Belgium is often described as a ‘particracy,’ since party discipline is high, and party chairpersons are very influential. Political parties largely deter- mine the formation, the coalition program, and the duration of a govern- ment (Dewachter 2001: 33; cf. De Pauw 2000). The three dominant parties in Belgium after the Second World War have been the Christian Democrats, the Socialists, and the Liberals (see Table 4.1). In the 1960s and 1970s, all of the larger parties split into Flemish and Francophone branches; the Christ- ian Democrats split in 1968, the Liberals in 1972, and the Socialists in 1978 (Alen 1995: 28). Today ‘in fact… Belgium has two quasi-autonomous party systems, each with a different balance of power between the main parties’ (De Winter 2000: 301).
The Christian Democratic party family, cvp/psc, has often been pivotal in the formation of government coalitions. The Christian Democrats have been part of the coalition in most of the postwar governments (Woyke 1999: 373). Historically, the choice of coalitions was between the center-left (in- cluding the ps/sp) or the center-right (including the pvv/prl). This choice was not only based on electoral outcomes, but also on a balance between the
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b e lg i a n p o l it i c s
Table 4.1 Elections 1978–1999,Number of Seats per Party
1978 1981 1985 1987 1991 1995 1999 Christian Democrats CVP (F) 57 43 49 43 39 29 22 PSC (W) 25 18 20 19 18 12 10 Socialists SP (F) 26 26 32 32 28 20 14 PS (W) 32 35 35 40 35 21 19 Liberals VLD (F) 22 28 22 25 26 21 23 PRL (W) 14 24 24 23 20 18 18 Greens Agalev (F) - 2 4 6 7 5 9 Ecolo (W) - 1 5 3 10 6 11
Nationalist right Volks Unie 14 20 16 16 10 5 8
Radical right Vlaams Blok (F) 1 1 1 2 12 11 15
Front National (W) - - - - 1 2 1
Total seats 212 212 212 212 212 150* 150
Source: Res Publica Belgica, Beleid en Besluitvorming 1980-2000, see Appendix: A concise statistical overview, p. 126
left-wing and right-wing groups within the cvp. The cvp is divided into ‘standen,’ institutionalized groups with a similar socioeconomic orienta- tion such as workers, farmers, and the middle class of usually self-employed merchants. If the workers’ organization acw (the umbrella organization of the Christian movement in Belgium that includes the Christian labor union acv) was dominant in the cvp, a center-left coalition would be a likely out- come (Fitzmaurice 1996). Only recently, a coalition was formed without Christian Democrats for the first time in over fifty years. After the 1999 elections, the Belgian Parliament formed a ‘rainbow coalition,’ consisting of Liberals, Socialists, and Greens.
Belgian governments operate by consensus. Cabinets are collective bod- ies, and all the ministers have to support or agree on a policy before the cabi- net decides. The ministers’ autonomy is thus also restricted by the cabinet policies within which they must operate. Intra-coalition disagreements are thus a frequent cause of the dissolution of Belgian governments (Fitzmaurice 1996: 93). There are instances where one coalition partner deliberately causes a split.4
Although the parties are grouped in party families based on programmat- ic distance, conflicts also arise frequently along north-south (Flemish- Walloon) divisions rather than along ideological lines. For instance, the Martens VIII government broke down in 1991 because the Francophone parties in the government coalition, the ps and psc, supported arms exports
Table 4.2 Coalition Governments
Martens I CVP/PSC + PS/SP + FDF 1979-1980 9months Center-Left
Martens II CVP/PSC + PS/SP 1980-1980 3months Center-Left
Martens III CVP/PSC + PS/SP + PRL/PVV 1980-1980 6months Mixed
Martens IV CVP/PSC + PS/SP 1980-1981 5months Center-Left
Eyskens CVP/PSC + PS/SP 1981-1981 5months Center-Left
Martens V CVP/PSC + PRL/PVV 1981-1985 46months Center-Right
Martens VI CVP/PSC + PRL/PVV 1985-1987 23months Center-Right
Martens VII CVP/PSC + PRL/PVV 1987-1988 7months Center-Right
Martens VIII CVP/PSC + PS/SP + VU 1988-1991 41months Mixed
Martens IX CVP/PSC + PS/SP 1991-1992 5months Center-Left
Dehaene I CVP/PSC + PS/SP 1992-1995 39months Center-Left
Dehaene II CVP/PSC + PS/SP 1995-1999 47months Center-Left
Verhofstadt VLD/PVV + PS/SP + Greens 1999-2003 46months Mixed
FDF Front Democratique des Francophones is a liberal party for Francophones, PVV is the predecessor of the VLD (Flemish Liberals).
(Fitzmaurice 1992: 179). Particularly with respect to social security reform, the Walloon Christian Democratic Party psc proclaimed that its ideas were closer to the Socialist Party than to those of the Christian Democrats in Flanders (Le Soir, 951220).5
The House of Representatives members are organized in two linguistic groups, irrespective of their party affiliation. The constitution provides an institution to maintain the balance between them: the so called ‘alarm bell procedure.’ For all legislation that affects the different regions or the divi- sion of power between the regions and the federal government, a majority of both language groups must be present, and must approve. The total number who approve must be at least a two-thirds majority (Van de Lanotte et al. 2000: 67). If the normal majority is required to pass a law, the ‘alarm bell procedure’ should prevent one linguistic group from overruling the other simply by outnumbering them in the normal voting procedure (since the number of mandates per constituency is based on population density, the Flemish dominate the Chamber). If they are outnumbered, the protesting members of Parliament (three quarters of a linguistic group) can suspend the legislation and consult the government. The government will advise within 30 days, after which the Chamber decides again on the matter (ibid.: 68). Dewachter (2001: 373) points out that Parliament, already hardly ca- pable of deciding in normal procedures, places itself on the sideline through this ‘bombastic majority rule.’ The government will thus do anything to avoid the involvement of Parliament in decision-making procedures.
Legislation
Parliament, formally the legislative power in Belgian politics, initiates only 15% of the legislation (Dewachter 2001: 19). Bills can be proposed either by the government (projets de loi) or by Parliament (propositions de loi), but the former have the priority, particularly when a government crisis is looming. Proposals initiated by Parliament have little chance of passing and ‘must be considered as kite-flying efforts to get an issue aired’ (Fitzmaurice 1996: 110). Fitzmaurice shows how Parliament proposed 229 bills in 1990- 91, of which only 34 were adopted. In contrast, in the same period, all of the government’s 139 proposed bills were adopted. Other periods reveal similar results. The government is the ultimate ‘drive behind decision making’ ac- cording to Dewachter (2001). Between 1957 and 1996, government ruled by decree for a total of 80 months. In every decade since the Second World War, the Belgian government has ruled with special powers for at least nine months to one year of that period.
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Parliament also lacks budgetary control. In the 1980s, only 7% of all bud- gets were approved by Parliament in advance. Typically, the government spent money, and Parliament approved ex post facto. The state reform in the early 1990s placed a tight time schedule upon the budgetary cycle. The new schedule would allow Parliament effective ex ante budgetary control. How- ever, ten years after its implementation, the president of Parliament admit- ted that this control had become more a yearly symbolic evaluation of politi- cal trust in the incumbent government than a substantial assessment of fi- nances (Dewachter 2001: 27).
The state reforms of 1993 were designed to increase the stability of gov- ernment coalitions by introducing a ‘constructive vote of no-confidence.’ This means that Parliament can only force a government to resign when they manage to appoint a new prime minister at the same time. The in- creased political stability of the 1990s was not necessarily caused by this legislative change, however. After all, the frequent government rifts in the 1980s were usually caused by internal dissent among coalition parties and ministers within the cabinet. The compliance among coalition party mem- bers of parliament to support their representatives in the cabinet is high.6
Research has shown that since the Second World War, Parliament only once urged the government to resign (Holvoet 1980; Biondi 2000, cited in Dewachter 2001: 223). A former cvp minister states: ‘Only a few members of Parliament dare to contradict the government. Within our party, only a few members dare to contradict Dehaene…’ (Lenssens, in De Standaard, 990222, cited in Dewachter 2001).
On the other hand, ministers are very powerful in Belgium, especially compared to other public positions such as mp, party leader, ontrade union leader, among others (Dewachter 2001: 28). When they take office, they bring their own staffs (cabinet) recruited from their political party or exter- nally. These civil service cabinets are marked by their comprehensive ap- proach to policy making, their high level of expertise and their decisiveness. They are a powerful source of support for the minister, whose accomplish- ments – to a large extent – depend on the quality of the cabinet. By contrast, the Belgian civil service only plays a small role in policy making (according to former Prime Minister Martens in De Standaard 891219; and Dehaene in De Standaard 000729). Highly qualified officials usually join a minister’s cabinet or find a more challenging job elsewhere. The others stay in what the incumbent prime minister has called ‘the worst performing part of govern- ment’ (vrt television, De zevende dag 010114, see Dewachter 2001: 322).