< Back to previous page

Publication

Intergovernmental relations in Belgium: obstacles to effective cooperation in dyadic federalism

Book Contribution - Chapter

The chapter discusses how identity politics have created a double strategy for the institutional design of the Belgian state, with one aspect of the strategy revolving around language groups and the other, around territorial divisions. The former, with power concentrated in two major language groups, is more important. This explains why IGR, based on a multipolar playing field, is dominated by bipolar politics. On the one hand, the result is a dyadic and conflict-enhancing federation, where subnational communities live side by side in isolation; on the other, power-sharing mechanisms, international obligations, health crises, fragmentation of competences, and the territorial overlap of territorial sub-units, necessitate cooperation, coordination and conflict management. Apart from its role in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government is not the dominant actor in IGR; instead, antagonistic Flemish and francophone political parties are at the centre of Belgian IGR—the mutual distrust between these groups corrodes cooperation and makes it ineffective in the long run.
Book: Intergovernmental Relations in Divided Societies / Fessha, Y.T. [edit.]; et al. [edit.]
Pages: 61 - 90
ISBN:978-3-030-88784-1
Publication year:2022
Keywords:H1 Book chapter
Accessibility:Closed