To be or not to be “deputy mayor” in a multilevel Belgium. An analysis of the Belgian mayors in the 2012-18 local election cycle.

Three processes (personalization, professionalization and “multilevelization”) affecting local democracy have recently pushed scholars to pay more attention to the (evolution of) profiles of individuals achieving the mayoral position in their municipalities. More specifically, this paper was interested in focusing on Belgian “deputy mayors”, or those local mayors who cumulate both their local executive position with another parliamentary (regional or federal) office. We questioned to what extent they might be similar or different than the typical figure of the mayor in single office, and whether this type of practice (holding multiple offices) might work as a strategy reinforcing or diversifying the usual figure of Belgian local mayors, analyzing mayors elected in the Belgian 2012-18 election cycle. The results tend to show that it does reinforce social and political inequalities, but also that it might work in favoring social (young mayors) and political (regionalist mayors) groups that are overall under-represented in Belgian (local) politics. In addition, “deputy mayors” are more likely to emerge in big, urban municipalities, where the competition is more fragmented and nationalized, and where more resources are necessary to reach the position.