Nicolas Bouteca

The Future of Belgian Federalism as Seen Through the Eyes of the Social Partners: A Continuing Obstacle to Social Policy Decentralization?

In this article, we take a look at the discussion on the devolution of social policy. Despite the pressure of strong nationalist movements to decentralize socio-economic matters, the federal welfare state does not erode. In their study up to the early 2000s, Béland and Lecours explain this relative standstill by pointing to the institutionalization of neo-corporatistic organizations. These organizations, which are strongly involved in the management of the welfare state, have not split along language lines and prevent the decentralization of socio-economic policies in order to preserve their power. Based on empirical evidence, this paper shows that federal social partners are an important obstacle to social policy decentralization in Belgium while the regional social partners have differing opinions on the devolution debate.

The Process of Rescaling Interests in the Belgian Context: The Impact of Regional Governmental Strength

Abstract To what extent do interest groups adapt to a changing institutional environment? That is the central question of this article. Keating [2014. Introduction: rescaling interests, Territory, Politics, Governance 2(3)] distinguishes three drivers that can force interest groups to rescale: a functional, an identitarian and an institutional driver. The focus of this article is on the last driver of rescaling and on the assumption that interest groups increasingly operate on a regional scale when regional governments acquire more power. This ‘isomorphism hypothesis’ is tested by analysing the adaptation of the principal labour and business groups in Belgium. We found that in Belgium, this hypothesis only accounts for a number of cases. The Belgian rescaling process is not only the result of institutional changes but also a response to economic differences between Flanders and Wallonia, as well as to the increasing salience of the language cleavage. Groups were rescaling even before the gradual federalization of the state started, but federalization has accentuated this process.