levels of analysis allows us to formulate a framework suitable for the study of IPC. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Opening-up processes of candidate selection is often viewed as a means for political parties to regain legitimacy, and perhaps more crucially, members and voters. Despite a widespread belief that citizens want more democracy, including within parties, little research has questioned what sort of opening-up is desired—e.g. open or closed primaries—if at all, and by what type of citizens. Using data of the 2014 PartiRep voter survey in Belgium, we examine the diversity of preferences regarding candidate selection, and the extent to which preferences for open or closed primaries relate to voters' participation in party organisations. Given the diversification of party affiliation types, we operationalise participation through two distinct variables: the formal party membership status of the respondents, and their party activism. We show that both membership and activism influence individual preferences, and that their effects are in fact conditional upon each other. Findings also raise crucial issues regarding the consequences of the multiplication of affiliation modes, the motivations and direction of intra-party reforms, as well as feed the debate on their expected versus genuine consequences. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The literature on morality politics is well-documented, but has mostly taken place at the national level. Yet, morality politics increasingly appears on the European Parliament's agenda. Abortion has been tackled through parliamentary reports on sexual and reproductive health and rights; while human embryonic stem cell research has been dealt with through the successive European research framework programmes. Using semi-structured interviews with (former) MEPs, this research examines how the central actors involved in these parliamentary debates perceive and explain their vote on these issues. The analysis particularly focuses on the role of religion and values, and uncovers its effects at several levels: national culture, political affiliation and personal believing. In that regard, respondents emphasise the great degree of freedom that the European parliamentary arena offers to its members to express their personal values and convictions–and not exclusively on morality issues. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Nés dans les années 1980, les partis verts européens se profilent comme des acteurs électoraux aux destins très divers. Dans les démocraties consociatives, ils se sont imposés comme des partis politiques pertinents. Pour autant, ils sont confrontés au plafond de verre électoral des 10%. S'ils s'affirment également dans certains pays d'Europe du Nord, les partis écologistes sont des organisations faibles voire insignifiantes en Europe méridionale, centrale et orientale. Au terme d'une analyse des performances électorales au cours des quarante dernières années, les partis verts européens apparaissent donc confrontés à deux défis :franchir un plafond de verre là où ils ont acquis une certaine visibilité et devenir des acteurs significatifs dans les nombreux pays qui sont encore pour eux des terres de mission. Sous l'angle de la sociologie électorale, et sur la base de la European Social Survey (2012), l'électorat vert peut toujours être analysé comme un groupe partageant des caractéristiques qui les distinguent des électeurs des autres partis etc e au-delà des frontières nationales. Au plan sociodémographique, les jeunes, les athées et agnostiques, les femmes, les citadins et les citoyens au capital éducatif élevé sont plus susceptibles de soutenir des partis écologistes. Ainsi, le vote vert peut être vu comme un vote basé sur une thématique qui transcende l'ancien clivage de classe. Enfin, les électeurs verts ont un profil militant spécifique puisqu' ils sont clairement plus impliqués dans les nouvelles formes de participation politique enracinées dans le mouvement New Politics. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published