Studies about the Flemish voter's perceptions and attitudes revealed that the ecologist party "Agalev" and the radical right-wingparty "Vlaams Blok" were each other's antipodes. These two parties were perceived by the voters as extreme poles on dimensions that were mainly formed by the parties' viewpoint about the rights of immigrants, about Flemish political autonomy, and about materialistic versus postmaterialistic policy alternatives. According to the voters' attitudes, the two electorates were polarized by their attitudes towards immigrants, materialism, economic conservatism, and Flemish (...) nationalism. The electorates of these two 'extreme' parties were very similar in age composition, urban/rural environment, and church involvement. The voters of the ecologist party were more likely to have finished higher education and to have a high occupational status. Blue collar workers with little educational formation were over-represented among the electorate of the right-wing party.Using the data collected among 2,691 Flemisch voters after the 1991 General Elections, this study analyses relevant attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics within one global logistic-regression model. The focus is on the Vlaams Blok versus Agalev with the other electorates as reference category. Controlled for social characteristics, four attitudinal variables still show significant net effects on the likelihood of votingfor Agalev or for the Vlaams Blok and not for the other parties: the attitude towards immigrants, Belgian/Flemish nationalism, materialism, and readiness to make efforts for the preservation of the physical environment. This findings support Swyngedouw's thesis about the emergence of two new cleavages: the so called universalistic/particularistic and postmaterialistic/materialistic cleavages that are capable tocatch about 20% of the Belgian-Flemish voters in the early 90s. (shrink)

In the domain of survey research, it is well known and documented that the structure, wording, and context of questions may affect the distributions of the responses to choice questions. Surprisingly, the application of the knowledge about these effects is not often made in the domain of referendums. Only few studies deal with the effects of question characteristics in referendums, although in the field, there are many discussions about the results obtained by problematic questions. In this study, a number of (...) wording effects that can be expected in referendums are discussed in the context of the actual state of theory and knowledge in the research on question wording effects in surveys. Some are well known and others are new, but also very relevant. The expected problems deal with: the choice between real alternatives; the decision about the majority in the case of multiple choice questions; the ambiguity in the choice between "yes" and "no"; the bidden response scale behind "yes-no" questions and the selection of the of verbs or qualifiers; the use of"double barrelled questions"; the suggestive wordings in the question text or in the introduction; the context of the questions when several questions are asked response sets. The importance and seriousness of each ofthese effects is evaluated, and reflections are made on the quality of the questions in referendums. Consequently suggestions are made about the kind of questions that can be used in referendums. (shrink)

Previous research has shown that there is a strong relationship between church involvement and preference for the Belgian Christian Democratic Party. When religious preference is controled, the relationship between social class and preference for the CVP/PSC seems to disappear completely. Indeed, this party is very heterogeneous as regards the social origins of its adherents. The situation is completely different for preference for the Socialist Party whi.h has a strong relationship between party preference, on the one hand, church involvement and social (...) class, on the other. The unchurched and the workers manifest more preference for the BSP/PSB than do other people. According to Hill the degree of involvement in the «zuil», the so-called «organizational variable», is also significant in the explanation of voting behavior. This could not be confirmed, however, due to a lack of data.Two hypotheses are formulated : 1) pillar involvement in addition to social class and church involvement is significant in the preference for the BSP; 2) there is no connection between preference for the CVP and social class so that only church and pillar involvement remain. These two models were tested by means of loglinear analysis and seem to fit the data.The intention of this article, however, is primarily didactic : to show the possibilities and limitations of the analysis of contingency tables by means of Goodmans loglinear analysis procedure through the use of asimple and relevant example. (shrink)

The relationships between the political parties and the social movements that emerged in the last part of the previous century has been described as a pillarized form of intermediation. The political parties were built on the major cleavages that divided the Belgium society and the links between each organisational network and the political party were exclusive, stable, and formal. In the so-called new social movements, the links with the political parties are specific, unstable, and informal. A vast and stable support (...) for each network party by the majority of the members of the social organisations that belang to each network is one of the conditions for an adequate functioning of the model of pillarized intermediation. Is that condition still met in Flanders after the General Elections ofNovember 24, 1991?This study, based on a sample of 2,691 Flemish voters, shows strong differences in 'faithful' and stable voting behaviour according to the generation and the kind of involvement in the social organisations. Among the generations that were born after 1945, the proportion of electoral 'movers' is larger than the proportion ofvoters that remain faithful to their network party. In the generations born before 1945, stable and faithful voting behaviour is still dominant in the three traditional political families. The more involvement in the Christian Labour Movement, the higher the degree of stable voting behaviour in favour of the Christian Democratie Party. A logistic regression analysis with church involvement, age category, urban environment, and several organizational variabels shows thatmembership of social organisations still has a substantial effect on stable voting behaviour. The future of the pillarized model of intermediation is discussed in view of these results. (shrink)

The General Elections of November 24 1991 will secure a place in Belgian political history. On this 'Black Sunday' one third of the electorate changed party. The traditional parties were heavy losers and the swing was wholly to the advantage of 'Vlaams Blok' and 'Rossem'. Since the election a never ending stream of explanations has appeared. Immediately after the elections the Interuniversity Center of Political Opinion research, located at the Catholic University of Leuven, began a national survey of political attitudes (...) and beliefs among 2,691 Flemish voters. This article explores the reasons for voting for the winning parties. Is it appropriated to speak of protest, disappointment and apathy?The authors expect stable, traditional voting behaviour to continue to decrease in future as a result of loosening ties with the "pillars", the decline of church involvement and the process of individualisation. The article ends with some critical comments on the role of the media as a producer of explanations andlegitimations. (shrink)

Sociological research in three Catholic «pillar» organizations indicates that secularization is not followed by a «de-pillarization» or crumbling of the Catholic pillar. Our explanation suggests a process of secularization within the Catholic organizations, with as main components : the development of a social-cultural christianity - which may be considered a secular surrogate for church-religion -, and professionalization by which the christian organizations provide a milieu which ensures job security and social advancement for its loyal members. Thanks to its informal and (...) formal ties with the Christian pillar organizations, the CVP acts on both components, by stressing a specific identity and by defining the interests of the pillar organizations. This explanation may indicate some major aspects of the ties between sociological Catholics and «their» political party - a bond which is certainly not being affected by the secularization processes, rather the contrary is occurring. (shrink)