Wauters B. et Bouteca N., « The ideological positions of N-VA : a regionalist party in a regionalist party system » (ST 5)

Wauters B. et Bouteca N., « The ideological positions of N-VA : a regionalist party in a regionalist party system » (ST 5)

Bram Wauters (Ghent University, Belgique)

Nicolas Bouteca (Ghent University, Belgique)

Regionalist parties constitute a highly diverse group of parties, which sometimes only have a demand for more regional autonomy in common. Apart from this common ground, they differ from each other on socio-economic issues, post-materialist or ‘new politics’ issues (e.g. ecology and feminism) and ‘anti-modernist’ issues (a.o. policy towards immigrants). Some scholars even make a distinction between two types of regionalist parties : leftist regionalist parties that embrace ‘new politics’ most and tend to be most independentist versus rightist or centrist regionalist parties that are less independentist, embrace the ‘new politics’ issues less firmly and sometimes even engage in politicizing anti-modernist issues (De Winter, 1998). In addition, regionalist parties often have to operate in a complex multi-layered institutional setting, which forces them to adapt their positions according to the level they operate on (a ‘policy-seeking’ strategy at the national level and a ‘office-seeking’ strategy at the regional level). This renders the ideological position of this kind of parties even more blurred. The goal of this paper is to test the evolution in the ideological positions of the N-VA in Belgium This party constitutes an interesting case for a number of reasons : It operates in a regional party system (in which only regional parties compete with each other, both in regional and national elections), which makes a distinction between a national and regional strategy less relevant, and by the enormous growth in vote shares and by participating in the government, it has recently transformed from a niche party to the country’s largest party. It is our aim in this paper to pinpoint the current policy positions of this party in comparison with its precursor, the VU. The ideological position of regionalist parties do not only differ between countries, but also over time within one country. According to Beyens et al. (2013) N-VA must be considered as a successor party because it is very similar to its predecessor in terms of organization, voters and ideology. Especially the latter finding is interesting because it is often suggested that the N-VA underwent an ideological transformation in recent years. Certainly after the regional elections of 2009 the party seemed to have made ideological choices that are inconsistent with the VU-ideology of the past (including a more rightist position on socio-economic policies and a more strict position on migration) . By comparing the positions of VU-members and members of the N-VA, we want to test whether this ideological evolution has indeed taken place. We will not compare the manifestos of the VU with the programs of the N-VA qualitatively as in previous research, but make use of member surveys. This enables us to make more precise judgments about the ideological differences between the VU and the N-VA. Moreover, it adds an extra element because it enables us to penetrate to the core of the party rather than to rely on party programs that are written by the party elite. Finally, it allows us to tack stock of the most recent evolutions, as the election manifestos that could be analyzed were written before the large break-through of the party.

Section thématique 5 : Stratégies partisanes et idéologies dans les systèmes électoraux multi-niveaux
Session unique, jeudi 10 avril 2014, 10h00-12h30