Mind the Gap: Political Participation and Representation in Belgium [Paperback]

Belgium is a fascinating country, the first to adopt proportional representation, the textbook example of both consensus democracy and the clash between two linguistic communities, and the presence of compulsory voting. There is so much to learn from the Belgian case and Mind the Gap offers a rich variety of insightful analyses of the many dimensions of political representation in the country, from norms of citizenship to party images, attitudes about the division of powers, and the use of preferential voting. I strongly recommend.Drawing from the monumental data base collected by the PartiRep project, this captivating and lucid book takes Belgium as a magnifying glass of the many problems facing all representative democracies today. A must-read to understand the growing gap between citizens expectations and party politics, a more than ever timely issue.This book draws a picture of a parliamentary and representative democracy that faces multiple tensions and multiple gaps.Mind the Gap is a book on the difficult times of modern representative democracy, and on the way in which political science is trying to make sense of it. Forecasting election results has become a very risky business, and explaining the often-surprising results must increasingly rely on case-by-case ad hoc interpretations. Old and formerly stable political parties now appear to be very vulnerable, because many of their traditional voters seem willing to desert them. If voters turn out to vote at all, they tend to be very volatile and send out complex messages, to decide later than ever what to do in the polling booth, to react to short-term factors and to follow candidates rather than parties. Low levels of trust in political actors and institutions reveal a gap between the elites and the people.Belgium is one of the countries where one can witness these debates. Yet Belgium is also a special case. Not only a gap between elites and citizens but also a gap between north and south animates the politl<