Emilie van Haute

• PhD in Political Science
• Professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles

Membership of political parties is diverse. Not everyone participates and those who do, do not participate in the same way. This book engages with the debate over the significance and future of political parties as membership organisations and presents the first broad comparative analysis of party membership and activism. It is based on membership...

In this article, we identify a distinctive type of party member; namely, those who identify themselves as ideologically at odds with their party. Using survey evidence from nine parties in Belgium and Canada, we measure the prevalence of these ‘ideological misfits’ and explore the characteristics that define them. While there appears to be no syste...

I n 2024 elections in Belgium were concurrently held for the European, federal and regional levels. For that reason, the European elections were clearly second-order elections. As the main opposition parties at the federal level, populist radical parties of the right (Vlaams Belang, VB) and the left (the Workers' Party of Belgium, PTB-PVDA) approac...

The literature on party reform highlights the extent to which political parties opened their decision-making processes or rely on digital participatory tools in key areas such as the selection of their candidates or leader. However, parties less frequently employ inclusive participatory processes and democratic innovations for internal reform. This...

Discussions about the ‘crisis of representative democracy’ have dominated scholarly and public discourse for some time now. But what does this phrase actually entail, and what is its relevance today? How do citizens themselves experience, feel and respond to this ‘crisis’? Bitter-Sweet Democracy grapples with the complexities of these questions in...

Using the RepResent Voter Panel Survey conducted around the 2019 elections in Belgium, this chapter investigates the affective complexity of resentment and its impact on protest participation, understood as non-electoral protest participation and protest voting. We focus on the combination of two core emotions towards politics and their intensities...

La note met en lumière quelques traits marquants du scrutin en Wallonie comme la nette progression du MR et des Engagés, l'effondrement d'Ecolo, la défaite du Parti socialiste. Contrairement à Bruxelles, il y a un mouvement de droitisation de l’électorat et il concerne presque tous les partis : le MR, Les Engagés, le PS et le PTB. Seul Ecolo échapp...

La note éclaire quelques traits marquants du scrutin bruxellois comme le rebond du MR, l'effondrement d'Ecolo, la nette progression du PTB-PVDA. Nous mettons aussi en lumière l'approfondissement de la dualisation du paysage politique sur le territoire de Bruxelles (communes du Nord et de l'Ouest vs communes du Sud-Est) et le fait que bien plus d’él...

Liberal parties are among the oldest European political party groups. They have played a major role in the emergence of many modern democracies, the consolidation of political institutions, and the building of the European Union. This shared legacy conceals the considerable heterogeneity among liberal parties. This paper explores the positions of l...

This research note presents the RepResent Belgian Panel (RBP). The RBP is a voter panel survey consisting of four waves fielded to a sample of voters in Belgium around the May 2019 federal, regional, and European elections in Belgium. It provides unique data on about 250 variables for a quota sample of the same respondents , pre-2019 elections (N =...

This Special Issue contributes to the growing literature on parties abroad. Expansive citizenship has transformed and reinforced the civic and political links between emigrants and their home country. Political parties face the dilemma of engaging or not in this new arena for electoral politics and must consider how. However, until recently the lit...

This study applies process-tracing methods to understand the 2019 leadership selection process in the Belgian French-speaking liberal party, MR, which is the oldest and second largest party in French-speaking Belgium. We triangulate a variety of sources to assemble a rich qualitative material that is used to contrast the formal rules and outcome of...

This contribution sheds light on the link between affect and protest behaviors. Using data from a voter survey conducted around the 2019 elections in Belgium, we examine two dimensions of affect: a vertical one, i.e., negative and positive emotions towards politics in general, and a horizontal one, i.e., affective polarization towards fellow citize...

This paper investigates divergences in levels of affective polarization across Belgian regions around the 2019 elections. Elaborating on the relative deprivation theory, we analyse the role of current and long-term socioeconomic regional inequalities and of geographical distance separating regions. Empirically, we aggregate individual-level measure...

This research note investigates the scope of regional variations in levels of affective polarization across Europe and contrasts it to national scores to highlight the theoretical and empirical interest of a disaggregated approach. Using all waves of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) dataset, we compute an affective polarization sco...

Using the RepResent Voter Panel Survey conducted in Belgium since the 2019 Federal elections, we investigate the relationship between affective polarization and voters' coalition preferences, in the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results confirm a strict negative link between affective polarization and preferences for coalitions in general....

Appendix.

Un manuel qui met l'accent sur les méthodes et méthodologies propres à la science politique, avec des conseils pratiques pour mener à bien un travail de recherche. Une initiation à la recherche en science politique à travers : une présentation pédagogique des méthodes de collecte et d’analyse des données des conseils pratiques pour mener à bien un...

This paper explores external (country-level) and internal (party-level) drivers of membership variations across parties. Relying on the Political Party Database combined with other datasets, we provide original, cross-sectional analyses of membership variation across 223 parties in 38 countries, innovatively covering third-wave democracies, post-co...

This paper explores how party-specific contextual factors explain variations in membership levels. Based on a subset of MAPP data that includes 2898 yearly membership data points for 262 parties in 24 countries over a period from 1990 to 2014, it examines three sets of explanations: the lifecycle model (party age), the bandwagon model (electoral pe...

This paper looks at the mobilizing effect of personal networks on the individual propensity to favour some types of political participation over others, in a context of changing participation repertoires. We rely on original egocentric network data gathered via a unique online survey conducted among a quota sample of 2801 Belgian citizens. We show...

The literature on candidate selection has focussed extensively on the degree of inclusiveness and decentralization of the selectorate, as part of the debate on intra-party democracy. However, much less attention has been paid to the degree of openness of candidacies, or selection criteria within parties. Yet parties have a lot of leeway in how they...

Following globalization and transnationalization trends, emigrants have increasingly obtained voting rights, but also specific representative institutions and direct representation in the national parliament in their country of origin. These reforms have important political and electoral consequences and constitute opportunities and challenges for...

This paper argues that parties abroad are the actors of a new arena for citizenship and party politics. The proliferation of overseas voting and the development of representative institutions for emigrants has transformed and reinforced the civic and political links between sending-states and their diaspora. This has also created new opportunities...

This chapter assesses sampling techniques. Researchers may restrict their data collection to a sample of a population for convenience or necessity if they lack the time and resources to collect data for the entire population. Therefore, a sample is any subset of units collected from a population. Research sampling techniques refer to case selection...

En comparaison des élections de 2014, le scrutin de 2019 a mis en exergue des mouvements substantiels dans les préférences partisanes en Flandre et en Wallonie (cf. chapitre 1). En Flandre, les partis traditionnels ont perdu des sièges, alors que la droite radicale du Vlaams Belang (VB) en particulier et dans une moindre mesure la gauche radicale d...

Le scrutin de 2019 a laissé voir d'importants transferts dans les votes exprimés pour les différents partis par rapport à 2014. Un des résultats les plus marquants a été le succès des partis radicaux ou situés aux extrêmes des deux côtés du spectre idéologique. Une faible confiance et une insatisfaction crois-sante des électeurs ont rapidement été...

Drivers of Support for the Populist Radical Left and Populist Radical Right in Belgium This study investigates how protest attitudes and ideological considerations affected the 2019 election results in Belgium, and particularly the vote for the radical right-wing populist party Vlaams Belang (VB) and for the radical left-wing populist party Partij...

Emotions and Vote Choice This article digs into the relationship between voters’ political resentment and their electoral choice in 2019 by focusing on the respondents’ emotions towards politics. Using the RepResent 2019 voter survey, eight emotions are analysed in their relation to voting behaviour: four negative (anger, bitterness, worry and fear...

Ce chapitre propose d’explorer ces deux thèses concurrentes en analysant l’ancrage des sections locales et l’offre électorale des partis nationaux, à partir des quatre principaux partis en Belgique francophone.

Les littératures sur les partis politiques et sur le transnationalisme ne se sont presque jamais croisées. Les partis politiques à l’étranger constituent donc un angle mort académique. L’introduction présente une vue d’ensemble des principales questions et débats théoriques, souligne les lacunes existantes et valorise l’importance d’une meilleure c...

Using an ego‐centered network approach, we examine across two studies whether and how injunctive network norms—behaviors that are approved by alters—are related to majority members’ decisions to participate in helping actions supporting migrants. We hypothesize that the more people perceive their personal social networks as positive toward humanita...

This book analyzes parties beyond the national borders and their increasing institutionalization abroad, in order to understand their development, their organizational specificities, their functions, and their impact on the party system and national politics at home. With 12 contrasted case studies, it comparatively addresses a wide range of persp...

The introduction presents an overview of the main theoretical questions and debates in the literature on transnationalism and political parties and highlights how these have rarely crossed paths. Having stressed this gap in our knowledge, the chapter emphasizes the importance of a better understanding of the growing phenomenon of political parties...

The concluding chapter synthesizes the common knowledge produced in the book based on the case studies. In doing so, the conclusion moves to a generalization stage. On the one hand, we propose a definition and classification of political parties abroad. On the other hand, we offer the first theoretical framework to study political parties abroad th...

This chapter analyses if and how populism is intrinsically rooted in ethno-territorial parties and combined with their substate demands, by comparing three Belgian parties: the Vlaams Belang (VB), the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), and Democrat Federalist Independant (DéFI), based on their election programmes and internal documents (2010-2015). The c...

Quelques mois à peine après les élections communales d’octobre 2018, le scrutin législatif, régional et européen du 26 mai 2019 dévoile des mouvements électoraux importants dans la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale. Cette contribution présente et analyse les dynamiques électorales et politiques des formations en lice dans cette triple compétition. Les a...

For the last twenty years, political scientists in French-speaking Belgium have been federated under the French-speaking Belgium Political Science Association (ABSP) which is the IPSA representative for Belgium and heir of the once unitary Belgian Institute for Political Science. ABSP just celebrated its 20th anniversary and published a book in Fre...

The emergence of green parties throughout Europe during the 1980s marked the arrival of a new form of political movement, challenging established models of party politics and putting new issues on the political agenda. Since their emergence, green parties in Europe have faced different destinies; in countries such as Germany, Belgium, Finland, Fran...

Cette note analyse en profondeur les déterminants des choix électoraux en 2019. Les partis ressortis vainqueurs ont-ils capté ces électeurs en manque de confiance, comme cela a souvent été pointé par les médias ou les autres partis ? Quel a été le rôle du ressentiment envers la politique et les hommes et femmes politiques dans l’orientation des com...

Premiers éléments de compréhension du comportement électoral à Bruxelles lors de l'élection législative du 26 mai 2019. Note à la presse.

Lors des dernières élections, les Flamands et les Wallons ont clairement voté différemment. En Flandre, c’est surtout le parti national-populiste Vlaams Belang qui a gagné (+12,6% aux régionales), tandis que le Pvda (+2,8%) et Groen (+1,4%) ont légèrement progressé et que les trois partis traditionnels ont perdu du terrain. En Wallonie, les trois p...

Do characteristics of consociational democracies still apply to Belgian parties? Belgium has long been described as a typical case of a consociational or consensus democracy. This article aims at identifying whether political parties in Belgium share the internal characteristics of parties in consensus democracies: passive mass memberships, the imp...

This chapter summarises the main findings of the book in terms of (1) origins, development, and sociological component, (2) ideological and programmatic positions, (3) participation to power, and (4) organisational structure of Liberal parties. These findings are used to discuss the concept of party family applied to Liberal parties.

This chapter presents the main questions of the book: (1) do Liberal parties constitute a family? and (2) how can we characterize Liberal parties today?. It also discusses the main concept of party family as a framework to analyse Liberal parties. Lastly, it presents the book outline and structure.

This book investigates how liberal parties have evolved over time as a party family, in a comparative perspective. Through a discussion of the applicability of the concept of party family to liberal parties, it gives a better picture of the development, challenges, and opportunities for liberal parties in Europe. The history of liberal parties in...

This chapter analyzes what differentiates the organizations of Liberal parties from those of other party families. Due to their ideological preferences and parliamentary origins, Liberal parties are expected to display specific characteristics in terms of degree of organization and level of centralization, which would point toward an emphasis on in...

The local elections of 14 October 2018 in the 19 municipalities of the Brussels Capital Region have been striking due to the size of the electoral and political changes that they brought. This working paper aims at describing and analyzing these shifts, through a study of parties’ political and electoral dynamics.

Les littératures sur les partis politiques et sur le transnationalisme ne se sont presque jamais croisées. Les partis politiques à l’étranger constituent donc un angle mort académique. L’introduction présente une vue d’ensemble des principales questions et débats théoriques, souligne les lacunes existantes et valorise l’importance d’une meilleure c...

This Discussion Paper takes a comprehensive approach to understanding the role(s) of European political parties within the polity of the EU. Its focuses on how European political parties can (re)connect with EU citizens. The paper emphasizes the regulatory framework in which European political parties operate, their internal organization and the ou...

Assessments of party decline and decline of traditional forms of political participation often rely on the argument of party membership decline. Most studies analysing trends in party membership over time focus on aggregate country-level data at a few points in time. While they allow grasping general membership trends, they are not without shortcom...

This contribution assesses whether populism is inherently embedded in and combined with the ideology of sub-state nationalist parties, using Belgium as a case study. We argue that sub-state nationalist parties tend to emphasize the opposition between a territorial community (‘us’) versus a dominant center (‘them’), a dichotomous view that could ove...

La science politique est aujourd’hui une discipline autonome enracinée dans le paysage universitaire francophone. Qu’elle soit enseignée à titre principal à l’Université ou dans les Instituts d’Études Politiques, ou à titre complémentaire dans les cursus de droit ou de sciences humaines et sociales, qu’elle soit étudiée dans le cadre des classes pr...

The number of municipal councillors and aldermen in the Brussels-Capital Region is relatively high, and increases at each election. In the debates on the functioning of the political institutions of the Region the idea to reduce the number of local representatives is regularly raised. This contribution explores the possible implications of such a r...

The number of municipal councillors and aldermen in the Brussels-Capital Region is relatively high, and increases at each election. In the debates on the functioning of the political institutions of the Region the idea to reduce the number of local representatives is regularly raised. This contribution explores the possible implications of such a r...

The number of municipal councillors and aldermen in the Brussels-Capital Region is relatively high, and increases at each election. In the debates on the functioning of the political institutions of the Region the idea to reduce the number of local representatives is regularly raised. This contribution explores the possible implications of such a r...

La science politique est aujourd’hui une discipline autonome enracinée dans le paysage universitaire francophone. Qu’elle soit enseignée à titre principal à l’Université ou dans les Instituts d’Études Politiques, ou à titre complémentaire dans les cursus de droit ou de sciences humaines et sociales, qu’elle soit étudiée dans le cadre des classes pr...

One of the ways in which ‘good’ representation can be measured and assessed is by the degree of congruence between the preferences of the population and the preferences and policies of the political elite. One of the arguments for defending decentralisation is that governmental institutions on a smaller territorial scale can be closer to the popula...

In recent decades, parties in many parliamentary democracies have radically reshaped what it means to be a party member, making it easier and cheaper to join, and giving members greater direct say over party decisions. This article explores some implications of such changes, asking whether membership costs and benefits influence which supporters ta...

Le Ministre de la Culture, des Médias, de la Jeunesse et des Affaires bruxelloise de la Communauté flamande, Sven Gatz, a lancé début 2017 un projet de « Burgerkabinet » (BK) autour de la question de Bruxelles. En parallèle, le Ministre de l’Aide à la Jeunesse, des Maisons de Justice, des Sports et de la Promotion de Bruxelles de la Fédération Wall...

The mobilizing effects of social networks have attracted a growing attention in political science. Many theoretical and empirical studies stressed the role that peers can play on triggering or hindering political participation (Burt & Klofstad 2008, Wolf et al. 2010, Huckfeldt & Sprague 2003, Sinclair 2012, Zuckerman 2005). Nonetheless, these contr...

This chapter investigates whether variations in party affiliation rules have political consequences, looking in particular at their effects on partisan participation. The research presented here combines data from the Political Party Database with surveys of party members and party supporters, looking for evidence of whether potential affiliates’ b...

New-Flemish Alliance (N-VA) burst on the scene barely a decade ago and is now Belgium's largest political party. One explanation for this success is that N-VA is not brand new but rose from the ashes of a dissolved party. How exactly should we differentiate between new and old parties? We use Barnea and Rahat's (2011) analytical framework to assess...

In recent years, parties in many parliamentary democracies have radically reshaped what it means to be a party member, most importantly by giving them more direct say over party decisions. This article explores some of the implications of these changes, asking whether the costs and benefits of membership have an effect on which supporters take the...

With the recent surge in support for far-right parties, xenophobia and nativism have suddenly become mainstream across Europe. The far-right's success has put fundamental civil and political liberties under threat at home, especially for visible minorities, and raised the question of how more mainstream parties should react to these extremists. Sho...

Based on a subset of MAPP data on 226 parties in 26 countries over a period from 1990 to 2010, this paper explores paths for a party-based explanatory model of the differences in membership trajectories across parties and changes over time. It examines the effect of different factors such as: party age, vote share, governmental participation, numbe...

Depuis 1996, l’Association belge francophone de science politique fédère les chercheur·e·s en science politique dans les différents champs qui l’animent en Belgique francophone et au-delà. Cet ouvrage, 20e volume de la collection « Science politique », marque le 20e anniversaire de l’ABSP. Ces deux décennies ont vu de véritables métamorphoses au ni...

Reforms of intra-party decision-making processes often rest on the idea that citizens want more direct say in these processes, but empirical data to support this claim are scarce. Using original data from the 2014 PartiRep voter survey in Belgium, this article explores the extent to which citizens support alternative intra-party processes. It shows...