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Europeanization and the unravelling of Belgium: A comparative analysis of party strategies

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Abstract

Research on Europeanization has greatly deepened our understanding of the domestic impact of European integration but has largely neglected the question of the extent to which it has influenced domestic politics in relation to state reform. The article addresses this question by investigating the case of Belgium, which has experienced the deepest process of state reform and at the same time has been the most exposed to Europeanization. It explores the connections between the two through a qualitative comparative analysis of the degree to which political parties have exploited the European dimension in their rhetorical strategies on state reform, with focus on three key time points. The results paint a contrasting picture. On the one hand, the degree of Europeanization has been limited at each point in time and largely stable over time. On the other hand, the VU/N-VA stands out as a major exception for its consistent – and growing – exploitation of the European dimension. The analysis shows that constitutional preferences, importance of the constitutional question and attitudes to integration are the key factors explaining the patterns observed. These findings call for deeper theorization of the domestic impact of integration and point to avenues for further comparative analysis.

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Notes

  1. ‘We want to be Flemings in order to become Europeans’ (Vermeylen, 1951 [1900], p. 170).

  2. The N-VA is the official successor of the VU, dissolved in 2001, and occupies roughly the same space within the Belgian/Flemish party system. It should be borne in mind, though, that the two parties are also significantly different in several respects (Govaert, 2002).

  3. While Belgium's broad pro-integration consensus can be seen as reducing the saliency of ‘Europe’ as an issue of party competition (for example, Lynch, 1996, p. 133), it could be expected to induce the Europeanization of the politics of state reform because appeals to the European dimension would provide an external legitimation that carries a positive value in Belgian politics.

  4. European Union and EU are used here also to refer to the European Communities before 1993.

  5. The Green parties have not been included because they have been active only since the early 1990s.

  6. ‘Flanders as a member state of the European Union offers the best prospects for effective and democratic self-government in a rapidly changing world’.

  7. ‘A federated state of a confederation which currently is still Belgian but will be European’.

  8. The phrase is of difficult translation. Literally, it means ‘Europe of the peoples’, understood primarily as national communities bound by language and culture rather than state institutions. It can thus be seen as a variant of the ‘Europe of the Regions’ idea, but with emphasis placed on ethno-cultural as opposed to economic aspects.

  9. ‘Federalism is not a ghetto: it is linked to the federalist trends in Europe and the world’.

  10. http://www.gesis.org/en/services/. The Party Manifestos were made available in electronic form through a joint effort between the Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA), Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) and the Party Manifestoes Project. MS Word transcription were made available by Paul Pennings and Hans Keman, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Comparative Electronic Manifestos Project, in cooperation with the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (Andrea Volkens, Hans-Dieter Klingemann) the Zentralarchiv für empirische Sozialforschung, GESIS, Universität zu Köln, and the Manifesto Research Group (chairman: Ian Budge). Financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO project 480-42-005).

  11. CVP 1, PSC 1 and PSB 1 are thus coded 0, PLP 1 is coded 0.2, RW 1 is coded 0.4, and VU 1 is coded 0.6.

  12. All parties are thus coded 0 apart from VB 2, coded 0.2, SP 2, coded 0.4, and VU 2, coded 0.8.

  13. All parties coded 0, apart from VB 3, coded 0.2, and N-VA 3, coded 1.

  14. For an overview of the evolution of the electoral strength of the parties, see Deschouwer (2009, ch. 5).

  15. CVP 1 and PSC 1 are coded 1, PSB 1 is coded 0.8, PLP 1 is coded 0.6, and VU 1 and RW 1 are coded 0.2.

  16. The codes are 1 for CVP 2 and PSC 2; 0.8 for PS 2, SP 2, PVV 2 and PRL 2; 0.4 for VU 2; and 0 for VB 2.

  17. The June 2010 election is taken as the end of T3 so the major re-alignment in the party system that was produced by the election results is excluded from the analysis. All parties are coded 0.6 apart from CD&V 3 and PS 3, coded 1, and VB 3, coded 0.

  18. CVP 1 and PSB 1 are coded 0.4; VU 1 and RW 1 are coded 0.6; and PLP 1 and PSC 1 are coded 0.

  19. All parties are coded 0.6, apart from VU 2, coded 0.8, and VB 2, coded 1.

  20. CD&V 3 and O_VLD 3 are coded 0.8; N-VA 3 and VB 3 are coded 1; and the other parties are coded 0.6.

  21. Codes are as follows: PLP 1, PSC 1=0; CVP 1, PSB 1=0.4; VU 1=0.6; CVP 2, PSC 2, PS 2, SP 2, PVV 2, PRL 2=0.2; VU 2=0.4; VB 2=0.6; PS 3, CDH 3, MR 3, SP.A 3=0; CD&V 3, O_VLD 3=0.2; N-VA 3, VB 3=0.4.

  22. VU 1 and RW 1 are coded 1; PLP 1 is coded 0.8; CVP 1 is coded 0.6; and PSB 1 and PSC 1 are coded 0.4.

  23. VU 2 is coded 1, VB 2 is coded 0.8; CVP 2 and PS 2 are coded 0.6; and the other parties are coded 0.4.

  24. The PRL manifesto did not take position on European integration but the party was generally in favour of it and supported ratification of the Maastricht treaty (Rudd, 1988, pp. 205–206; Deschouwer and Van Assche, 2008, p. 79).

  25. All parties are coded 1 apart from VU 2, CD&V 3, SP.A 3, and O_VLD 3, coded 0.8; VB 2, coded 0.6, and VB 3, coded 0.4.

  26. The traditional parties are coded 1 while VU 1 is coded 0.4 and RW 1 is coded 0.6.

  27. The Christian-democrat and the liberal parties are thus coded 1, PS 3 is coded 0.8, SP 3 is coded 0.6, and VU 3 and VB 3 are coded 0.2.

  28. The Christian-democrats and the liberals are coded 1; the socialists and the N-VA are coded 0.8, and the VB is coded 0.2.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the James Madison Trust for generously funding this research project, and Tom Vandenkendelaere and Marloes van Hooijdonk for their excellent research assistance. I am grateful to Hélène Michel for her friendship and hospitality, and to Andy Wroe, Ben Seyd and the journal referees for their very helpful comments on previous versions of the article. I am also grateful to Paul Delforge, Frank Delmartino, Kris Deschouwer, Lieven de Winter, Franz Fallend, Bruno Hopp, Caroline Sägesser, Andrea Volkens, and the staff of the party archives listed below, who offered precious help and advice.

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Appendix

Appendix

Tables A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5

Table A1 Party codes
Table A2 Fuzzy-set scores for outcome and conditions
Table A3 Truth table
Table A4 – fsQCA 2.5 output
Table A5 Membership in solution and outcome

Figures A1, A2, A3 and A4

Figure A1
figure 1

Plot of membership in the outcome against membership in the solution.

Figure A2
figure 2

Plot of membership in the outcome against membership in impcon.

Figure A3
figure 3

Plot of membership in the outcome against membership in acopos.

Figure A4
figure 4

Plot of membership in the outcome against membership in attint.

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Dardanelli, P. Europeanization and the unravelling of Belgium: A comparative analysis of party strategies. Acta Polit 47, 181–209 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2011.35

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