Project title
Participation and Representation. A comparative study of linkage mechanisms between citizens and the political system in contemporary democracies
Projet funding by the Belgian Federal Science Office (Belspo)
More information on www.partirep.eu .
UCL research team
Head : Benoît Rihoux
Academic staff members : Pierre Baudewyns, Lieven De Winter, Min Reuchamps, Virginie Van Ingelgom
Post-doctoral researchers : Jérémy Dodeigne, Audrey Vandeleene
PhD researchers : Vincent Jacquet, Conrad Meulewaeter, Ferdinand Teuber
Description
PARTIREP is a large Interuniversity Attraction Pole (IAP) that gathers research centres from five Belgian universities (UCL, VUB, ULB, UAntwerpen and KULeuven) as well as two teams from the University of Leiden and the University of Mannheim. Prof. Kris Deschouwer (VUB) is the IAP overall co-ordinator.
This is the second PARTIREP IAP (“PARTIREP II”). It scrutinizes the link between citizens and the political system, with a core emphasis on the functioning of democratic systems. Indeed a democratic system necessitates mechanisms and players that ensure some linkage between citizens and the State. PARTIREP II focuses especially on three main themes: substantive representation, personalisation of politics, and democratic innovation.
Methodology
The PARTIREP II research projects exploit a great variety of research methods (experiments, observation, focus groups, surveys, elite interviews, etc.). PARTIREP has hence constituted a « Methodology Assistance and Support Team » (MAST) that offers methodological training and advice to researchers involved in the projects, and that reinforces the overall coherence of the PARTIREP research endeavour. Benoît Rihoux (UCL) co-ordinates MAST with Dimokritos Kavadias (VUB).
Publications
Details on publications produced by the PARTIREP teams can be found via www.partirep.eu .