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Combining Federalism with Consociationalism: Is Belgian Consociational Federalism Digging its Own Grave?

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Caluwaerts, Didier [Vrije Universiteit Brussel] Reuchamps, Min [UCL]

Belgian consociational federalism is often praised for its ability to deal peacefully with the country's internal divisions. Nevertheless, recent political stalemates raise the question: Is Belgian consociational federalism digging its own grave? This article argues that granting segmental autonomy effectively accommodates political conflicts that are currently on the agenda, but renders the process of intersegmental conflict accommodation increasingly more difficult in the long run. More specifically, federalism undermines the problem-solving capacity of the other power-sharing mechanisms in three ways: (1) it increases demands for more autonomy, (2) it decreases the potential for package deals and (3) it lowers the costs of non-agreements which induce a political stalemate. These evolutions are often overlooked, but go to the heart of the impasse Belgian politics has recently experienced.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Article de recherche
Access type Accès libre
Publication date 2015
Language Anglais
Journal information "Ethnopolitics" - Vol. 14, no. 3, p. 277-295 (2015)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher Routledge ((United Kingdom) Abingdon)
issn 1744-9057
e-issn 1744-9065
Publication status Publié
Affiliation UCL - SSH/SPLE - Institut de sciences politiques Louvain-Europe
Keywords Federalism ; Consociationalism ; Belgium
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Bibliographic reference Caluwaerts, Didier ; Reuchamps, Min. Combining Federalism with Consociationalism: Is Belgian Consociational Federalism Digging its Own Grave?. In: Ethnopolitics, Vol. 14, no. 3, p. 277-295 (2015)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/153676