This paper proposes a new method to evaluate the number of rel-evant parties in an assembly. The ... more This paper proposes a new method to evaluate the number of rel-evant parties in an assembly. The most widespread indicator of frag-mentation used in comparative politics is the 'Effective Number of Par-ties'(ENP), designed by Laakso and Taagepera (1979). Taking both the number of parties and their relative weights into account, the ENP is arguably a good parsimonious operationalization of the number of 'relevant'parties. This index however produces misleading results in single-party ma jority situations as it still indicates that ...
Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminar... more Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminary analyses indicate the following: - Local coalition formation remains quite distinct to what is observed at the Belgian national level, as the number of majority situations (although decreasing) opens the door for the formation of single-party governments. However, interesting patterns were revealed amongst these majority situations in the two main regions: it is especially in Flanders that parties with a majority of seats invite other partners to join and therefore form oversized coalitions. The higher fragmentation of the Flemish party system and the necessity for the -usually dominant on the local scene- Christian-democrats to find relays with regional and national governments in which this party was excluded were pointed at as potential explanations. Notice also that for the first time an analysis of coalition formation at the local level evaluated the strength of the policy proximi...
Si l'on constate, dans bon nombre de pays voisins, qu&am... more Si l'on constate, dans bon nombre de pays voisins, qu'à chaque nouvelle élection la participation électorale ne fait que décroître, et que des voix s' élèvent dans les pays en question pour dénoncer l'état de la démocratie et de la citoyenneté à cette occasion, la participation des Belges aux élections se maintient quant à elle à un niveau sans égal.'Une série d'éléments facilitateurs sont présents dans le système belge (un système électoral à la représentation proportionnelle; le vote dominical; l'enregistrement automatique sur les ...
Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminar... more Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminary analyses indicate the following: - Local coalition formation remains quite distinct to what is observed at the Belgian national level, as the number of majority situations (although decreasing) opens the door for the formation of single-party governments. However, interesting patterns were revealed amongst these majority situations in the two main regions: it is especially in Flanders that parties with a majority of seats invite other partners to join and therefore form oversized coalitions. The higher fragmentation of the Flemish party system and the necessity for the -usually dominant on the local scene- Christian-democrats to find relays with regional and national governments in which this party was excluded were pointed at as potential explanations. Notice also that for the first time an analysis of coalition formation at the local level evaluated the strength of the policy proximi...
Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminar... more Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminary analyses indicate the following: - Local coalition formation remains quite distinct to what is observed at the Belgian national level, as the number of majority situations (although decreasing) opens the door for the formation of single-party governments. However, interesting patterns were revealed amongst these majority situations in the two main regions: it is especially in Flanders that parties with a majority of seats invite other partners to join and therefore form oversized coalitions. The higher fragmentation of the Flemish party system and the necessity for the -usually dominant on the local scene- Christian-democrats to find relays with regional and national governments in which this party was excluded were pointed at as potential explanations. Notice also that for the first time an analysis of coalition formation at the local level evaluated the strength of the policy proximi...
DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde l... more DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde la production scientifique de l'ULB.L'interface de recherche DI-fusion permet de consulter les publications des chercheurs de l'ULB et les thèses qui y ont été défendues.
The Belgian party-archy violates the ideal-type chain of parliamentary delegation in many ways, i... more The Belgian party-archy violates the ideal-type chain of parliamentary delegation in many ways, insofar as political parties play a predominant role at each stage. They channel the delegation of power from voters to MPs, from Parliament to the cabinet, from the collective cabinet to individual ministers, and from ministers to their civil servants. Hence, they can be considered the effective principals in the polity, and many actors of the parliamentary chain of delegation, such as MPs, ministers, and civil servants have been reduced to mere party agents. The extreme fragmentation of the Belgian party system in combination with its increasing need for multilevel coordination have further enhanced the position of political parties in the Belgian polity. Yet, at the same time (since the early 1990s), Belgium has also witnessed a gradual decline in the informal system of partitocratic delegation and clientelistic excesses, thereby giving back part of their autonomy to some formal agents...
Von 1945 bis heute teilt das Luxemburger Parteiensystem alle Merkmale von Sartoris „moderate plur... more Von 1945 bis heute teilt das Luxemburger Parteiensystem alle Merkmale von Sartoris „moderate pluralism “(Sartori 1976, S. 173). Sämtliche Regierungen dieses Zeitraums bestanden aus Koalitionen, und die zentristische Tendenz des gesamten politischen Feldes begünstigte die am stärksten zentristische Partei (Christlich-Soziale Volkspartei-CSV), welche abwechselnd in Koalition mit den Sozialisten (Lëtzebuerger Sozialistesch Arbechterpartei-LSAP) oder den Liberalen (Demokratesch Partei-DP) regierte. Die ...
In this article, we address recent claims that executive— legislative relations in parliamentary ... more In this article, we address recent claims that executive— legislative relations in parliamentary democracies are undergoing important changes owing to either a `presidentialization' or a `Europeanization' of domestic political systems. Therefore, we test empirically whether parliamentary democracies are indeed experiencing changes in executive—legislative relations and whether these developments can, in part, be explained by an increase in European integration. Using data on ministerial selection in Swedish cabinets during the years 1952—2006, we find that there appears to be a slight tendency towards `presidentialization', which is indicated by a decrease in ministers with a parliamentary background being appointed, and that there exists some support for the notion that Sweden's political and economic integration into the European Union is part of the explanation for this change.
Green parties have been represented in the parliaments of European Union countries since 1981, bu... more Green parties have been represented in the parliaments of European Union countries since 1981, but it was not until recently that a few have entered national governments. Using a data set comprised of 51 government formation opportunities (where the Greens were represented in parliament), the authors of this article show that the parties involved in these bargaining situations are more office-oriented than earlier studies had found. As Green parties are seen to be less office-seeking than other parties, this general tendency for office-seeking behaviour in government formation may partly account for the scarcity of Greens in government. Furthermore, a number of hypotheses derived from theories that account for the specific nature of Green parties in terms of their office-, policyand vote-seeking orientations are tested. It is found that Greens participate in government when they have lost votes in at least one election, when the main party of the left identifies them as a clear electoral threat and when the policy distance between the Greens and either the formateur party or the main left party is small (the latter condition must be accompanied by a substantial proportion of seats for the Green party in parliament). As most of these simultaneous conditions only materialized recently, and in a few countries, it is argued that this analysis, which is the first comparative and multivariate test focused on this question, explains the scarcity and the delay of Green governmental participation.
This paper proposes a new method to evaluate the number of rel-evant parties in an assembly. The ... more This paper proposes a new method to evaluate the number of rel-evant parties in an assembly. The most widespread indicator of frag-mentation used in comparative politics is the 'Effective Number of Par-ties'(ENP), designed by Laakso and Taagepera (1979). Taking both the number of parties and their relative weights into account, the ENP is arguably a good parsimonious operationalization of the number of 'relevant'parties. This index however produces misleading results in single-party ma jority situations as it still indicates that ...
Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminar... more Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminary analyses indicate the following: - Local coalition formation remains quite distinct to what is observed at the Belgian national level, as the number of majority situations (although decreasing) opens the door for the formation of single-party governments. However, interesting patterns were revealed amongst these majority situations in the two main regions: it is especially in Flanders that parties with a majority of seats invite other partners to join and therefore form oversized coalitions. The higher fragmentation of the Flemish party system and the necessity for the -usually dominant on the local scene- Christian-democrats to find relays with regional and national governments in which this party was excluded were pointed at as potential explanations. Notice also that for the first time an analysis of coalition formation at the local level evaluated the strength of the policy proximi...
Si l'on constate, dans bon nombre de pays voisins, qu&am... more Si l'on constate, dans bon nombre de pays voisins, qu'à chaque nouvelle élection la participation électorale ne fait que décroître, et que des voix s' élèvent dans les pays en question pour dénoncer l'état de la démocratie et de la citoyenneté à cette occasion, la participation des Belges aux élections se maintient quant à elle à un niveau sans égal.'Une série d'éléments facilitateurs sont présents dans le système belge (un système électoral à la représentation proportionnelle; le vote dominical; l'enregistrement automatique sur les ...
Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminar... more Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminary analyses indicate the following: - Local coalition formation remains quite distinct to what is observed at the Belgian national level, as the number of majority situations (although decreasing) opens the door for the formation of single-party governments. However, interesting patterns were revealed amongst these majority situations in the two main regions: it is especially in Flanders that parties with a majority of seats invite other partners to join and therefore form oversized coalitions. The higher fragmentation of the Flemish party system and the necessity for the -usually dominant on the local scene- Christian-democrats to find relays with regional and national governments in which this party was excluded were pointed at as potential explanations. Notice also that for the first time an analysis of coalition formation at the local level evaluated the strength of the policy proximi...
Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminar... more Regarding the three domains of research to which this paper aimed at contributing, our preliminary analyses indicate the following: - Local coalition formation remains quite distinct to what is observed at the Belgian national level, as the number of majority situations (although decreasing) opens the door for the formation of single-party governments. However, interesting patterns were revealed amongst these majority situations in the two main regions: it is especially in Flanders that parties with a majority of seats invite other partners to join and therefore form oversized coalitions. The higher fragmentation of the Flemish party system and the necessity for the -usually dominant on the local scene- Christian-democrats to find relays with regional and national governments in which this party was excluded were pointed at as potential explanations. Notice also that for the first time an analysis of coalition formation at the local level evaluated the strength of the policy proximi...
DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde l... more DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde la production scientifique de l'ULB.L'interface de recherche DI-fusion permet de consulter les publications des chercheurs de l'ULB et les thèses qui y ont été défendues.
The Belgian party-archy violates the ideal-type chain of parliamentary delegation in many ways, i... more The Belgian party-archy violates the ideal-type chain of parliamentary delegation in many ways, insofar as political parties play a predominant role at each stage. They channel the delegation of power from voters to MPs, from Parliament to the cabinet, from the collective cabinet to individual ministers, and from ministers to their civil servants. Hence, they can be considered the effective principals in the polity, and many actors of the parliamentary chain of delegation, such as MPs, ministers, and civil servants have been reduced to mere party agents. The extreme fragmentation of the Belgian party system in combination with its increasing need for multilevel coordination have further enhanced the position of political parties in the Belgian polity. Yet, at the same time (since the early 1990s), Belgium has also witnessed a gradual decline in the informal system of partitocratic delegation and clientelistic excesses, thereby giving back part of their autonomy to some formal agents...
Von 1945 bis heute teilt das Luxemburger Parteiensystem alle Merkmale von Sartoris „moderate plur... more Von 1945 bis heute teilt das Luxemburger Parteiensystem alle Merkmale von Sartoris „moderate pluralism “(Sartori 1976, S. 173). Sämtliche Regierungen dieses Zeitraums bestanden aus Koalitionen, und die zentristische Tendenz des gesamten politischen Feldes begünstigte die am stärksten zentristische Partei (Christlich-Soziale Volkspartei-CSV), welche abwechselnd in Koalition mit den Sozialisten (Lëtzebuerger Sozialistesch Arbechterpartei-LSAP) oder den Liberalen (Demokratesch Partei-DP) regierte. Die ...
In this article, we address recent claims that executive— legislative relations in parliamentary ... more In this article, we address recent claims that executive— legislative relations in parliamentary democracies are undergoing important changes owing to either a `presidentialization' or a `Europeanization' of domestic political systems. Therefore, we test empirically whether parliamentary democracies are indeed experiencing changes in executive—legislative relations and whether these developments can, in part, be explained by an increase in European integration. Using data on ministerial selection in Swedish cabinets during the years 1952—2006, we find that there appears to be a slight tendency towards `presidentialization', which is indicated by a decrease in ministers with a parliamentary background being appointed, and that there exists some support for the notion that Sweden's political and economic integration into the European Union is part of the explanation for this change.
Green parties have been represented in the parliaments of European Union countries since 1981, bu... more Green parties have been represented in the parliaments of European Union countries since 1981, but it was not until recently that a few have entered national governments. Using a data set comprised of 51 government formation opportunities (where the Greens were represented in parliament), the authors of this article show that the parties involved in these bargaining situations are more office-oriented than earlier studies had found. As Green parties are seen to be less office-seeking than other parties, this general tendency for office-seeking behaviour in government formation may partly account for the scarcity of Greens in government. Furthermore, a number of hypotheses derived from theories that account for the specific nature of Green parties in terms of their office-, policyand vote-seeking orientations are tested. It is found that Greens participate in government when they have lost votes in at least one election, when the main party of the left identifies them as a clear electoral threat and when the policy distance between the Greens and either the formateur party or the main left party is small (the latter condition must be accompanied by a substantial proportion of seats for the Green party in parliament). As most of these simultaneous conditions only materialized recently, and in a few countries, it is argued that this analysis, which is the first comparative and multivariate test focused on this question, explains the scarcity and the delay of Green governmental participation.
Green parties have been represented in the parliaments of European Union countries since 1981, bu... more Green parties have been represented in the parliaments of European Union countries since 1981, but it was not until recently that a few have entered national governments. Using a data set comprised of 51 government formation opportunities (where the Greens were represented in parliament), the authors of this article show that the parties involved in these bargaining situations are more office-oriented than earlier studies had found. As Green parties are seen to be less office-seeking than other parties, this general tendency for office-seeking behaviour in government formation may partly account for the scarcity of Greens in government. Furthermore, a number of hypotheses derived from theories that account for the specific nature of Green parties in terms of their office-, policyand vote-seeking orientations are tested. It is found that Greens participate in government when they have lost votes in at least one election, when the main party of the left identifies them as a clear electoral threat and when the policy distance between the Greens and either the formateur party or the main left party is small (the latter condition must be accompanied by a substantial proportion of seats for the Green party in parliament). As most of these simultaneous conditions only materialized recently, and in a few countries, it is argued that this analysis, which is the first comparative and multivariate test focused on this question, explains the scarcity and the delay of Green governmental participation.
In this article, we address recent claims that executive— legislative relations in parliamentary ... more In this article, we address recent claims that executive— legislative relations in parliamentary democracies are undergoing important changes owing to either a `presidentialization' or a `Europeanization' of domestic political systems. Therefore, we test empirically whether parliamentary democracies are indeed experiencing changes in executive—legislative relations and whether these developments can, in part, be explained by an increase in European integration. Using data on ministerial selection in Swedish cabinets during the years 1952—2006, we find that there appears to be a slight tendency towards `presidentialization', which is indicated by a decrease in ministers with a parliamentary background being appointed, and that there exists some support for the notion that Sweden's political and economic integration into the European Union is part of the explanation for this change.
In this paper, we address recent claims that (1) European parliamentary democracies are undergoin... more In this paper, we address recent claims that (1) European parliamentary democracies are undergoing a process of" presidentialization", and (2) that these developments can, in part, be explained by EU integration. Using data on ministerial selection and deselection in Swedish cabinets during the years 1952-2006, we find that (1) there appears to be a slight tendency towards" presidentialization", and (2) there exists some preliminary support for the notion that Sweden's economic integration into the EU is part of the explanation for this.
Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy: Deficits and Surpluses in Federated States, 2004
The purpose of this chapter is to explain the differences in the budgetary balances of the variou... more The purpose of this chapter is to explain the differences in the budgetary balances of the various federated entities of the Belgian state (regions and communities), from 1990 to 1998. First, we describe the recent process of federalization of Belgium, the autonomy granted to both regions and communities as to their receipts and expenditures, and the institutional systems of budgetary coordination between the diverse public instances in Belgium. Second, we list the results of previous studies on budgetary policies of the regions and ...
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Papers by Patrick Dumont