Belgium: The Rise of Regions or the Fall of the Federal Level

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.