Identities or good governance : What shape citizens’ attitudes towards federalism in Belgium?

Hitherto identities have been one the main driving forces of the federal dynamics in Belgium and they have played an active role in the transformation of the country from a unitary state to a federal state. More recently, while discussions – and tensions – have been continuously very hot about the reform of the federal state, the autonomist discourse has been – at least to some extent – denationalized and the emphasis on identities has been replaced by a more rational discourse, i.e. a discourse of good governance. That is to say, the partisans of more autonomy for the regions make their case... Mehr ...