Seminar of modelling political behaviour in Belgium and in Europe: citizens and elites

Teacher(s)

Baudewyns Pierre ;

Language

Anglais

Main themes

This seminar examines different types of political behaviour, starting from electoral behaviour and expanding to other connected topics : values, identities, political socialization, opinions, political protest, and various forms of electoral behaviour (non-vote, vote for various parties, "protest vote", "issue vote", etc. This is done through the analysis of existing data sets, both at the Belgian and comparative (especially cross-country, within Europe) levels. A particular emphasis is also laid on Europe-related topics. Issues of data quality and comparability are also tackled. A core connected topic is the political behaviour of political elites (political personnel, e.g. MPs) and the connection between the opinions and behaviour of citizens versus elites, both at the national and European (EU) levels.

Aims

After completing this seminar, the student should be able to engage into rigorous exploitation of survey data on political behaviour, particularly in a comparative and cross-country setting within Europe, using some existing data sets.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

Each seminar session examines a particular set of topics. It is also complemented by a "hands-on" session with an assistant, processing real-life data.

Other information

Evaluation : project report. The main data sets, as well as the useful software to process the data, are made accessible through the local computing facilities.

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