TY - JOUR AB - <p>Particracy has been widely used to describe Belgian politics after World War II. Yet, Belgian politics has changed. We examine five changes – the federalisation of the state architecture, diversification of the demos, erosion of political support, party’s dealignment and personalisation of politics – to evaluate how they have affected particracy in Belgium. The answer is twofold: particracy is still very strong, but it has changed. The three traditional party families that had institutionalised particracy in Belgium (Christian-democrats, socialists and liberals) had to face new challengers. They co-opted the most moderate ones (greens, regionalists), while excluding others (radical right/left). Intraparty democracy/participatory/transparency reforms, or changes to the electoral system, all of them opening the political system, were also implemented, but parties were able to overcome them. Yet, the ever-growing gap between traditional parties and citizens and the growth of new parties building upon voters’ dissatisfaction with traditional parties, may put particracy more radically into question.</p> AU - Jean-Benoit Pilet, Petra Meier DA - 2018/12// IS - 4 VL - 60 PB - PY - 2018 TI - Ze halen hun slag wel thuis: over particratie en het aanpassingsvermogen van Belgische partijen T2 - Res Publica UR - https://openjournals.ugent.be/rp/article/id/74682/ ER -