Abstract
This study examines the pillarised and partitocratic nature of Belgian political parties via an empirical overview of their party on the ground. Two main research questions guide the study: To what extent can party membership figures in Belgium be considered as ideal-typical of pillarised or partitocratic parties? And how does the social and political profile of party members in Belgium correspond to what one might expect from pillarised or partitocratic parties? The study relies on two types of data set: party membership figures since WWII and membership survey data of the four ‘dominant’ relatives in each party family in Belgium. The article shows contradicting results. Although party membership figures have nuanced the idea of partitocratic and pillar parties, the analysis of the profile of party members has produced more conclusive results. The members of some parties (PS, CD&V) still display a strong encapsulation in their sociological world, report specific reasons for joining, as well as lower levels of activism than in other parties. The pillar parties in Belgium seem to have reached a paradoxical situation in which their anchorage in civil society is still very strong, yet it relies on a shrinking social basis. These results raise the question of the incentives that parties offer to their party on the ground to mobilise citizens for participation. They indicate a need to look more systematically and empirically at this neglected aspect of party organisation, as it provides important information for the debate on party decline.
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Notes
With the exception of the European Political Parties’ Middle-Level Elites Project conducted at the end of the 1970s.
Pillar parties, also labeled parties of social integration (Neumann, 1956), are identified by Seiler (2000) as sub-types of mass parties, along with the parties of activists (partis de militants). Both originated outside the parliament, but would differ in terms of the level of rigidity of their organisational structures.
Among the 11 indicators of intra-party pillarisation, 5 can be directly related to the characteristics of the party on the ground: mass party membership and extensive auxiliary association network (organisational penetration), ideational values and material values (political mobilisation) and overlapping memberships (hierarchical party control).
www.projectmapp.eu, Website of the working group on Members and Activists of Political Parties.
www.projectmapp.eu for a copy of the questionnaires used for the surveys.
Legislature 2003–2007. The dominant party of the Extreme Right (VB, Dutch-speaking) is not integrated in the analysis. No agreement could be reached with the party to conduct a survey of their members.
This equilibrium is rather stable in Belgian politics. The Christian Democrats are traditionally stronger in Flanders than in French-speaking Belgium, whereas the Socialists and the Greens are stronger in French-speaking Belgium than in Flanders. The dominance of the Flemish Liberals in the Liberal family has, however, been lost since 2007, but it remains to be seen whether it is a temporary or structural change.
PS in November 2003; Ecolo in March 2004, Open VLD in January 2006 and CD&V in June 2006. The context is one of semi-continuity with a stable federal government that includes the Liberals and the Socialists on both sides of the linguistic divide, but excludes the family that best embodies the state in Belgium: the Christian Democrats. All surveys were conducted at the start of an electoral campaign (the 2004 regional and European elections for PS and Ecolo, and the 2006 local elections for Open VLD and CD&V). However, constant campaigning is a trait of Belgian politics in the 2000s: elections were held in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010. At the time of the survey, each party was in a specific situation: the PS was in a winning sequence; Ecolo was having difficulty finishing its first participation in power at federal level; Open VLD was recovering from an electoral defeat at the regional elections of 2004 (falling from the first to the third rank in Flanders); and CD&V had just made a comeback to power at regional level in 2004 after the trauma of 1999.
The sampling method varies between parties according to their degree of collaboration in the research. The PS and Open VLD selected the sample from their own register on a simple random basis and questionnaires were sent from their headquarters. Given the smaller size of Ecolo's membership, the questionnaires were sent to all members with the Quinzaine – one of the party's publications. The CD&V provided us with their membership list from which a stratified random sample was drawn.
Response rate by party: PS 32.9 per cent (N=822), Ecolo 32.2 per cent (N=1029), Open VLD 18.6 per cent (N=465) and CD&V 24.2 per cent (N=604). The variation can be explained by the origin of the survey (French-speaking university), the method used (no reminder could be sent) and the poor state of the party registers.
We cannot provide membership figures for its French-speaking counterpart, the Front national, due to its very weak organisation and the party's refusal to disclose its figures.
The free denominational network is dominant in Flanders: www.ond.vlaanderen.be/onderwijsstatistieken. Conversely, in the French community, the official network attracts 40.8 per cent of students: http://www.statistiques.cfwb.be/index.php?id=510.
Belgium has high rates of union affiliation, partially due to their role in the payment of unemployment benefits. However, parties differ significantly in terms of union affiliation. The members of the PS are significantly more affiliated (63.6 per cent) to a union than in the other parties. The low rate of union affiliation among the Liberals (30.1 per cent) is consistent with their position on the socio-economic cleavage.
60.6 per cent of the members of the CD&V chose a centre–right (3) or centre–left (4) position on a 0–7 left–right scale.
For each proposition, the respondents had the opportunity to say whether they fully agree, agree, disagree, fully disagree or have no opinion. The propositions correspond to the items included in the Belgian Electoral Survey (ISPO-PIOP) and measure the positions on the major cleavages. The responses were coded so that the lower score corresponds to the most right-wing position, and the highest score to the most left-wing. The 17 propositions were included in a factor analysis that revealed four dimensions: Factor 1 openness-retreat: items on asylum seekers (0.690), UE enlargement (0.648) and right to vote for foreigners (0.722); Factor 2 socio-economic: items on privatisation of the postal services (0.686), role of unions (0.740) and state intervention in the economy (0.625); Factor 3 progressivism–conservatism: abortion (0.739), marriage before children (0.762) and adoption rights for same-sex couples (0.726); Factor 4: libertarianism–authoritarianism: death penalty (0.668), discipline at school (0.518) and police (0.623). On this basis, four scales were established.
The exact wording of the question was: Citizens join political parties for a variety of reasons. What was your most important reason for joining XX? (Please tick only one box).
On average, members joined Ecolo 9 years ago, the Open VLD 19 years 7 months ago, the CD&V 24 years 9 months ago and the PS 26 years 2 months ago.
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van Haute, E., Amjahad, A., Borriello, A. et al. Party members in a pillarised partitocracy. An empirical overview of party membership figures and profiles in Belgium. Acta Polit 48, 68–91 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2012.25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2012.25