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The Effects of the Political Parties’ Selective Bias on Descriptive Representation: Analysis of the Candidates’ Sociological and Political Background

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Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy

Abstract

This chapter investigates which socio-political backgrounds determine the selection of Belgian candidates. We show that even though political parties recruit candidates that—imperfectly—mirror some of the broader social and political features of the voters, selective bias are unquestionable for strategic positions (i.e. winnable seats on the list). For the latter positions, Belgian political parties quasi exclusively recruit aspirants with the highest human, social and political capital. Given the importance of these positions in the Belgian flexible list electoral system, we underline the responsibility of political parties for the ‘unrepresentative’ traits of regional and federal parliaments at the very early stage of the candidate selection processes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Namur, Namur, Belgium

    Jérémy Dodeigne

  2. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Ferdinand Teuber

Authors
  1. Jérémy Dodeigne
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  2. Ferdinand Teuber
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Correspondence to Jérémy Dodeigne .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Audrey Vandeleene

  2. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Lieven De Winter

  3. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Pierre Baudewyns

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Dodeigne, J., Teuber, F. (2019). The Effects of the Political Parties’ Selective Bias on Descriptive Representation: Analysis of the Candidates’ Sociological and Political Background. In: Vandeleene, A., De Winter, L., Baudewyns, P. (eds) Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96460-7_2

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