Family : an important variable to join a party ? Exploring the Belgian case

Reasons to become party member have been largely studied and analyzed in Social and Political Sciences. Nevertheless, the relationship to family heritage has often been ignored or underestimated. Our aim is to test the importance of this variable in the Belgian case. Our Centre – the Centre d’étude de la vie politique – has conducted several surveys among party members of most of the Belgian parties. In this framework, we have checked, through close and open questions, the possible importance of the familial linkage in the decision becoming party member. How far is the issue salient for (a lot of) party members? How important is it among the reasons to join the party? Is the weight of family heritage different from party to party? The question will be at the core of our paper. Http://dev.ulb.ac.be/sciencespo/dossiers_membres/delwit-pascal/fichiers/cv_delwit-pascal-2709201051.pdf