Capacidades/fortalezas y falencias/debilidades

LEGISLATURE

The constitution distributes legislative authority among federal, regional, community, local, and provincial bod- ies. At the national level, the 150-member Chamber of Representatives, elected by proportional representa- tion, is dominant. The 71-member Senate, which was reduced from parity to a secondary chamber in 1993, has a complex electoral system. Forty members are elected for a four-year term by proportional representa- tion, and 31 members are elected by the elected mem- bers. Flemish voters elect 25 senators and Walloons 15 by proportional representation. The Flemish Council and the French Community Council each designate 10 senators from among their members, and the German Community Council names one. The Flemish senators thus chosen co-opt six more members and the Walloons four more. At least one Fleming and six Walloons must be Brussels residents. The total includes 41 Flemings, 29 Walloons, and one German—reflecting the distribu- tion of the population. In addition, the king’s heirs are senators by right. Senatorial seats are distributed among

the political parties within each linguistic group pro- portionately to the share of the votes won by their lists for the directly elective senators. Both chambers serve four-year terms.

The 1993 amendments define the legislative com- petence of the federal government as “only the mat- ters formally attributed to it by the constitution and laws passed in conformity with it” and confer “the other matters” on the communities or regions. Federal authority covers defense, internal security, the budget, monetary policy, and some foreign and social welfare matters. Both chambers have the power of initiative, but the government introduces most legislation, after review by the administrative Council of State.

Most bills are introduced in the Chamber of Rep- resentatives and, if adopted, sent to the Senate. The Senate may ignore, adopt, or amend a bill but can- not reject it. If the Senate ignores or adopts a bill, it becomes law. If the Senate amends a bill, the Chamber makes the final decision, defeating it or passing it with none, some, or all of the Senate’s amendments. The Chamber has sole legislative authority to enact the

federal budget. Bills affecting relations among the lin- guistic communities may begin in either chamber, and passage requires a two-thirds majority of all votes cast in both chambers, including a majority in each linguis- tic group in each chamber. Also, any linguistic group can delay consideration of a bill that it calls a threat to community interests.

A joint “parliamentary concertation committee” resolves “conflicts of competence” between the federal chambers. An arbitration court and the Senate settle “conflicts of interest” among the federal, regional, and community legislatures. Constitutional amend- ments require a parliamentary declaration identifying the provisions to be revised, followed by a dissolution and new elections. The new parliament must pass the amendment by a two-thirds majority in both houses.

JUDICIARY

The highest ordinary court is the Court of Cassation. The cabinet appoints judges for life from nominations submitted by the Court itself and, alternately, by the Chamber of Representatives or the Senate. The Court has no power of judicial review with respect to legisla- tion. It can examine administrative decrees for confor- mity to the law, but this function is largely exercised by the Council of State, which has general oversight of

all administrative bodies. The absence of judicial review regarding parliamentary legislation is not regarded as a deficiency, because all important legislation requires broad interparty agreement and results from extensive consultation with affected interests.

REGIONAL AND LOCAL

GOVERNMENT

Flemish demands for parity and autonomy were largely fueled by the shift in the balance of population and economic power after World War II. Flanders grew and prospered, while the smokestack industries that had given Wallonia its edge declined. The Flemish required fundamental restructuring of the Belgian state. Four waves of constitutional amendments began in the late 1960s and culminated in 1993. The early measures pro- vided for extensive decentralization, short of federalism. That failed to satisfy the Flemish. Further reform was long stalled by disagreement over the status of Brussels.

Finally, the Flemish accepted continued Walloon control of Brussels and the provision of large subsidies for the Walloon social security system in return for very broad autonomy in Flanders. The constitutional revisions divided Belgium into four linguistic regions (Wallonia, Flanders, bilingual Brussels, the German- ELECTIONS TO THE CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES

2003 % Seats 1999 % Seats

Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (VLD) 15.4% 25 14.3% 23 Socialistische Partij Anders SPA-Spirit 14.9% 23 9.6% 14 Christen-Demorcratisch & Vlaams (CD&V) 13.3% 21 14.1% 22

Parti Socialiste (PS) 13.0% 25 10.1% 19

Vlaams Belang (VB) 11.6% 18 9.9% 15

Mouvement Réformateur (MR) 11.4% 24 10.1% 18 Centre Démocrate Humaniste (CDH) 5.5% 8 5.9% 10 Ecologistes Confédérés (Ecolo) 3.1% 4 7.3% 11 Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (NVA) 3.1% 1 –

De Vlaamse Groenen (Groen) 2.5% – 7.0% 9

Front National (FN) 2.0% 1 1.5% 1

Others 4.2% – 10.3% 8

Total 150 150

speaking area) and three cultural communities (Wal- loon, Flemish, German). The complicated system of representation includes the Flemish Regional Council (124 members), the Walloon Regional Council (75), the French Community Council (75 from Wallonia, 19 from Brussels), the Flemish Community Council (which has merged with the Flemish Regional Coun- cil), the German Community Council (25), the Brus- sels Regional Council (75), and Flemish, French, and joint community commissions for the Brussels region. All councils are elected for five-year terms.

The regional councils have primary economic responsibility, including foreign trade, for their respec- tive regions, and the community councils and Brussels community commissions share authority over hospitals, education, local welfare services, and cultural affairs, including international cultural cooperation. Even before the last reform wave, the regions and communi- ties were spending 40 percent of the national budget.

Below the regional and community levels of gov- ernment are provinces and communes. Each of the 10 provinces has a council from which an executive coun- cil is elected to work alongside a governor appointed by the central government. The powers of the provinces are limited, and the regional and cultural bodies may well make them redundant. More important are the 596 communes, which rest on very old traditions and serve as a source of recruitment for national politics as well as expression of local interests. Communes may join in intercommunal “urban areas” and “fed- erations.” Each commune has an elected council from which a board of aldermen is chosen, headed by a bur- gomaster who, though centrally appointed and paid, is in practice a nominee of the commune. The com- munes have extensive powers, subject to veto by the provincial governor, with the Council of State having the final say. At the local level, one or another national party usually dominates, but the communal councils are elected by proportional representation, avoiding one-party government.

The Electoral System

Elections to the Chamber of Representatives take place at least every four years. The number of members and their distribution among the provinces is adjusted peri- odically according to the results of a decennial census. Universal male suffrage was introduced after World War I, and women obtained the vote in 1949. The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1981. Voting is compulsory, producing a high turnout of some 95

percent but with a high proportion of spoiled ballots, often over 5 percent of total votes cast. The Chamber of Representatives has been elected by proportional representation since 1900. Each voter casts a ballot for a party list or for one candidate on a list, but votes may not be split among parties.

Party lists are presented at the district (arrondisse- ment) level. Provinces have from two to five arrondisse- ments. Seats are distributed among the lists within each arrondissement, and remainders are transferred to the provincial level for further distribution. Pro- portionality is thus ensured on a provincial basis but not necessarily for the country as a whole. The effect of the electoral system is a slight bias in favor of the larger parties, but smaller ones are not unduly penalized. The system has not impeded the growth of small linguistic parties, which tend to have regional concentrations of support.

The Party System

ORIGINS OF THE PARTIES

In the early period parties were loose associations of Liberals and Catholics who formed informal coali- tions, so-called union cabinets to meet the king’s desire for political unity. With the dispute over the papal ban on freemasonry in 1846, the Liberals became anticlerical, and majoritarian government became the rule. The Socialists emerged in 1885 as a second secular party, and the extension of the franchise in 1894 cut the Liberals’ support sharply. Unwilling to serve alone with the Socialists, the dominant Christian Socials introduced proportional representation in 1900, which led to a stable three-party system. After women gained the vote, the Christian Socials gained a decisive edge on the Socialists.

The party system changed radically in the 1960s as the language issue arose. “Community” parties, based on linguistic activist groups, won up to 20 percent of the vote by 1971. The impact of the conflict was profound on the traditional parties: except for the small Com- munist Party, they split into separate linguistic parties. Thus, the Christian Socials, Socialists, and Liberals each now form two distinct parties. As a result, Belgian poli- tics is characterized by advanced multipartism.

THE PARTIES IN LAW

Apart from the operation of the electoral laws, the Belgian parties are relatively free from legal regulation, with no restrictions on the nature of parties that can

compete. The freedom of party activity tends to be limited by the language issue, since it is important that a party not appear to discriminate against any linguistic demands. The amended constitution also entrenches the linguistic parties. Corporate donations are illegal, but each party represented in either house benefits from an annual, direct state subsidy of over U.S. $65,000 plus U.S. $0.50 per vote received in the preceding parliamentary election.

Perhaps more important are the large number of state jobs that the parties distribute to their loyal adherents. All linguistic councils, the regular civil ser- vice, and other institutions such as the state schools are part of this patronage system. Moreover, since the bulk of social security schemes are administered by party-affiliated organizations, the parties have a highly privileged position at both local and national levels.

PARTY ORGANIZATION

The structure of Belgian parties has been largely deter- mined by the strong “associational” features of the society. Party membership is important, and there is a fairly high ratio of members to voters. Also, the parties’ links with organized interest groups have considerable importance. Of particular interest in this respect are the three labor unions—Christian, Socialist, and Lib- eral—each linked to the respective party. The Christian Socials benefit most from “association,” with numer- ous ties to Catholic organizations and to the Flemish Farmers’ League (Boerenbond). The organizational strength of the parties depends on their linguistic homogeneity, which resulted from the breakup of the traditional parties.

The larger parties have similar national structures: a supreme congress of delegates from the districts that meets yearly and a small executive national com- mittee or bureau that manages party affairs. Between the congress and the national committee is a general council, consisting of members of both bodies, that has a watchdog function. A marked “separation of powers” exists between the national party organization and the parliamentary bloc. Party presidents are not usually government officeholders (elected or appointed) but nevertheless rank somewhat above a cabinet minister. The party leaders’ status is based largely on their rule as chief negotiators in intraparty disputes over linguis- tic issues. Once such a dispute is resolved, the party’s ministers in government have little or no freedom of action. Failure to resolve such disputes has regularly caused governing coalitions to collapse. The linguistic splits in the older parties mean that the Flemish and

Walloon communities retain only tenuous links with each other and cooperate only on policy questions not related to the linguistic issue. Candidate selection is local, but the central organizations have vetoes. A prac- tice similar to U.S.-style party primaries has been used for candidate selection, but that practice has declined in recent years.

The smaller community parties lack the powerful organizational base of the larger ones, largely because all major organized economic and cultural activities are preempted by the major parties. The smaller parties do benefit from high local concentrations of support.

CAMPAIGNING

Elections to the Chamber of Representatives take place at least every four years. In fact, seven of the eight elections before 1991 were called before the four-year period expired. However, the elections of 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003 followed parliaments that ran nearly full term. Despite the apparent intensity and intracta- bility of the linguistic issue, survey data suggest that most Belgians place its resolution lower on the list of priorities than, say, the economic situation of the country. Nonetheless, the average voter has great dif- ficulty ignoring the linguistic appeal, and the ramifica- tions spill over to the economic sector because of the varying economic fortunes of the two regions.

Much of the campaign momentum is preserved by party activists and elites rather than the mass of the electorate. Voters are well aware that a forthcoming election will not be decisive, and campaigning centers on mobilizing existing support to increase a party’s rep- resentation and thus enhance its bargaining power. Par- ties can enter the government without great difficulty, if they so wish, because prime ministers strive to gain broad interparty support with an “excess majority.”

Campaigns are media-dominated, each region in its own language. The powerful regional press is largely formally independent of the parties but committed to definite political directions. The role of personali- ties is important, because of the “personalized” vote. Although voting is compulsory, interest is high and voters are made to feel they should not “let down” their language communities.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Traditionally, party identification was strong in Belgium and cut across linguistic boundaries. Thus, the Chris- tian Socials could rely on the Catholic vote throughout the nation, particularly in rural Flanders. The stabil- ity of party identification weakened in the 1960s: the

Socialist, Christian Social, and Liberal parties’ 95 per- cent share of the vote in 1958 fell to between 70 and 73 percent from 1981 to 1995. By 2003 their share had fallen to just over 65 percent.

To some extent, the initial growth of support for the new community parties was a protest vote that weakened as the major parties divided into linguis- tic wings. The new parties have not built up stable identification with substantial parts of the electorate. Their radicalism is a partial antidote to immobility in the political system, on economic as well as linguistic matters. But the efforts of successive governments to resolve some of the outstanding problems seem to have induced a good share of their voters to return to their former voting loyalties.

Major Political Parties