In 2019, the world witnessed an exceptional wave of climate protests. In this case study, we scrutinise who participated in the protests staged in Belgium. We ask: did the exceptional mobilising context of the 2019 protest wave also bring exceptional protesters to the streets? Were thanks to the unique momentum standard barriers to protest participation overcome? We answer these questions by comparing three surveys of participants in the 2019 protest wave with three surveys of relevant reference publics. Our findings show that while the Belgian 2019 protest was in many ways exceptional, its participants were less so. Although participants – especially in the early phase of the protest wave – were less protest experienced, younger and unaffiliated to organisations, our findings simultaneously confirm the persistence of a great many well-known socio-demographic and political inequalities. Our conclusion centres on the implications of these findings. |
Search result: 481 articles
Article |
Truly Exceptional? Participants in the Belgian 2019 Youth for Climate Protest Wave |
Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue Online First 2022 |
Keywords | protest, participation, inequality, climate change, Fridays For Future |
Authors | Ruud Wouters, Michiel De Vydt and Luna Staes |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Case Reports |
2022/18 Breach of working time provisions and automatic harm sustained by an employee (FR) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2022 |
Keywords | Working Time |
Authors | Claire Toumieux and Susan Ekrami |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The French Supreme Court has held that exceeding the maximum weekly working time causes automatic harm to the employee which should be repaired. |
Article |
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Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue 1 2022 |
Keywords | Euroscepticism, parliaments, party competition, Belgium, federalism |
Authors | Jordy Weyns and Peter Bursens |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Euroscepticism has long been absent among Belgian political parties. However, since the start of the century, some Eurosceptic challengers have risen. This article examines the effect of Eurosceptic competition on the salience other parties give to the EU and on the positions these parties take in parliament. Using a sample of plenary debates in the federal and regional parliaments, we track each party’s evolution from 2000 until 2019. Our findings both contradict and qualify existing theories and findings on Eurosceptic competition. When facing Eurosceptic challengers, all parties raise salience fairly equally, but government and peripheral parties adopted (soft) Euroscepticism more often than other parties. |
Article |
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Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue 1 2022 |
Keywords | Euroscepticism, parliaments, party competition, Belgium, federalism |
Authors | Jordy Weyns and Peter Bursens |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Euroscepticism has long been absent among Belgian political parties. However, since the start of the century, some Eurosceptic challengers have risen. This article examines the effect of Eurosceptic competition on the salience other parties give to the EU and on the positions these parties take in parliament. Using a sample of plenary debates in the federal and regional parliaments, we track each party’s evolution from 2000 until 2019. Our findings both contradict and qualify existing theories and findings on Eurosceptic competition. When facing Eurosceptic challengers, all parties raise salience fairly equally, but government and peripheral parties adopted (soft) Euroscepticism more often than other parties. |
Article |
Fit for Office? The Perception of Female and Male Politicians by Dutch Voters |
Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue 1 2022 |
Keywords | political underrepresentation, gender stereotypes, role incongruity, candidate evaluation, experimental vignette study |
Authors | Rozemarijn E. van Dijk and Joop van Holsteyn |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The underrepresentation of women in politics is a worldwide phenomenon and the Netherlands fit the pattern: about 39% of the Dutch MPs are female. Based on social role incongruity theory, it is expected that female politicians are evaluated more negatively than male politicians since women do not fit the dominant male politician role. However, most research is conducted in the United States, that is, a candidate-centred system where individual characteristics play an important role. This article focuses on the party-centred parliamentary context in which we examine (1) whether gender stereotypes are present among citizens and (2) to what extent these stereotypes influence the evaluation of politicians. We do this by conducting an experimental vignette survey design. We find that at the mass level there is no difference between the evaluation of male and female politicians, although gender stereotypes are present. |
Article |
Morality in the Populist Radical RightA Computer-Assisted Morality Frame Analysis of a Prototype |
Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue 1 2022 |
Keywords | Populist radical right, morality, frame analysis, word2vec, crimmigration |
Authors | Job P.H. Vossen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article provides a computer-assisted morality framing analysis of Vlaams Belang’s 2019 manifesto. The VB is regarded in the literature as a prototypical example of the Populist Radical Right (PRR). We first concisely review what PRR politics is and what it consists of, tentatively distinguishing four elements that we hypothesise will materialise in corresponding subframes running throughout the manifesto. We point to a mismatch between the omnipresent role of morality in all PRR subframes and the little attention devoted to the concept in the PRR literature. We introduce a useful theory from social psychology into framing literature to create a novel methodological approach to frame analysis that builds a bridge between a qualitative content and a quantitative context approach. The results support our hypothesis that populism, nationalism, nativism and authoritarianism can be distinguished from one another. Additionally, we detect a fifth PRR subframe, crimmigration, by its unique role of morality. |
Article |
Opening an Absolute Majority A Typology of Motivations for Opening and Selecting Coalition Partners |
Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue 1 2022 |
Keywords | negotiation, absolute majority, oversized coalition, motivations, local election |
Authors | Geoffrey Grandjean and Valentine Meens |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Following the municipal elections in the Walloon Region (Belgium) on 14 October 2018, 189 political groups won an absolute majority. Twenty-two of these decided not to exercise power alone, but favoured the formation of an oversized coalition by integrating a minority partner. The aim of this article is to identify the motivations behind the formation of a local coalition when one of the partners has an absolute majority. Semi-structured interviews with mayors and leaders of political groups in these municipalities make it possible to identify the motivations for, first, the choice to open and, second, the choice of a minority partner. By distinguishing between necessary and supporting motivations, this article shows that the search for greater representation is a necessary motivation for the choice to open, whereas personal affinities and memories of the past are necessary motivations for choosing minority partners. By prioritising motivations, this article shows that. |
Notes from the field |
Reflections on the stories of Layla Alsheikh and Robi Damelin |
Journal | The International Journal of Restorative Justice, Issue 1 2022 |
Authors | Tim Chapman |
Author's information |
Article |
Appendix Fit for Office? The Perception of Female and Male Politicians by Dutch Voters |
Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue 1 2022 |
Keywords | political underrepresentation, gender stereotypes, role incongruity, candidate evaluation, experimental vignette study |
Authors | Rozemarijn Esmee van Dijk and Joop van Holsteyn |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The underrepresentation of women in politics is a worldwide phenomenon and the Netherlands fit the pattern: about 39% of the Dutch MPs are female. Based on social role incongruity theory, it is expected that female politicians are evaluated more negatively than male politicians since women do not fit the dominant male politician role. However, most research is conducted in the United States, that is, a candidate-centred system where individual characteristics play an important role. This article focuses on the party-centred parliamentary context in which we examine (1) whether gender stereotypes are present among citizens and (2) to what extent these stereotypes influence the evaluation of politicians. We do this by conducting an experimental vignette survey design. We find that at the mass level there is no difference between the evaluation of male and female politicians, although gender stereotypes are present. |
Article |
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Journal | East European Yearbook on Human Rights, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | non-coherence theory of digital human rights, network approach, universality of human rights, transversality effect |
Authors | Mart Susi |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The idea of universality of human rights is under multidimensional challenges entailing the aspects of practice generalization and postmodern social theories with juridical ambitions. Competing theories continue to exist and the elements of choice between theories are determined by practice, convenience and economies and not necessarily by idealistic goals. Among the many arguments raised against the universality of human rights stands the network approach, which is characterized by permeability, its supportive purpose of vertical normative structures, its impact on the rise of social responsibility, obscuring effect on legitimacy and “reliance on trust”. Supportive purpose of vertical normative structures in a network means that private networks can articulate the claim for correctness in self-regulation due to the existence of the vertical normative backbone. One of the main reservations related to digital human rights law and remedies through the network approach is that of distortion of legitimacy. The article approaches these issues through a novel theoretical approach of non-coherence. |
Article |
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Journal | East European Yearbook on Human Rights, Issue 1 2021 |
Authors | Matthias C. Kettemann and Martin Fertmann |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This study explores the spread of disinformation relating to the Covid-19 pandemic on the internet, dubbed by some as the pandemic’s accompanying “infodemic”, and the societal reactions to this development across different countries and platforms. The study’s focus is on the role of states and platforms in combatting online disinformation. |
Article |
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Journal | East European Yearbook on Human Rights, Issue 1 2021 |
Authors | Martin Fertmann and Matthias C. Kettemann |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Terms-of-service based actions against political and state actors as both key subjects and objects of political opinion formation have become a focal point of the ongoing debates over who should set and enforce the rules for speech on online platforms. |
Article |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 3 2021 |
Keywords | needs for safety, victim impact statements, legislation, Empirical Legal Studies, privacy protection |
Authors | Marijke Malsch |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Various laws, guidelines and other types of regulation have been created that introduced new rights worldwide for victims of crime. Many of these rights focus on active victims who wish to step into the open and to orally express their views and experiences in court. Rights and wishes to remain in the background and to preserve one’s privacy received less attention. This article focuses primarily on the wishes of victims that reveal their intention to not play an active role in the criminal process, and on victims who fear an invasion of their safety and privacy. According to the literature, such wishes and needs can be considered to be fundamental. The article questions the empirical basis for the present victim legislation: are the new laws that have been created over the decades founded on empirically established victim needs, or on presumed victim needs? The article concludes with a plea for a more extensive use of empirical findings that shed light on victim wishes in the legislation and the criminal process. |
Article |
Implementation of Law Reform Proposals in the United Kingdom: A Continuing Dilemma? |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2021 |
Keywords | law reform, government, legislation, parliament, implementation |
Authors | Jonathan Teasdale |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Law reform in the joint jurisdiction of England and Wales, and in Scotland, was put on a formal footing in 1965. Down the years the two Law Commissions (as statutory independent bodies) worked diligently to produce a significant number of reports advising government on steps to be taken to update and simplify swathes of the law. But by 2009 the legislative implementation rate had slipped badly and Parliament then passed an Act which (for England and Wales) facilitated a governmental protocol designed to make parliamentary review of progress more transparent. The Ministry of Justice acts as gatekeeper for the implementation process. In the short term implementation was taken more seriously, driven by the incentive of the MoJ having to report annually to parliament on progress. In more recent years, however, both implementation and the statutory reporting mechanism have been allowed to slip: there are few signs that the situation is likely to improve. This article examines the position and seeks to explain, notwithstanding some of the real obstacles to swifter implementation, that both parliament through its select committees, and government, need to give the issue greater priority. Systematic review of the law, and the delivering of legislative change, underpin both the rule of law and the essence of the democratic settlement. |
Article |
Building Resilience Against Secondary Sanctions in an Increasingly Polarized WorldThe Amendment of the EU Blocking Statute |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2021 |
Keywords | sanctions, economic sanctions, secondary sanctions, European Union, blocking statute |
Authors | Mario Mas Palacios |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The spectre of foreign secondary sanctions is looming large again in the European Union after the reinstatement in 2018 of US sanctions with extraterritorial effects on Iran. However, in a context of increasing global polarization and geopolitical tensions, the challenge of secondary sanctions goes beyond US sanctions against Iran. The EU 1996 blocking statute is aimed at countering the negative effects that these sanctions have in the European Union, but there is a general consensus that it has failed to preserve the Union’s interests. This article analyses the challenges that secondary sanctions pose in the European Union and the current response provided by the blocking statute. It suggests that an amended statute may play an important role within the broader European policy against secondary sanctions, although it is not by itself a sufficient mechanism. It concludes by suggesting how the statute could be amended to better achieve its objectives. |
Developments in European Law |
The PSPP Judgment of the German Federal Constitutional CourtThe Judge’s Theatre According to Karlsruhe |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | German Constitutional Court, basic law, ultra vires, European Central Bank, primacy of Union law |
Authors | Maria Kordeva |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The PSPP decision of 5 May 2020 rendered by the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) does not constitute a break with the earlier jurisprudence of the FCC elaborated since the Lisbon Treaty judgment of 30 June 2009. Even though qualifying the acts of the Union as ultra vires has been likened to a warlike act, one should beware of hasty conclusions and look closely at the analysis of the Second Senate to form a moderate opinion of this decision decried by European and national commentators. Should the PSPP judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court be classified as “much ado about nothing”, despite the procedure started by the European Commission, or, on the contrary, will the CJEU in the next months, sanction Germany for its obvious affront to and breach of the principle of the primacy of Union law? The (final?) power grab between the European and national courts remains to be seen. We can criticize the German FCC that it put the fundamental principles of the Union in danger. Yet, it is worth reflecting on the possible encroachment of competences by European institutions, because, in this case, the red line between monetary policy and economic policy is more than thin. |
Developments in International Law |
Is the World Ready to Overcome the Thesis of the Clash of Civilizations? |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | clash of civilizations, end of history, tragedy of great power politics, dignity of difference, clash of ignorance |
Authors | István Lakatos |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The article provides a critical overview of the Clash of Civilizations theory by Samuel Huntington, but in this context it also addresses two other important books also aimed at finding the correct answers to the new challenges of the post-Cold War era; Huntington’s work was also an answer to their thesis. They are Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man, and John Mearsheimer’s The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. I argue that neither the Clash of Civilizations nor the End of History theses correctly captures the complexity of our contemporary social and political life, as they are both based on the assumption of the superiority of the West and the inferiority of the Rest. |
Developments in European Law |
The First Ever Ultra Vires Judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court: PSPPWill the Barking Dog Bite More Than Once? |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | judicial dialogue, ultra vires, PSPP, German Federal Constitutional Court, infringement procedure |
Authors | Robert Böttner |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In May 2020, the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) delivered its judgment in the PSPP case. At first it seemed that it would be a remake of the Gauweiler/OMT case between the German Court and the CJEU. Shockingly, however, the German FCC decided that not only had the ECB acted ultra vires by failing to duly justify its PSPP decision, but it also found the CJEU to have delivered an incomprehensible and objectively arbitrary judgment by which the German Court was not bound. This case note not only traces the history of the PSPP proceedings, but it also tries to review the heavy criticism that the FCC’s verdict has garnered. In the context of European integration and due to the German FCC’s authority among supreme courts in Europe, it is a dangerous precedent, that the European Commission tries to curb through infringement proceedings. One can only hope that it will be settled for good and shall remain an unfortunate but singular incident. |
Case Notes |
Can a Two-Tailed Dog Be Allowed Into the Polling Booth?The Case of Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt Versus Hungary Before the ECtHR |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | freedom of speech, elections, ECtHR, democracy, secrecy of votes |
Authors | János Tamás Papp |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Hungarian satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party (Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt – MKKP) applied to the ECtHR as a result of the decisions rendered by the Hungarian National Electoral Commission, the Curia of Hungary and the Constitutional Court, who ruled that a mobile application developed by the party allowing anonymous users to share their invalid votes violated Hungarian election law. By 16 votes to 1, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR ruled that the Hungarian authorities had violated the Article of the ECHR on freedom of expression. According to the ECtHR’s reasoning, the severe uncertainties about the possible consequences of the legal provisions applied by the domestic authorities went beyond what is permissible under Article 10(2) ECHR. The ECtHR has ruled that a judicial interpretation of a law’s rules does not inherently violate the requirement that laws be written in such a way that the legal implications are predictable. However, since the national law in this case provided for a case-by-case limitation on the expression of an opinion on voting, electoral bodies and national courts that interpreted and enforced these rules enjoyed an excessive amount of discretion. In conclusion, the ECtHR found that legislation restricting freedom of expression must be treated more strictly in connection with electoral procedures: it must not be in any way misleading or inconsistent. |
Article |
Opposition in Times of COVID-19 – To Support or Not to Support? |
Journal | Politics of the Low Countries, Issue 2 2021 |
Keywords | minority government, rally-around-the-flag, COVID-19, mainstream parties, challenger parties, opposition, party goals |
Authors | Britt Vande Walle, Wouter Wolfs and Steven Van Hecke |
AbstractAuthor's information |
COVID-19 has hit many countries all over the world, and its impact on (party) politics has been undeniable. This crisis situation functions as an opportunity structure incentivising opposition forces to support the government. Not much is known about what drives opposition parties to (not) support the government in crisis situations. This article integrates the literature on rally-around-the-flag, political opportunity structures, party types and party goals. More specifically, we focus on the behaviour of opposition parties towards the government’s crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse whether and how the party type influences the position of the party vis-à-vis the governmental coalition, focusing on the case of Belgium. We categorise the seven opposition parties in Belgium as challenger or mainstream parties and explain their behaviour on the basis of policy-, office- or vote-seeking motives. Our analysis is based on party voting behaviour, elite interviews and an analysis of the main plenary debates. |