The Trade-Off Between Democracy and Territorial Reform: Measuring the Representation of the People in the Belgian Federation

Recently, growing attention is being paid to the relation between federalism and democracy, or, more generally speaking, to the trade-off between territorial reform and democracy (Behnke, Broschek and Sonnicksen 2019; Benz and Sonnicksen 2020). Much of this work is very conceptual or theoretical, reflecting upon the ideal balance between territorial reform and democracy. The question then is how to capture this relationship in more empirical terms? Analysing one of the most particular processes of federalization in Europe over the last decades, the Belgian case, Meier and Bursens (2020) defined two major democratic deficits triggered and/or strengthened by the process of federalization. These are the relation between executive and legislative power, on the one hand, and between the demoï and the demos, on the other hand. In both cases the federalization of Belgium led to a disproportional position of strength and shift of power in the advantage of the former. This paper will take this topic a step further, putting into operation and empirically investigating the level of democracy in the field of political representation and participation. Processes of political representation and participation are very important to democracies. To date, the question of the political representation and participation of the demos and the demoï in federal systems and other multi-level democracies, is covered by the logic of a bicameral system and, eventually, group rights giving particular groups a voice and position in processes of political representation and participation (Kymlicka 1995). In this paper, we will rely on the theory and concepts of the literature on what (good) political representation and participation is (Dovi 2007; Mansbridge 2003; Urbinati 2006), to take stock of the arrangements within the Belgian federation regarding the representation and participation of the demos and the demoï. The paper will consist of three sections. A first section traces the evolution of Belgium from a unitary to a federal system and how over time the political representation and participation of the demos and of the demoï was given shape. In a second section, this empirical investigation will be analysed relying on (quality) criteria deduced from the literature on political representation and participation. This will allow us, in a third section, to measure the trade-off between democracy and territorial reform in the field of political representation and participation, adding a MLG focus to the literature on political representation and participation, on the one hand, and a state architecture focus to the literature on political representation and participation, on the other hand.