The 2006 local elections in Belgium were the first one organized after the transfer of the local authorities competences from the federal to the regional level. This means by consequence that the ...different regions have as well the competence in designing the institutional framework of local government as the competence of changing electoral rules. The same elections were also the first ones after drastic reforms in the national political landscape (eg, the democratic Flemish nationalist party split in different groups, nearly all the parties changed their name & particularly in the Flemish part of the country, different kinds of alliances between parties emerged). All over the country, the Christian democrats made progress & the ecologists suffered a declining trend. For the other parties, results depend from one region to another. In the Flemish part of the country, the socialists & the extreme right wing joined the Christian democrats as winners of the elections. The other parties lost votes. This was particularly the case for the liberals & ecologists (the winners of the 2000 local elections). Liberals are however the winners in the Walloon part of the country, together with again the Christian democrats. In this region, socialists & ecologists were set back. In the Brussels region, we noticed progress for socialists & Christian democrats & declining figures for liberals & ecologists. Analyses of political competition, number of groups in local councils & single party majorities point out that the fragmentation of local politics is not growing. The local political landscape seems to be more stable in the Walloons compared with the Flemish region. Tables. Adapted from the source document.
An important element in the debate on the hollowed State is the extent to which the subsidiary idea caused a decrease in dominance of the central State & led to a multifaceted process of ...decentralisation. A case in point is the recent regionalisation of the competency to organise local government in Belgium. Based on Page & Goldsmith's three dimensions in intergovernmental relations between central & local government (functions, discretion & access), we test the discourse of the reform of the local government in Flanders to its practice. It is argued that the principles of a subsidiary founded municipal autonomy, a growing fiscal & functional discretion & a personal disentanglement of local & central decision-makers was inspired by northern European models of government relations. These, however, are only partially being confirmed by the praxis of the reforms, as the main principles of the existing southern European models persist. Adapted from the source document.
Even a quick look at the comparative literature on the social background and characteristics of local political elites undermines the ‘fata morgana’ of a ‘descriptive’ representation’ in which public ...bodies are socio-demographic samples of the society they represent (Pitkin 1967). Despite differences over time and between political systems the disproportional recruitment of certain social groups with distinctive characteristics into the (local) political elite is one of the most replicated and perpetuated findings. Furthermore, at the local level political decision-makers are predominantly male, middle aged, high in professional status and well-educated (Eldersveld et al. 1995: 31–55). This leads us to conclude that the political recruitment process, by which ‘from the many are chosen the few’ (Prewitt 1969: 169–188), does not operate in a random manner. Since local leadership selection is conceived as a process by which “individuals are screened by political institutions for elective office” (Jacob 1962: 708) a dynamic interaction of supply and demand side factors becomes apparent in which social background characteristics interfere at different stages. The political capital and motivations of aspirant office-holders intermingle with the demands of gatekeepers in the political system. The ‘structure of opportunities’ of the latter thus biases the nature of the recruitment function (Norris 1997: 209–231).
An overview is presented of the actors constituting that level of governance closest to the citizen: the local political elite. A sample is offered of the socioprofessional profiles of local ...politicians elected in Flemish communes, 1946-1994, seen in particular in terms of age, sex, & calling. Secondary variables such as political allegiance & mandate, & the size of the region & commune have been taken into account together with the overall dynamics of the period studied. The authors were thus able to note that despite legal & social change, local politics are still largely a male preserve but also that professionalism is improving in that liberal callings & intellectuals have been increasingly involved in grassroots politics. Elders, however, are overrepresented, & this aristocratization of local mandatories keeps apace with the importance of the task & the size of the commune. 8 Tables, 36 References. Adapted from the source document.
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