par Legein, Thomas ;Rangoni, Sacha
Référence Politicologen Etmaal 2023 (01-01/06/2023: Leuven)
Publication Non publié, 2023-06-01
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : This paper focuses on the recent transformation of the Belgian French-speaking Christian Democratic Party (cdH) into a new ‘party movement’ labelled Les Engagé.e.s. We investigate, in particular, the large bundle of reforms the party implemented in 2022 through a process tracing emphasizing the complex causality underlying them. The case of the cdH is a glaring example of the difficulty of mainstream parties, once oligarchs in stable party systems, to maintain their status in the face of their predicted decline. We combine party elites interviews with media reports and original party documents to inductively explore what can be learned about the actors and the mechanisms of such a party transformation process. Special attention was given to the question of who were the key actors of that sequence and how did they translate specific stimuli in their environment into specific outcomes. The results offer methodological and theoretical insights that go beyond the specific case study explored. The results point to the role of a shadow adviser as a surrogate to the party leader during the formulation phase of the reforms. We also highlight a series of causal mechanisms explaining how the party leader and his shadow adviser marginalised the public face of the party to ensure control over the shaping of the whole reform package. By dealing with causal complexity, this in-depth case study also emphasises the added value of process tracing as a unique method to produce additional knowledge to understand these sensitive events for political parties.

Documents en relation