The contemporary changes in the distribution of power across Europe provide interesting empirical material to address the focal point of the literature on policy feedbacks (Kumlin, 2004; Mettler & Soss, 2004; Soss & Schram, 2007). As long shown by theories of state-building in Western Europe, welfare systems had been a powerful tool used by political centers to build up a sense of a national community, to legitimate national political actors, and thereby the nation-state (Bartolini, 2005; Rokkan & al., 1987; Tilly, 1975). But since the 1970’s, central states are not the main providers of welfare anymore, for many social policies have been devolved to sub-national levels of governments, in particular the regions. If one takes seriously the hypothesis of policy feedbacks, major changes in the legitimacy structure should therefore be noticed. This paper examines how the restructuring of European (welfare) states has affected the legitimacy attributed to levels of government. Legitimacy is classically defined as input-oriented and output-oriented (Scharpf, 1999). Specifically, it aims at exploring how citizens’ preferences for the allocation of decision-making responsibilities and their identification to different levels (EU, State or Region) vary in space, policy sector and over time in the specific multi-level context of Belgium. Classical questions are at stake in this analysis, notably how and when (regional) governing elites are able to use public policies to reshape beliefs and preferences in the citizenry (Soss & Schram, 2007, p. 111); and, in the Belgian case, to develop citizens’ beliefs and preferences regarding regional governments as being legitimate levels of power and/or of identification. Therefore the ‘oldsaw in political science’ holding that ‘new policies create new politics’ provides an adequate canvas to investigate how the restructuring of Belgium has impacted upon democratic citizenship defined in terms of citizens’ preferences for level of decision making (De Winter, Swyngedouw, & Goeminne, 2008) and of community and group-building.
