prof. dr. Kris Deschouwer
Biography of prof. dr. Kris Deschouwer
Political scientist and authority on the Belgium politics
Kris Deschouwer is an Belgium authority on the Belgium politics and Belgium elections. He is often contacted by the Dutch and Belgium media to give his opinion and analysis about the current political events.
Kris Deschouwer obtained a Master's (licentiaat) in Sociology and in Political Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1981) and a PhD in Political Science (1987) at the same university. He has been teaching political science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel since 1988. He has been a research fellow at the European University Institute in Florence (1999), associate professor at the Department of Comparative Politics of the University of Bergen (1987-1993) and holder of the Chaire d'Honneur de la ville de Lausanne at the Université de Lausanne (2004). He is often asked by the Belgium media for his opinion and expertise on the current political events.
In Brussels he teaches a general introduction to political science, comparative politics, Belgian politics and parties and elections. Kris Deschouwer has (co-) authored six books, (co-)edited seven books or journal volumes and published over 70 scientific articles and chapters on a variety of topics such as political parties, elections, comparative federalism and consociational democracy. His current research focuses on the consequences of institutional complexity for political actors and for political parties in particular. He has served on the editorial boards of several journals, and has been editor of Res Publica and the Journal of Regional and Federal Studies. Since 2003 he has been co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research.
Topics
- Belgian politics
- Belgium political systems
- Elections and election systems
- Comparative politics
- Comparative federalism
- Political parties and party systems
- Research methods for political science
- Political institutions of West European states
- Political institutions of the consociational democracies
- Multi-level governance in the European Union
- The European Union in comparative perspective
- History of political thought
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Books of prof. dr. Kris Deschouwer
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Title:New Parties in GovernmentSubtitle:In Power for the First Time (Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political ScienceAuthor:Kris DeschouwerPublisher:RoutledgeBook:199 pagesISBN:978-04-154-0499-0Order this book? Click here!Party literature is largely focused on the rise and success of new parties and their effects on party systems and older parties. This book, on the other hand, provides a valuable and original addition to such literature by analyzing what happens to a party when it enters government for the first time.
Leading contributors assess how these parties, whether old or new, change when entering government by answering a set of questions:-
How and why has their role changed?
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What are the consequences of change?
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What explains the evolution from principled opposition to loyal opposition and eventually to participation in the executive?
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Which characteristics of the parties can be held responsible?
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Which characteristics of the parties’ context should be brought into the picture?
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What have been the effects of the status change on party organization, party ideology and electoral results?
Covering a wide range of European parties such as the Finish Greens, right wing parties (FN, Lega Nord and Alleanza Nazionale) and new parties in Italy , The Netherlands and Sweden to name a few; this book will be of particular interest to scholars and students concerned with party systems, political parties and comparative politics. -
Title:Politics Beyond the StateSubtitle:Actors and Policies in Complex Institutional SettingsAuthor:Kris Deschouwer, M. Theo JansPublisher:VUB PressBook:295 pagesISBN:978-90-548-7436-2States, national institutions and policy processes guide our understanding of politics. Processes of globalization and regional integration increasingly push politics beyond the state. Global economic operators and supranational institutions give rise to significant volumes of collective decision making occurring outside or only vaguely related to the national context and its state-based institutions. The centrifugal migration of politics away from state-based institutions does not only occur in an upward fashion towards the international level but also endows decentralized and private actors with policy making powers. The resulting picture is one in which state institutions and policy processes seem to be a less appropriate unit to analyze politics. Political processes are dispersed and spread over different tiers of government, ranging from the supra- to the sub-national level. Central states continue to be an important, but not the sole component in the complex, multi-level depiction of politics. This volume seeks to capture the changing nature of politics both within and beyond the state. The presence of multiple tiers of government re-orients policy processes and affects actors and policy outcomes at all levels. The chapters on electoral politics and coalition formation highlight the changing political dynamics in complex multi-tiered systems. The chapters on interest representation and lobbying present the European Union as a supranational magnet for national and regional interests. Supranational government offers opportunities as well as limitations to interest representation and lobbying. Central states relied heavily on taxation and command-and-control legislation to achieve policy outcomes. In complex multi-level systems other policy approaches are developed to complement the traditional tools of government. The last chapters of this book present some of the ‘governance’ tools to achieve policy outcomes in a context where resources are thinly spread over private actors and a myriad of public authorities. The analysis of ‘politics beyond the state’ clarifies that the central state continues to guide our understanding of politics but that it needs to be complemented with ample attention to both the sub- and the supranational tiers of government. Kris Deschouwer is professor of Politics at the Department of Political Science of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research focuses on political parties and elections, more in particular on the meaning and organization of party political representation in complex and multi-layered systems. He is editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Political Research. M. Theo Jans is professor of Politics at the Department of Political Science of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Senior Fellow at the Institute for European Studies. His research focuses on policy-making in complex, multi-level systems, namely, the Belgian Federation and the European Union.
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Title:Culture, Institutions And Economic DevelopmentSubtitle:A Study of Eight European RegionsAuthor:Kim Deschouwer, Michael Keating, John LoughlinPublisher:Edward Elgar‘This is a very interesting book which can provide better understanding of the impact of regional culture and identity on regional development under changing political and economic conditions.’ – Dieter Eißel, Journal of Contemporary European Studies
Regions are increasingly recognised as a key aspect of economic change in Europe, not merely as geographic spaces but also as social systems. Their history, culture, institutions and patterns of leadership mould the way in which they adapt to European and global competitive challenges. This book reviews the debate surrounding the construction of regions and presents eight case studies to illustrate how they are shaped and reshaped in a variety of different ways. The authors find that while some regions exhibit common patterns, there are significant variations, indicating that there is no definitive model of regional development. -
Title:Party Elites in Divided SocietiesSubtitle:Political Parties in Consociational DemocracyAuthor:Kris Deschouwer, Kurt Richard LutherPublisher:RoutledgeBook:312 pagesISBN:978-04-152-0127-8The stability of divided societies often depends on whether the elites of rival subcultures are willing and able to engage in compromise, as opposed to confrontation. This was demonstrated in 1968 by Arend Lijphart's seminal work on 'consociational democracies', or societies characterized by both subcultural segmentation and elite accomodation. This volume offers a new and detailed comparative analysis of such societies thirty years on. Contributors use a a novel combination of Lijphart's model of consociational democracy and the most recent literature on political parties to examine the pivotal role played by political parties within and between divided socities. A comparativbe framework is advanced for the analysis of this role, then applied in turn to the cases of Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Israel. This is followed by comparative chapters and the editors conclude by underlining the findings of the analysis thirty years on from Lijphart's work. This authoritative study highlights the nature and amount of change in consociational democracy and the extent to which it has been promoted or hindered by the behaviour of party
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