The dynamics of ethnic mobilisation: Belgium and Switserland.

The PhD project "The dynamics of ethnic mobilisation in Belgium and Switzerland" is a research project that focuses on the question why (succesful) ethnic/regional political parties were created in Belgium after World War 2 (VU, RW, FDF) while in Switzerland, which is also a highly ethnically segmented society, only insignificant regional movements and a very small number of unsuccesful regional/ethnic parties came into existence. This question is approached from an explicit comparative perspective and focuses on the mobilisation process itself, whereby mainly the so called 'political opportunity structure' approach is applied.