Abstract
The absence of a federal government in Belgium following the June 2010 elections can be used to illustrate the robustness of multi-level governance structures. As Belgium is a federal country, regional governments simply continued to function. The European Union (EU) actually forced Belgian political decision makers to continue to cooperate, for example, with regard to the Belgian presidency of the EU in 2010 and with regard to the government budget. There is, however, also an unintended side effect of this form of multi-level governance. The continued presence of European and regional policies, to some extent, reduces the necessity for having a national government. Therefore, during government negotiations, the default option of not reaching a compromise is rendered more attractive, and this could reduce the willingness of political parties to find a compromise.
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Deschouwer, K. All Levels Alive. Eur Polit Sci 11, 108–113 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2011.59
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2011.59