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Belgium is a paradoxical case: a country that some argue should not exist, yet one that has been a model of both democratic innovation and political fragmentation. The Oxford Handbook of Belgian Politics dissects Belgium's unique institutional architecture, its complex linguistic and community divides, and its evolving federal structure. Despite its small size and historically precarious existence, Belgium has played an outsized role in both political practice and political science scholarship. This volume brings together leading Belgian and international scholars to provide a comprehensive examination of Belgian politics, offering insights that extend far beyond its borders.Structured into five thematic sections, the Handbook explores key dimensions of Belgian polity, politics, and policies. In forty meticulously crafted chapters, contributors analyze how Belgian politics serves as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale. The country has pioneered electoral reforms, social policies, and LGBTQI+ rights, positioning itself as a laboratory of democratic experimentation. At the same time, it has experienced extreme governmental instability, record-breaking coalition negotiations, and a deeply entrenched partitocracy. Whether viewed as a beacon of democratic resilience or an emblem of institutional gridlock, Belgium remains a compelling case for understanding the broader dynamics of governance in divided and multilingual societies worldwide.

For deliberative democrats, the strength of any democracy is public deliberation, the frequent and reasoned discussion between citizens on political issues. Despite all the theoretical claims made about deliberative systems, the question remains how to empirically assess both the legitimacy and function of deliberative systems in the real world and how individual sites of deliberation interact within the larger political system. In other words, what is the legitimacy of each individual component and under which conditions can these components improve the legitimacy of the wider system? These are the central research questions for this book looking particularly through the prism of the citizen-led mini-public G1000 in Belgium, which grew out of a feeling of deep democratic crisis. Offering empirically measurable translations of philosophical concepts, the book enhances our understanding of how political systems function, and of the viability of a deliberative democracy at a larger scale. Finally, it provokes fundamental normative questions on how we want to shape our society, especially divided ones.This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of deliberative democracy, and to those interested in democratic theory and more broadly political science, communication, sociology, and philosophy.

This book takes stock of Belgium’s exceptional and – for some foreign observers –schizophrenic position in the political world and explains its idiosyncrasy to a non-Belgian audience. Offering a broad and comprehensive analysis of Belgian politics, the guiding questions throughout each of the chapters of this book are: Is Belgium a political enigma, and why? Along which axes is Belgium "exceptional" compared to other countries? And what insights does a comparative study of Belgian politics have to offer? The book therefore provides a critical assessment of how Belgian politics "stands out" internationally, both in good and bad ways – including consociationalism, federalism, democratic innovations, Euroscepticism, government formation, gender equality, among others – and which factors can explain Belgium’s exceptional position. Based on cutting-edge research findings, the book will be of wide interest to scholars and students of Belgian politics, European Politics and Comparative politics.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book takes stock of Belgium’s exceptional and – for some foreign observers –schizophrenic position in the political world and explains its idiosyncrasy to a non-Belgian audience. Offering a broad and comprehensive analysis of Belgian politics, the guiding questions throughout each of the chapters of this book are: Is Belgium a political enigma, and why? Along which axes is Belgium "exceptional" compared to other countries? And what insights does a comparative study of Belgian politics have to offer? The book therefore provides a critical assessment of how Belgian politics "stands out" internationally, both in good and bad ways – including consociationalism, federalism, democratic innovations, Euroscepticism, government formation, gender equality, among others – and which factors can explain Belgium’s exceptional position. Based on cutting-edge research findings, the book will be of wide interest to scholars and students of Belgian politics, European Politics and Comparative politics.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book explains deliberative constitution-making with a special focus on the connections between participation, representation and legitimacy and provides a general overview of what the challenges and prospects of deliberative constitution-making are today.It seeks to provide a more complete picture of what is at stake as a political trend in various places in the world, both theoretically and empirically grounded. Distinctively, the book studies not only established democracies and well-known cases of deliberative constitution-making but also such practices in authoritarian and less consolidated democratic settings and departs from a traditional institutional perspective to have a special focus on actors, and in particular underrepresented groups.This book is of key interest to scholars and students of deliberative democracy, constitutional politics, democratization and autocratization studies, citizen participation and more broadly to comparative politics, public administration, social policy and law.

This book explains deliberative constitution-making with a special focus on the connections between participation, representation and legitimacy and provides a general overview of what the challenges and prospects of deliberative constitution-making are today.It seeks to provide a more complete picture of what is at stake as a political trend in various places in the world, both theoretically and empirically grounded. Distinctively, the book studies not only established democracies and well-known cases of deliberative constitution-making but also such practices in authoritarian and less consolidated democratic settings and departs from a traditional institutional perspective to have a special focus on actors, and in particular underrepresented groups.This book is of key interest to scholars and students of deliberative democracy, constitutional politics, democratization and autocratization studies, citizen participation and more broadly to comparative politics, public administration, social policy and law.

The third edition of this highly respected book covers the numerous political developments that have taken place in Belgium since 2012.This book features topics such as the implementation of the sixth state reform, the rebranding of political parties with new party leaders, several elections at all levels of government (from local to European) leading to new governing coalitions, democratic innovations in several parliaments, and, of course, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the challenges of climate changes on all political and social institutions.Key features:Gives an even-handed and analytically sophisticated account of contemporary Belgium politics.Explains the background to the territorial divide between a Dutch-speaking north and a French-speaking south that has shaped the political system and led to polarized communities and the need for institutional responses to internal conflict.Provides a thorough example of a consociational democracy, and shows how this form of democratic government, along with Belgium’s particular federal system, has provided a basis – most of the time – to govern a deeply divided country.Provides a comprehensive picture of Belgian politics, which helps answer the question of whether Belgium – and indeed other divided societies – can be governed in a legitimate democratic manner.This book is essential reading to students and scholars of Belgian politics and society, democracy and democratic innovations, political systems, and more broadly to European and comparative politics.

The third edition of this highly respected book covers the numerous political developments that have taken place in Belgium since 2012.This book features topics such as the implementation of the sixth state reform, the rebranding of political parties with new party leaders, several elections at all levels of government (from local to European) leading to new governing coalitions, democratic innovations in several parliaments, and, of course, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the challenges of climate changes on all political and social institutions.Key features:Gives an even-handed and analytically sophisticated account of contemporary Belgium politics.Explains the background to the territorial divide between a Dutch-speaking north and a French-speaking south that has shaped the political system and led to polarized communities and the need for institutional responses to internal conflict.Provides a thorough example of a consociational democracy, and shows how this form of democratic government, along with Belgium’s particular federal system, has provided a basis – most of the time – to govern a deeply divided country.Provides a comprehensive picture of Belgian politics, which helps answer the question of whether Belgium – and indeed other divided societies – can be governed in a legitimate democratic manner.This book is essential reading to students and scholars of Belgian politics and society, democracy and democratic innovations, political systems, and more broadly to European and comparative politics.

This collection examines the construction and circulation of discourses on populism, charting their role in shaping collective understandings of democracy.The volume advocates for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of populism as a form of categorization used by several types of actors to label people and phenomena in political and social debate, with the first section highlighting chapters on making such a framework work in practice. Chapters collectively make the case for the possibilities afforded by interdisciplinary perspectives, demonstrating how the interplay of discursive, linguistic, political, and communicative analyses is imperative to understanding discourses on populism as discursive practices embedded in specific contexts. The second section showcases interdisciplinary empirical studies on the uses of populism(s) and populist(s) in various types of political and media discourse in Belgium, France, and Spain in 2019. This focus highlights analyses on the uses of this notion in different contexts where actors and actions attached to different ideologies have regularly been qualified as ‘populist’, but also the value of an interdisciplinary approach in analysing other concepts prevalent in contemporary public discourses more broadly.This book will appeal to scholars interested in populism across disciplinary fields, including discourse analysis, language and communication, media studies, history, and political science, as well as those interested in interdisciplinary research methods.

Multinational federations rest on the coexistence of two or more nations within a single polity. Within these federations, minority nations play a significant role as their character differs from the other building blocks of the federation. This edited volume offers a comprehensive comparison of two such minority nations - Quebec in Canada and Wallonia in Belgium - which exemplifies many dimensions, themes and issues highly resonant to the study of federalism and regionalism across the globe. Quebec and Wallonia have experienced several decades of federal dynamics where both regions have had to find their way as a minority nation in a multinational federation. For those studying federalism and regionalism their importance lies in a number of characteristics, but principally in the fact of these minority nations have transformed into mini-states with fully fledged legislative powers within their federation. This book seeks to study the specific dynamics within these small worlds and between them and the rest of the federation. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of federalism, nationalism and regionalism, comparative politics and policies, political ideas and social movements.

For deliberative democrats, the strength of any democracy is public deliberation, the frequent and reasoned discussion between citizens on political issues. Despite all the theoretical claims made about deliberative systems, the question remains how to empirically assess both the legitimacy and function of deliberative systems in the real world and how individual sites of deliberation interact within the larger political system. In other words, what is the legitimacy of each individual component and under which conditions can these components improve the legitimacy of the wider system? These are the central research questions for this book looking particularly through the prism of the citizen-led mini-public G1000 in Belgium, which grew out of a feeling of deep democratic crisis. Offering empirically measurable translations of philosophical concepts, the book enhances our understanding of how political systems function, and of the viability of a deliberative democracy at a larger scale. Finally, it provokes fundamental normative questions on how we want to shape our society, especially divided ones.This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of deliberative democracy, and to those interested in democratic theory and more broadly political science, communication, sociology, and philosophy.

Multinational federations rest on the coexistence of two or more nations within a single polity. Within these federations, minority nations play a significant role as their character differs from the other building blocks of the federation. This edited volume offers a comprehensive comparison of two such minority nations - Quebec in Canada and Wallonia in Belgium - which exemplifies many dimensions, themes and issues highly resonant to the study of federalism and regionalism across the globe. Quebec and Wallonia have experienced several decades of federal dynamics where both regions have had to find their way as a minority nation in a multinational federation. For those studying federalism and regionalism their importance lies in a number of characteristics, but principally in the fact of these minority nations have transformed into mini-states with fully fledged legislative powers within their federation. This book seeks to study the specific dynamics within these small worlds and between them and the rest of the federation. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of federalism, nationalism and regionalism, comparative politics and policies, political ideas and social movements.

Citizens’ Assemblies (CAs) are flourishing around the world. Quite often composed of randomly selected citizens, CAs, arguably, come as a possible answer to contemporary democratic challenges. Democracies worldwide are indeed confronted with a series of disruptive phenomena such as a widespread perception of distrust and growing polarization as well as low performance. Many actors seek to reinvigorate democracy with citizen participation and deliberation. CAs are expected to have the potential to meet this twofold objective. But, despite deliberative and inclusive qualities of CAs, many questions remain open. The increasing popularity of CAs call for a holistic reflection and evaluation on their origins, current uses and future directions. The De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies showcases the state of the art around the study of CAs and opens novel perspectives informed by multidisciplinary research and renewed thinking about deliberative participatory processes. It discusses the latest theoretical, empirical, and methodological scientific developments on CAs and offers a unique resource for scholars, decision-makers, practitioners, and curious citizens to better understand the qualities, purposes, promises but also pitfalls of CAs.