Most party by-laws are too inexhaustive and vague to be adequate guidelines for describing party chairmanship or predicting the actual proceedings of chairman elections. Although nearly all party by-laws prescribe competitive elections, one candidate elections occur in 68 % of the cases and in nearly 25% of all cases the unique candidate is elected by acclamation only. Also, when more candidates are presented, the preferences of the party oligarchy are mostly made very clear. The small number of elections that involve real choice even diminishes when reelections or the appointment of interim chairman are taken into account: the percentage of "more than one candidate"-presentation drops from 32 % to respectively 19% and 16%. In Flemish parties there is less opportunity for choice then in Francophone parties: 22 % versus 38% "more than one candidate"-presentation (elections and re-elections). Moreover, the chairman elections of the Francophone parties involve larger electoral bodies: e.g. in some parties and already in 41 % of the cases (elections and re-elections) all partymembers have a right to cast their vote. A possibility that exists in none of the Flemish parties. As far as the evolution over time is concerned: there is a general and salient tendency towards more opportunities for real choice and larger electoral bodies. But taken together opportunities for real choice remain scarce: in general party chairmen are not actually chosen by the formally empowered party organs; before formal elections are held choices are mostly made already !

A survey conducted in 1985 at the party conferences of the Belgian ecology parties Agalev and Ecolo, allows to brush an empirically based picture of the militants and the internal functioning of these parties. The "new middle class" background of the militants, the stratarchic order in the cadre party, the manifest links with the socalled "new social movements" and the specific brand of a new left-libertarian ideology all point to the new and different character of these parties, in comparison tothe established Belgian parties.

There is a relationship between the different means of action of pressure groups - aimed at exerting pressure on the national government - and its effectiviness on policy level. Because a theoretical analysis is indispensable for further emperical research, the study first focuses on a general survey of possible means of action. This theoretical scheme is applied to four pressure groups. The analysis ofJour quite different pressure groups: 'Vrouwen Overleg Komitee', 'Bond Beter Leefmilieu', 'Vlaams Artsensyndicaat' and 'Belgische Boerenbond' shows that the use of indirect means of action produces a greater effectiviness on policy level. But the choice of the means of action by an organisation depends on several determining factors. Following hypothesis can be sustained by this emperical study: stronger pressure groups, like Vlaams Artsensyndicaat and Belgische Boerenbond (because of the determining factors), mostly use indirect means of action and are characterised by a greater effectiviness than the two other organisations.

This article concerns the study of the agricultural policy of the Belgian State in the period of 1844-1845. Behind the technical formulations of diverse and even contradictory laws and regulations, the interest is to reveal the political and economical interests and strategies of the main political actors. This period is at the end of the well-known belgian "Unionism" that means the alliance of the dominant farces, catholics and liberals. The study shows that this period is not exempt of conflicts between those farces, with behind them respectively agricultural and industrial interests, with a more predominant wheight of the latters than the usual theory of modernization usually had assessed.

A political science program at the licenciate level is currently offered by the Department of the Political and the Social Sciences at the Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen (UIA). It was able to do so with the cooperation of staff-members of other departments and other institutes of the University of Antwerp. The prÓgram is mainly focused on international polities and more specifically on European integration, North-South and East-West relations, as seen from the perspective of Belgian and West-European policy-makers. lts methodology is multidisciplinary and encompasses politological and juridical as well as historical and economical perspectives. In the wake of the first encouraging from the student population, the Department has decided to strenghten further this Political Science branch of its program. It intends to invest more in full-time academie personnel and to add some more theoretical background courses to the present courses which emphasize mainly practical knowledge. Last but not least, it has initiated what it hopes shall be a new tradition of empirical research into the political culture and behaviour of international and supranational policy makers.