Abstract
La Belgique vit à l’ère du fédéralisme depuis la réforme constitutionnelle de 1970, laquelle a mis fin à la structure unitaire du pays. Les revendications autonomistes, tant au nord qu’au sud de la Belgique, remontent à la fin du XIXe siècle, mais l’organisation fédérale du pays ne s’est dessinée que durant la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Ce long processus de fédéralisation résulte d’un « divorce rampant » entre communautés culturelles (française et flamande) et collectivités politiques régionales, auquel on a tenté de mettre fin en accordant à des entités fédérées (régions et communautés) une autonomie assez large dans la gestion des matières qui leur ont été concédées. Alors que le pays a vécu en 2010-2011 sa plus longue crise politique (541 jours), d’aucuns s’interrogent sur la longévité de ce modèle fédéral censé mettre fin aux tensions communautaires, et éviter ainsi un éclatement du pays, alors que dans les faits, ce modèle tend plutôt à les alimenter.
Belgium has been a federal state since the constitutional reform of 1970. The long process of federalization has been the result of a divorce between the French and Dutch-speaking communities, whose regions and communities have been granted wide-ranging decentralized powers in their areas of competence. The Belgian regions have achieved an ever higher degree of regional autonomy. But these same regions and communities are faced with the reality of self-governing during a period of aggravated economic crisis and enhanced European budgetary constraint. The analysis here revolves around a paradox: one of a decentralization dynamic co-existing with a narrowing of substantive outcomes in terms of regional public policy. The hollowing out of the Belgian state, together with the increasingly direct effect of EU-level policy, has given a new turn to Belgium’s multilevel governance, whereby communities and regions are confronted with the practical consequences of multilevel developments (within Belgium’s regions, at a federal government and an EU level) that partially escape their control.
Belgium has been a federal state since the constitutional reform of 1970. The long process of federalization has been the result of a divorce between the French and Dutch-speaking communities, whose regions and communities have been granted wide-ranging decentralized powers in their areas of competence. The Belgian regions have achieved an ever higher degree of regional autonomy. But these same regions and communities are faced with the reality of self-governing during a period of aggravated economic crisis and enhanced European budgetary constraint. The analysis here revolves around a paradox: one of a decentralization dynamic co-existing with a narrowing of substantive outcomes in terms of regional public policy. The hollowing out of the Belgian state, together with the increasingly direct effect of EU-level policy, has given a new turn to Belgium’s multilevel governance, whereby communities and regions are confronted with the practical consequences of multilevel developments (within Belgium’s regions, at a federal government and an EU level) that partially escape their control.
| Translated title of the contribution | Belgium’s Regions and the Economic Crisis: A Process of Recentralization from a Distance |
|---|---|
| Original language | French |
| Pages (from-to) | 301-325 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Revue Internationale de Politique Comparee |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 May 2016 |