Belgium

Abstract

This chapter examines the representativeness of party members in Belgium. Using data from a large-scale survey among Flemish party members, the focus is on three generally underrepresented groups: women, young and lower-educated party members. Three issues are tackled: (1) the descriptive representativeness of Flemish party members relative to the population, (2) the degree to which underrepresented groups compensate their limited presence by engaging in party activities more actively than others, and (3) the possible substantive consequences of a lack of social diversity among party members. The analyses demonstrate that parties perform poorly with regards to descriptive representation and that the already overrepresented groups are also more active in terms of intra-party participation. Although members of underrepresented groups do yield different policy preferences than the average party member, the latter only explains a small part of the overall policy incongruence between members and voters. These results, therefore, nuance to a certain extent the deteriorating effects that are often associated with an unrepresentative party membership file.