Abstract

How should political parties deal with extremist parties? In the Netherlands an accommodating approach to Wilders prevails, while in Flanders political actors pursue a much more repressive approach against Vlaams Belang. Although the democratic coalition against the extreme right in Flanders is maintained, the effectiveness and legitimacy of the exclusion politics is regularly under discussion. Mostly, the political or normative debate is at the forefront, while there is little data about public opinion. In this article we try to determine how Flemish citizens think about the cordon sanitaire using the results of in-depth interviews. The results show that public opinion is based on pragmatism, strategy and principles. The pragmatic vision depends on citizen’s definition of the party and citizen’s assessment of the risks associated with the participation to government, while principled arguments are dependent of the fundamental meaning of democracy.

How to Cite:

Abts, K., (2013) “Het cordon sanitaire gewikt en gewogen: burgers tussen instrumentele pragmatiek en democratische principes”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 34(2), 97–124. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86823