How does Support for Belgian Federalism differ between Flanders and Wallonia? (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, grade: 16/20, University of Antwerp, course: Federalism, language: English, abstract: In literature, Easton's conception of diffuse support is a key concept in evaluating the institutional design and structural mechanisms of a political system based on citizen attitudes. Nevertheless, diffuse support as a concept remains a challenge to operationalise. The political system of Belgian federalism, as such, would be served with a custom measure of diffuse support.

The federal system in Belgium is praised by political scientists for its consensus-building mechanisms to appease political conflicts between the regions and language communities, yet the cultural and political separateness between Flanders and Wallonia still remains. Considering the seeming lack of agreement between political elites and difficult decision-making in recent Belgian history and the federal elections of 2019 having the most volatile electoral outcomes in long time, a study examining the level of support Belgian citizens have towards the Belgian federal system and how diffuse support is potentially affected by the regional separateness would be relevant. By constructing a model step-by-step with support for the division of competences between the federal and regional levels as an indicator for diffuse support and several other predictors of political attitudes, we demonstrate that levels of support for the division of competences is significantly lower in Flanders, although levels of support still are appropriate in both regions. Albeit, we did not succeed in determining our measure of support for division of competences being a valid indicator for diffuse support.