Between Decline and Distress Innovations: The Transformation of the Belgian French-Speaking Christian-democratic Party (cdH).
Political parties are used to adapt in the face of political challenges, but little is known about how party elites actually perceive crises and ultimately opt for certain types of reforms accordingly. To address this gap, we focus on the complete transformation process of the Belgian French-Speakin...
| Published in: | Political Studies Vol. 73; no. 3; pp. 1233 - 1254 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Sage Publications Inc.
Aug2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=186806791&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 186806791 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00323217 PSZ jtl: Political Studies issn: 00323217 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2025 vid: 73 iid: 3 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. artinfo: ui: 186806791 10.1177/00323217241285360 ppf: 1233 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 186806791 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 186806791 tig: atl: Between Decline and Distress Innovations: The Transformation of the Belgian French-Speaking Christian-democratic Party (cdH). aug: au: Legein, Thomas Rangoni, Sacha affil: Political Psychology Lab, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Cevipol, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium su: Political elites Political parties Consultants Multiplication Reforms sug: subj: Political elites Political parties Consultants Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services Marketing Consulting Services Political Organizations Multiplication Reforms keyword: Belgium Christian democratic party party leader party reform process-tracing Belgium Christian democratic party party leader party reform process-tracing ab: Political parties are used to adapt in the face of political challenges, but little is known about how party elites actually perceive crises and ultimately opt for certain types of reforms accordingly. To address this gap, we focus on the complete transformation process of the Belgian French-Speaking Christian Democratic Party (cdH) in 2022 as a case study. Interviews with party elites show how challenges shared by many West-European centre-right parties can create a dependence on the party leader to the point of marginalizing other traditional actors from the definition of a response strategy. We reveal the unprecedented strategy employed by the leader, who positioned an advisor as a surrogate, at the cost of creating major internal dissension. We argue that the likely multiplication of mainstream parties slipping into great distress in the near future could lead to a shift in managing party change, making it more technocratic than political. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|