Politics in Belgium from 1830 until 2025

Introduction

Chapter I - The Beginnings of the Belgian State

    A territory under trusteeship

    The union of the Northern and Southern provinces

    The advent of Belgium

Chapter II - 1830-1893: From Unionism to Bipartisan Confrontation, Liberals vs Catholics

    Unionism

        A striking industrial and economic development

        Asymmetrical unionism

    Catholics vs Liberals

        Liberal crystallisation

        Building the Catholic Party

    The language issue: the beginnings of the centre-periphery cleavage

Chapter III - 1893-1918: The Birth of a Multi-Party System

    The crystallisation of the socio-economic cleavage

    The rise of the socialist world: the Belgian Workers' Party - (Parti ouvrier belge-Belgische Werkliedenpartij, POB-BWP)

    Opening up the political system: the advent of universal male suffrage with plural voting

    1894: a political turning point

    The advent of proportional representation

    The beginnings of pillarisation in Belgium

        Changing the world: the socialist pillar

        At the service of God and His people: the Catholic pillar

    Shattering the absolute majority: the final convulsions of Catholic dominance

    Belgium, a colonial power

    The 1914-1918 war and its consequences

Chapter IV - 1919-1946: The Fall of the Catholic Party Hegemony and the Rise of a New Kind of Multiparty System

    Belgium's evolving status in post-World War I international relations

    Redefining industrial relations

    Towards linguistic equality?

    Changes in political life

        The development of the socialist pillar

        A new challenger: the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-KPB)

        Farewell to Catholic hegemony

        The rise of the Flemish political movement: from the Frontpartij to the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV)

        Rediscovering Christ the King? The brief rise of Rex

        The new status of Belgian liberalism: a 'support’ party for Catholics

    Pre-war turmoil

Chapter V - 1944-1961: Fifteen Years of a Two-and-Half-Party System

    Is change always pursued for its intrinsic value?

        Changes in the social security system

        From the Catholic Bloc to the Parti social-chrétien-Christelijke Volkspartij (Social Christian Party)

        The aborted experiment of the Belgian Democratic Union

        From the Workers’ Party to the Belgian Socialist Party

        The Communist Party’s short-lived heyday

        The Liberal Party’s new role

    A long history of philosophical polarisation: from the Royal Question to the school wars

        The Royal Question

        Ruthless school wars

    The end of a colonial power

Chapter VI - The New Openness of the Party System

    The new salience of the socio-economic and linguistic cleavages

        From the winter strike of 1960-1961 to Flemish socio-economic predominance

        Two main languages, two countries?

    Liberal realignment: building a conservative party

    A delicate transition for the socialist movement

    The emergence of regional parties in Belgium: the Volksunie, the FDF, and the Rassemblement wallon

        From the Vlaamse Concentratie to the Volksunie

        From the PWT to the Rassemblement wallon

        Building the FDF

    Further broadening of the party system

        Communist schism and new demands

    Challenging a traditional pattern

        The 'Leuven Affair’, or the breakup of the PSC-CVP

        The implosion of the Liberal Family

        The new socialist path: uniting progressives?

    The first state reform

        Dissolution of the Rassemblement wallon

    From the failure of the Egmont Pact to the laws of August 1980

        The Volksunie is in turmoil

    Surfing the neoliberal wave

        Liberal comeback in the spotlight

        A Social Christian family under stress

    Further decentralisation: the long labour of the third reform of the state

        Socialist reorientation

    New cleavages, newcomers

        The short-lived UDRT-RAD

        The upsurge of green parties: Ecolo and Agalev

        Belgium through the prism of the new Radical Right

    Farewell to the Communist Party

    The existential questions of the Volksunie

    Repositioning the FDF

    The advent of federalism and the painful 1990s in Belgium

Chapter VII - Extreme Fragmentation, Extreme Governing Difficulty

    1999: a new rupture-election

    From missed opportunity to divine surprise: the evolution of the Flemish liberalism in the 1990s

    The foundations of a long-anticipated new era: the Francophone liberals

    An affected Social Christian world

    From heaven to hell? Socialists facing challenges

    The greens in government at last

    Major advances in new generation rights

    A fifth state reform

    Tribulations of Flemish political nationalism

    Mirage of bipolarism, explosion of multipartyism

    Farewell to Flemish political Catholicism?

        A sixth state reform by force

    The rise of a national, ethnocentric, and conservative party: the N-VA

        The false promise of Spirit

        The failure of the liberal sorpasso

    Vlaams Belang, like a phoenix

    The brief Dedecker phenomenon

    From sp.a to Vooruit: in search of lost socialism

    Flemish greens hit the glass ceiling: from Agalev to Groen

    Parti socialiste: farewell to dominance

    Ecolo: off the rollercoaster

    MR: the quest for the top spot

    DéFI: in search of an identity

    Failing of the French-speaking Radical Right

        The elusive horizon of the Parti populaire

    The uncertain future of the Centre démocrate humaniste and the surge of Les Engagés

    Radical Left resurgence: PTB-PVDA back in the game

Chapter VII - Contemporary Changes in the Regime and Political System

    The fragmentation of the political system in Belgium

    Changes in electoral behaviour

    Institutional constraints

        The law on the state funding of political parties

        Repeated changes in electoral law

        The road to parity and diversity

    The federal state, changes in parliamentary representation, and the impact on parties

        A stalled negotiation process

        Party leaders, more and less powerful

        A new type of party: organisational changes in the world of political parties

        Changes in institutional constraints

        Personalisation and acceleration of communication time

    The diminishing role of monarchy

Bibliography