• Bram Wauters
  Ghent University, Belgium
• Gilles Pittoors
  Ghent University, Belgium

Populist Party Leaders in Belgium: an Analysis of VB AND PVDA-PTB

Abstract

This article scrutinizes the position and the role of the party leader in two populist parties in Belgium: Vlaams Belang (VB) and Partij van de Arbeid — Parti du Travail de Belgique (PVDA-PTB). Following Mudde’s definition, populism is understood as a people-centered and anti-elitist ideology. The article argues that, if one accepts the notion that parties will organize themselves in line with their ideological beliefs, then one should expect populist parties to exhibit three main characteristics: leaders are directly elected by the party members, they have extensive powers with only minimal intra-party institutional checks, and they feature strongly in electoral campaigns. Applying this argument to the two Belgian populist parties, the article finds only limited evidence for the argument that populist parties mirror their ideology in the role and position of their party leader.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ppsr-2019-0001

Full text: https://content.sciendo.com/downloadpdf/journals/ppsr/7/1/article-p1.xml

Keywords: populism, populist parties, Belgium, party leaders, leadership selection