Abstract
Belgium is usually described in the political literature as a paradigmatic example of consensual (power-sharing) democracy (Lijphart, 1999). Belgian society is divided along three cleavages lines, initially religious and later socio-economic and linguistic, that structure both political parties (three-party system expanding in the 1960s to regionalist parties1) and pillar organisations. The country has a parliamentary polity. Proportional representation was introduced in 1899. The linguistic cleavage, in particular, coupled with a shift in the economic dominance from Wallonia to Flanders, led to major institutional transformations that partially explain the current divergence in regional institutional water regimes.
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Aubin, D., Varone, F. (2004). The Evolution of the Water Regimes in Belgium. In: Kissling-Näf, I., Kuks, S. (eds) The Evolution of National Water Regimes in Europe. Environment & Policy, vol 40. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2484-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2484-9_5
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