High politics in the Low Countries: COVID-19 and the politics of strained multi-level policy cooperation in Belgium and the Netherlands

COVID-19 presented Europe with an, in many respects, unprecedented challenge. While the virus proved itself to be transnational in nature, not taking heed of borders, government responses were largely national. Still, governments soon found themselves engaged in complex multi-level policy cooperation at the national, subnational, and supranational levels. This paper looks at the crisis response in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) to understand the impact of this process on the political system. We argue that efficient multi-level policy cooperation in both countries has run up against the limits of existing institutions, leading to significant political grievances. In Belgium, slow negotiation between the central and regional governments has put the federal system in question. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, the absence of European institutions tasked with fiscal policy coordination has increased the salience of the EU fiscal sphere once again

Sortition, its advocates and its critics: an empirical analysis of citizens' and MPs' support for random selection as a democratic reform proposal

This article explores the prospects of an increasingly debated democratic reform: assigning political offices by lot. While this idea is advocated by political theorists and politicians in favour of participatory and deliberative democracy, the article investigates the extent to which citizens and MPs actually endorse different variants of 'sortition'. We test for differences among respondents' social status, disaffection with elections and political ideology. Our findings suggest that MPs are largely opposed to sortitioning political offices when their decision-making power is more than consultative, although leftist MPs tend to be in favour of mixed assemblies (involving elected and sortitioned members). Among citizens, random selection seems to appeal above all to disaffected individuals with a lower social status. The article ends with a discussion of the political prospects of sortition being introduced as a democratic reform.Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

Institutionalising citizen deliberation in Parliament: the permanent citizens' dialogue in the German-speaking community of Belgium

In recent years, an increasing number of scholars and politicians have called for institutionalising deliberative citizen participation within Parliaments. The Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium has paved the way in this direction by institutionalising a permanent deliberative citizen assembly that is directly linked to the parliamentary process. It consists in a permanent Citizens' Council drawn by lot, which can initiate Citizens' Assemblies, also drawn by lot, whose mission is to deliberate and formulate recommendations on the subject that the Citizens' Council had submitted to them. At the end of the deliberations, the recommendations are discussed in a joint committee between the members of the Citizens' Assembly, elected representatives and the minister in charge. The latter two then need to indicate whether and how the recommendations will be implemented by parliamentary or governmental measures-with rejections requiring specific justification. This article analyses how such a far-reaching process of citizen participation and deliberation became introduced at the core of the parliamentary institution and what are its features.Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

Assemblée permanente

Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

Institutionalising citizen deliberation in Parliament: the permanent citizens' dialogue in the German-speaking community of Belgium

In recent years, an increasing number of scholars and politicians have called for institutionalising deliberative citizen participation within Parliaments. The Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium has paved the way in this direction by institutionalising a permanent deliberative citizen assembly that is directly linked to the parliamentary process. It consists in a permanent Citizens' Council drawn by lot, which can initiate Citizens' Assemblies, also drawn by lot, whose mission is to deliberate and formulate recommendations on the subject that the Citizens' Council had submitted to them. At the end of the deliberations, the recommendations are discussed in a joint committee between the members of the Citizens' Assembly, elected representatives and the minister in charge. The latter two then need to indicate whether and how the recommendations will be implemented by parliamentary or governmental measures-with rejections requiring specific justification. This article analyses how such a far-reaching process of citizen participation and deliberation became introduced at the core of the parliamentary institution and what are its features

Kering richting herfederalisering zet zich door: onderzoek naar de institutionele voorkeuren van de Belgische parlementsleden

Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

Identités et préférences des parlementaires envers le fédéralisme belge à l’aube d’une septième réforme de l’État

Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

Identités et préférences des parlementaires envers le fédéralisme belge à l’aube d’une septième réforme de l’État

Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou