This chapter explores the evolution of political cleavages and party systems in Belgium from the nineteenth century to the present. It analyses the impact of major divides, such as Church vs. State, class, and language cleavages, on the structuring of political parties and electoral behaviour in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the current importance of the value cleavage. The analysis underscores the shift from a pure two-party system, dominated by Catholics and Liberals and centred around the denominational divide, to a highly fragmented party system. This fragmentation is marked by increased electoral volatility, the emergence of new political actors, such as Regionalist, Radical Right, and Green parties, and the heightened significance of the language issue. With very high fragmentation index and effective number of parties, Belgium now exhibits characteristics of quasi-atomized pluralism.

The article explores the early advent and evolution of football in Belgium until WWI, highlighting the crucial role played by British expatriates and the influence of Catholic and State schools.It traces football's journey from an elite pastime to a 'popular' sport, articulating football development to prominent cleavages in the society, especially Church-State and Economic divides. The paper delves into the challenges of establishing football in Belgian society, including issues of numerous practical problems, amateurism vs. professionalism, the role of Belgians in the establishment of FIFA and the football's contribution to national identity pre-WWI.

Belgium, a small country in the centre of Europe, is a country with many historical divisions: linguistic, religious and political. Sport has historically been organized along these dividing lines. While national sentiment proved weak historically, it is interesting to analyse the effects of the careers of the national football team which played in 1986 in Mexico City. In recent years, thanks to a golden generation, the national team has achieved unexpected success. At a time when the existence of the country is being questioned by a significant part of the population in the north of the country, will the good results of the Red Devils save the country or consolidate a weak national feeling?

En 1967, Seymour Martin Lipset et Stein Rokkan théorisent la notion de clivage dans le domaine politique. Lignes de démarcation sociale forte qui se traduisent politiquement, les clivages s’expriment dans des espaces circonscrits, l’État-nation. L’amenuisement des communautés, l’affaiblissement des délimitations territoriales et la déstructuration d’identités sociétales ou politiques diversifient les comportements et élargissent les conflits politiques, donnant naissance à de possibles nouveaux clivages et à certaines reformulations de la théorie des clivages.

In terms of electoral performances and electoral sociology, liberal parties display diverging configurations across Europe. To get a better overview of their fate, this chapter first examines the electoral dynamics of liberal parties across specific spatial 'blocs'. It examines the individual-level determinants of the liberal party vote, and questions the distinctiveness of the liberal electorate across Europe. Historically, the liberal parties of the Benelux countries competed primarily on the church-state cleavage against the Catholic parties. The 2014 European election was disastrous. In the follow-up, the Free Democratic Party lost representation in the Landers of Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia. At its first election, Neue Osterreich attracted around 5% of the vote and subsequently captured 8.1% of the vote and one seat at the 2014 European elections. For this new party, the most difficult task lies ahead: to confirm these results and to impose itself in the long run against the Freedom Party of Austria.

C’est peu de dire que les élections communales du 14 octobre 2018 dans les dix-neuf communes de la Région de Bruxelles-capitale ont frappé les imaginations par l’ampleur des mouvements électoraux et politiques observés. Cette contribution propose d’en faire le relevé et l’analyse à l’aune des dynamiques politiques et électorales des partis engagés dans la confrontation.

Many radical right-wing parties have marked significant growth in the last 20 years. This spectacular dynamic has received thorough attention from the scientific community. Their electoral performance has most often been analysed at a national level. Analysis at sub-national levels is rare. This paper analyses the performance of the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) in local elections in Belgium between 1982 and 2018. Our analysis shows that the Vlaams Belang was able to overcome all institutional and political barriers in order to compete successfully at this level. At the same time, we find that the institutionalisation process at the local level is not a predictor of the ensuing electoral result for the party. On the contrary, the local electoral result correlates to the national curve and the global image of the party. In this dynamics, local elections could lead to different outcomes for the Vlaams Belang. The 1988 and 2018 local elections paved the way to a larger political development. On the contrary, the 2006 local elections led to a sharp political and electoral decline.