Attitudes about Regionalisation in Federal Belgium: The Role of Direct and Indirect Policy Feedback Effects
(2019) ECPR Joint Sessions — Location: Mons (9.April.2019)
Files
No attached file found for this publication.
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- Regionalisation, in the form of a dispersion of political power away from national political centres to regional governments, has been a defining feature of European politics since the 1970s. In this context, scholarship has shown to what extent regionalization has been an answer to public attitudes about the division of competences between different governance levels, and to what extent other dynamics played a role. Yet, we still know little about the effects that such practices of regionalization have on the further development of citizens’ attitudes towards regionalization. In other words, how can we expect citizens to react when they experience institutional regionalization? This contribution tackles this question by building on the literature on policy feedback, which proposes a normative, resource and interpretative effect of institutional regionalization. The paper extends this literature by further theorizing the aspect of political socialization as part of the normative effect, and by specifying an indirect resource and interpretative policy feedback mechanism. Empirically, we use a longitudinal perspective to qualify these expectations. Five cross-sections of the Belgian election surveys that were conducted between 1991 and 2007 are used. This approach explains observed differences in attitudes between citizens that were socialized in different institutional contexts, and in different Belgian regions. The paper shows to what extent indirect resource effects are at play, implying that those who benefit from the movement of competences to the regional level are in turn more positive about this regionalized manner of competence allocation. Additionally, it shows how regional identification is affected by institutional regionalization and links back to attitudes about regionalization. Finally, the results highlight role of political mobilization through elite discourses and politicization in this process.
- Affiliations
Citations
Verhaegen, S., Dupuy, C., & Van Ingelgom, V. (2019). Attitudes about Regionalisation in Federal Belgium: The Role of Direct and Indirect Policy Feedback Effects. ECPR Joint Sessions, Mons. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/125272