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Cleavages and party systems in Belgium

par Delwit, Pascal
Editeur scientifique Reuchamps, Min;Van Haute, Emilie ;Meier, Petra ;Brans, Marleen
Référence The Oxford Handbook of Belgian Politics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Ed. 1, page (62-79)
Publication Publié, 2026

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Résumé :

This chapter explores the evolution of political cleavages and party systems in Belgium from the nineteenth century to the present. It analyses the impact of major divides, such as Church vs. State, class, and language cleavages, on the structuring of political parties and electoral behaviour in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the current importance of the value cleavage. The analysis underscores the shift from a pure two-party system, dominated by Catholics and Liberals and centred around the denominational divide, to a highly fragmented party system. This fragmentation is marked by increased electoral volatility, the emergence of new political actors, such as Regionalist, Radical Right, and Greenparties, and the heightened signicance of the language issue. With very high fragmentation index and effective number of parties, Belgium now exhibits characteristics of quasi-atomized pluralism.