Exploring the effects of territorial reform on the representation of the people: the case of the Belgian House of Representatives

This paper studies the representation of the people (demos) and the statespeople (demoi) in the Belgian House of representatives over time. As Belgium became a federal system through six territorial reforms that decentralized the state, we expect that representation of the demoi increases over time. We also study the features of MPs representing the demoi (party, language group) and, as Belgium is a dual federation, regarding the kind of demoi that are represented (territorially- or language-based). Our results show that representation of the demoi indeed increased over time, overall exceeds the representation of the demos, and that Dutch-speaking and nationalist MPs represent the demoi most often. Also, after the fourth state reform, representation of the demoi is mostly territory-based. We conclude that the increasing representation of the demoi at the expense of the demos in the House of Representatives poses a democratic deficit as federal systems require representation of both the demos and the demoi at the federal level, the House being the chamber that is meant to represent the people.