The Future of Belgian Federalism through the Eyes of the Citizens

The Future of Belgian Federalism is definitely a hot topic in Belgian politics but also in citizens’ daily life. Indeed, citizens do talk about it and wonder – and sometimes try to predict – how the future of Belgium will be. Yet, we only know their attitudes on this important topic through surveys either undertaken by the media or by social scientists. Thus far, no endeavour has been done to study thoroughly and qualitatively citizens’ preferences for the future of their country. In this paper, I propose to offer a first attempt of such an analysis relying on data collected in two small citizens’ panels about the future of Belgian federalism. These two deliberative events were held in Liege (French-speaking Belgium) in September 2007 and in Antwerp (Dutch-speaking Belgium) in October 2008 and gathered respectively 64 and 23 citizens from a variety of backgrounds. During one day, the participants talked about the future of Belgian federalism with fellow citizens in focus groups as well as with politicians and experts; in addition, they answered a pre- and a post-questionnaire.
Following Max Weber’s advice to construct ideal type as a way to apprehend the reality and to foster comparisons, types of citizens are constructed on the basis of the data collected in Liège and in Antwerp. While four types of French-speaking are drawn from the former – the unitarist, the unionist, the federalist, and the regionalist –, five emerge from the latter – the unitarist, the unionist, the federalist, the regionalist, and the separatist/independentist. These different types are defined in terms of the citizens’ perceptions and preferences as well as the congruence that followed the learning and deliberative process that occurred throughout the panel. Above all, the types can be compared within the panel and between the panels. In this fashion the future of Belgian federalism can be explored through the eyes of the citizens.