Nina De Smedt
Biographic Data
| ID | 4377574 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nina De Smedt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nina |
| FAMILY NAME | De Smedt |
| SIGNATURE | DE SMEDT N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8985-2258 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Opening doors to more intra-party democracy? Local politicians’ perspectives on including voters in candidate selection processes in Flanders (Belgium)
Instrumental councillors? On the strategic interests that drive local councillors’ legitimacy perceptions of citizen participation
Lately, municipalities in Western democracies have become increasingly more participatory. Local councillors have a fundamental role therein as they can either enable or block citizen participation. In that vein, their legitimacy perceptions towards different participatory arrangements seem key. This article analyses to what extent instrumental motivations steer these attitudes. Specifically, we distinguish between collective power (belonging to …
Resistor or Meta-Governor? Role Conceptions of Local Elected Representatives in Participatory Trajectories
The increasing use of participatory arrangements in local governance challenges the position and role of elected politicians. This article examines how local elected politicians think they should behave in such a shifting environment. It assembles images and sets of roles blending existing theoretical approaches. We test these conceptions empirically in a survey of local elected politicians in Flanders (Belgium). Our results show that representat…
Young blood: Needed or discarded? Untangling party strategies for the selection of young candidates
Young people are three times more present in the population than in elected assemblies. Their critical underrepresentation has so far received much less scholarly attention than other well-studied social groups, despite, for instance, women being underrepresented in parliaments to a smaller extent. This research investigates the reasons why parties, usually pointed as those who can sway group representation in politics, do (not) select young peop…
Analysing policy actors’ preferences for different modes of governing in local government
Effective citizen participation in policy decision making depends on the support of all democratic actors involved: citizens, but also politicians and civil servants. Drawing on data from over 4,000 respondents, we explore the existence of so-called ‘multi-actor clusters’, that is, groups of people who are characterised by a positive (or negative) stance towards different modes of local policy decision making, irrespective of their formal-institu…
The relationship between local councillors’ representative style and their support for participatory democracy
During the last few decades governments have operated in a challenging environment which increasingly calls for extended citizen participation. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that representative and participatory democracy are not two distinct realities, but that politicians’ opinions about their representative roles are associated with their attitudes about participatory democracy. To this end, the present paper links representative st…
Closing a gap or creating a new one? Comparing support for participatory instruments among different stakeholders
Representative democracy is perceived to be in crisis in many Western countries. Increasing citizen participation is often considered to be a remedy to close this gap between government and the people. Which instruments should be used to realize this remains, however, open for discussion. In this article, we compare attitudes of citizens, politicians and civil servants towards a number of participatory instruments. We assess to what extent these …
Young blood: Needed or discarded? Untangling party strategies for the selection of young candidates
Young people are three times more present in the population than in elected assemblies. Their critical underrepresentation has so far received much less scholarly attention than other well-studied social groups, despite, for instance, women being underrepresented in parliaments to a smaller extent. This research investigates the reasons why parties, usually pointed as those who can sway group representation in politics, do (not) select young peop…
Closing a gap or creating a new one? Comparing support for participatory instruments among different stakeholders
Representative democracy is perceived to be in crisis in many Western countries. Increasing citizen participation is often considered to be a remedy to close this gap between government and the people. Which instruments should be used to realize this remains, however, open for discussion. In this article, we compare attitudes of citizens, politicians and civil servants towards a number of participatory instruments. We assess to what extent these …
Analysing policy actors’ preferences for different modes of governing in local government
Effective citizen participation in policy decision making depends on the support of all democratic actors involved: citizens, but also politicians and civil servants. Drawing on data from over 4,000 respondents, we explore the existence of so-called ‘multi-actor clusters’, that is, groups of people who are characterised by a positive (or negative) stance towards different modes of local policy decision making, irrespective of their formal-institu…
The relationship between local councillors’ representative style and their support for participatory democracy
During the last few decades governments have operated in a challenging environment which increasingly calls for extended citizen participation. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that representative and participatory democracy are not two distinct realities, but that politicians’ opinions about their representative roles are associated with their attitudes about participatory democracy. To this end, the present paper links representative st…
Opening doors to more intra-party democracy? Local politicians’ perspectives on including voters in candidate selection processes in Flanders (Belgium)
Instrumental councillors? On the strategic interests that drive local councillors’ legitimacy perceptions of citizen participation
Lately, municipalities in Western democracies have become increasingly more participatory. Local councillors have a fundamental role therein as they can either enable or block citizen participation. In that vein, their legitimacy perceptions towards different participatory arrangements seem key. This article analyses to what extent instrumental motivations steer these attitudes. Specifically, we distinguish between collective power (belonging to …
Resistor or Meta-Governor? Role Conceptions of Local Elected Representatives in Participatory Trajectories
The increasing use of participatory arrangements in local governance challenges the position and role of elected politicians. This article examines how local elected politicians think they should behave in such a shifting environment. It assembles images and sets of roles blending existing theoretical approaches. We test these conceptions empirically in a survey of local elected politicians in Flanders (Belgium). Our results show that representat…
Young blood: Needed or discarded? Untangling party strategies for the selection of young candidates
Young people are three times more present in the population than in elected assemblies. Their critical underrepresentation has so far received much less scholarly attention than other well-studied social groups, despite, for instance, women being underrepresented in parliaments to a smaller extent. This research investigates the reasons why parties, usually pointed as those who can sway group representation in politics, do (not) select young peop…
Analysing policy actors’ preferences for different modes of governing in local government
Effective citizen participation in policy decision making depends on the support of all democratic actors involved: citizens, but also politicians and civil servants. Drawing on data from over 4,000 respondents, we explore the existence of so-called ‘multi-actor clusters’, that is, groups of people who are characterised by a positive (or negative) stance towards different modes of local policy decision making, irrespective of their formal-institu…
The relationship between local councillors’ representative style and their support for participatory democracy
During the last few decades governments have operated in a challenging environment which increasingly calls for extended citizen participation. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that representative and participatory democracy are not two distinct realities, but that politicians’ opinions about their representative roles are associated with their attitudes about participatory democracy. To this end, the present paper links representative st…
Closing a gap or creating a new one? Comparing support for participatory instruments among different stakeholders
Representative democracy is perceived to be in crisis in many Western countries. Increasing citizen participation is often considered to be a remedy to close this gap between government and the people. Which instruments should be used to realize this remains, however, open for discussion. In this article, we compare attitudes of citizens, politicians and civil servants towards a number of participatory instruments. We assess to what extent these …
Opening doors to more intra-party democracy? Local politicians’ perspectives on including voters in candidate selection processes in Flanders (Belgium)
Political science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Law (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (5 works) · Citizen journalism (4 works) · Public Administration (4 works) · Public Administration (4 works) · Democracy (3 works)