ABSTRACT
The electoral process in liberal democracies is an important social ritual in which participants and observers frequently focuses on the spatial and social characteristics of place. The role of geographical perceptions and discourse in Belgian electoral politics reveals the relevance of electoral geography. Belgian political life is ruled by three fundamental oppositions: Catholic and anticlerical, labour and employers, and Dutch-speaking and Francophone. Three parties have dominated Belgian elections during the twentieth century: Catholic, Socialist, and Liberal. During the past thirty years a number of new regional language parties have undermined the long-standing tripartite division of Belgian party politics, and the traditional parties have split along ethnoregional lines. It is taken for granted in many analyses of political developments in Belgium that a fundamental structural element of the electoral system is the greater strength of the Catholic party in Flanders and of the Socialist party in Wallonia.
