Nationalism and nationalist parties: A comparison of the Flemish Volksunie and Vlaams Blok

Nationalist movements are not necessarily unified and may be represented by multiple nationalist political parties. When such parties emerge, do they form along subnationalist lines of cleavage? If so, the two Flemish nationalist parties in Belgium should be different kinds of party, appealing to different types of constituency. The historical divisions within the Flemish movement are employed to formulate expectations regarding the cleavage lines within the Flemish movement. These expectations are tested by using biographical data and party programmes. The article concludes that the expected divisions are indeed present and that they reflect different types of nationalism.