The suburbanisation of political representation in a context of proportional representation: The case of belgium

Abstract

Research on political representation of population groups is mostly based upon individual characteristics such as class, race and gender. This paper explicitly focuses on place characteristics. In particular, it deals with the changing places of residence of the Belgian members of parliaments in historical perspective, emphasising the suburbanisation of representation in a system of proportional representation. Spatial representation is analysed on both the municipality and neighbourhood levels, and a pronounced suburbanisation of political representation is identified, although the poorest central city neighbourhoods have never been well represented. However, there are significant differences between the political parties; while suburbanisation has been evident for all political parties since the 1970s, in recent years a distinction is developing between suburban parties and re-urbanising parties which is consistent with the development of the respective party ideologies. © 2010 The Author. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2010 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.