The European election which took place on June 17, 1984 must be seen in a more national than European context. Compared with previous general elections, the turn-out was generally lower and individual candidates polled a larger number of votes. Ought the Christian Democrats and Liberals, who make up the ruling coalition, be pleased about their respective results? A careful approach is required to answer that question. For the country as a whole, thefour governing parties lost 2.45 % of their share of the vote in relation to the 1981 general election. This cannot be seen either as a massive repudiation or as a very satisfactory result. After two and a half years in power, this can be regarded as an average performance. However, if one takes a closer look at it, the result cannot be said as being very satisfying. In Flanders, the Liberals suffered a severe setback whereas the level of support for the Christian Democrats was only fractionally higher than in 1981. Between them, the two governing parties lost 6.72 % of the votes. In Brussels, the four ruling parties gained 9.89 %. This is partly due to two factors: the votes polled by Mr. Nols and, more importantly, the fact that no UDRT candidate stood in the election. It is not at all certain that a similar result would be recorded at a general election. Finally, in Wallonia, the two governing parties put up a good fight and gained 1.37 % of the votes whereas the Socialists and the Green movement made gains not because the ruling parties suffered a defeat but because of the considerable losses both by the Communist Party and by the nationalist parties.

At the European elections the Belgian voter has, as at the general elections, the possibility to bring out either a vote for a party or a vote for a candidate of the party (a preferential vote). At the European elections of June 17, 1984 the voters have voted for half by preference, whereas in 1979 more than half of them have done so. There is a great difference between the Dutch speaking and the French speaking voters: the first have voted for less than half by preference, the second for more than half. There is also a difference from one politica! party to another. The highest percentage is obtained by the socialist parties (almost sixty percent for the French speaking and the same percentage for the Dutch speaking socialists), the lowest by the «green» partyAgalev (almost twenty-one percent). The preferential votes of individual candidates differ widely, pointing out not only their popularity but also to a certain extend their political power.

This study investigates bath the relationship between evaluation of personality traits of party-leaders and party identification, and the evaluation of personality traits as a determinant of voting behaviour. One month before the Belgian national elections of November 81 201 voters evaluate personality traits of four welt known leaders of the main Flemish political parties. Factor analysis indicated three main dimensions in the evaluation of personality traits of politicians: reliability, expertness and self-control. The personality profiles of every party-leader were quite similar when comparing the profiles of groups of subjects with different party preferences. However, subjects who identificated with a certain party rated the party-leader of this party more favorable on all personality traits than did subjects who identificated with another party. These discrepancies in favorableness were rather small for expertness and selfcontrol, but big for reliability and attractiveness. Analysing determinants of voting behaviour we differentiated four types of voters. Convinced voters were determined mainly by party preference and political views. Policyoriented and routine-voters taak into account in the first instance their political views and secondly their party preference. Personality traits of party-leaders functioned as the main determinant only for the voting behaviour of our indifferent subjects. Between these personality traits, mainly the evaluation of expertness had predictive power.

This research on the rate of actzvzty of the Members of the Belgian Senate is a remake of a study made five years ago by M. Dèweerdt, although the method is different (a global quotation has been used instead of summing up the length of bills, oral and written questions, etc...) the results are nearly the same. Half of parliamentary work (legislation and control) is performed by less than one fifth of the Members. The directly elected Members, who are also Members of the «Vlaamse Raad» or of the «Conseil de la Communauté française» or of the «Conseil Régional Wallon», seem also less active than their indirectly elected colleagues, which does not plead for the legally organized cumulation of mandates. The Members in charge of a municipal mandate are also less active than their colleagues. On the contrary, it was impossible to trace any link between language, parliamentary position (membership of majority or opposition), or sex and rate of parliamentary activity.

From November 16, 1945 tilt ]anuary 8, 1946, the Flemish wing of the UDB (Unie der Democratische Belgen; Fr.: Union Démocratique belge; E.: Union of Democratie Belgians), a newly founded political party, published a newspaper in Dutch «De Nieuwe Wereld». An analysis of articles and columns indicates the options the UDB intended to follow: rather leftist but rejecting the traditional party system and religious adherence as a lawful issue for political discussion and action, solliciting people's union as an acquisition earned during World War II by opposing the German occupation. Presumably due to financial shortcoming, the newspaper subsisted only two months.

In view of a better comprehension of the current bad situation of the municipal finances, the evolution of the expenses of the Belgian municipalities has been investigated. Although the attention is focussed on a descriptive analysis, some explanatory indications are also given by analysing the expenses in functionof the number of inhabitants and of the geographical situation (i.c. belonging to the Flemish, Walloon or Brussels region). Special attention was given to the evaluation of the potential inffoence of the amalgamation of the municipalities, which in 1976 reduced their number from 2359 to 596. The global municipal expenses have increased by circa 25 % (in real terms). The pattern of expenditures (i.e. the relative share of the different earmarks) remained fairly stable. There was a positive - although not rectilinear, and important exceptions exist - correlation between the population number and the level of expenses. The number of inhabitants also infiuences the destination of the revenues in a significantway. The amalgamation process seems to have only an indirect repercussion on the expenses, particularly by the change in the spreading of the municipalities over the different categories. Especially the remarkable and relevant inter-regional differentiation of the expenses - W alloon municipalities spend more money per inhabitant and following other priorities - needs further research.