Splitting the Difference: The Radical Approach of the Belgian Parties

Abstract

One of the peculiar aspects of the Belgian federal system is its lack of statewide political parties. All parties are regional, whether or not they qualify as autonomist parties (Caramani, 2004; De Winter, Gómez-Reino and Lynch, 2006). Mainstream political parties (Catholics, Socialists and Liberals), traditionally major statewide forces, all fell apart during the 1960s and 1970s, each giving birth to two distinct and completely autonomous ‘sister parties’, one for each linguistic community. Furthermore, this region-alization of the ‘Belgian’ party system preceded the institutional process that transformed the unitary framework into a federal one, culminating in the 1993 new constitutional article: ‘Belgium is a federal state, made up of Communities and Regions.’ Therefore, ‘The Belgian experience does not support the thesis that changes in the territorial structure of the state cause shifts in the territorial structure of the party system’ (Swenden and Jans, 2006: 880; emphasis added). Indeed, most theories concerning political parties in federal systems assume parties to be reactive: they ‘seem to be expected to adapt quasi-automatically to the structure of the state, mimicking its overall structure’ (Deschouwer, 2006a). More explicitly, Chhibber and Kollman (2004: 21) argue that the level of party aggregation depends on territorial structures and the importance of subnational governments (see also Thorlakson, 2007). In other words, the federalization of the country ought to precede the transformation of the party system.