Belgium is in many respects an atypical federation. What immediately comes to mind in this respect is the double sub-state level, comprising both the so-called Regions and Communities. This double sub-state level has developed since the 1970s, leading to a complex institutional and political constellation, overlapping in territory and with imbricated horizontal power relations among the different sub-state levels. Furthermore, they all interact in partly diverging ways with the federal level. This evolution of a complex double sub-state level went hand in hand with a continuous decrease of power of the federal level. By now Belgium has reached the tipping point whereby the center of power tends to shift from the federal to the sub-state level, albeit differently, again, for the various Regions and Communities. This paper has a triple aim. In a first, descriptive, part it sketches the evolution of the coming into being of this complex sub-state level in Belgium over the last half century. In a second, explanatory, part it looks into the driving forces behind this evolution and what we can learn beyond the Belgian case. In a third, analytical, part it seeks to establish the democratic trade off this evolution of and shift of power to the sub-state level implies and what we can learn for meaningful processes of downloading of competencies.
