ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the material rewards for national politicians and civil servants in Belgium. Until the mid-nineties, the developments of the structure and level of these rewards were relatively stable, reflecting the professionalization of both classes, as well as a persistent uneasiness with the transparency of rewards. Since the mid-nineties, two major changes took place. First, MPs adapted their reward structure in an effort to remove recurrent controversies. Second, top civil servants in the Federal Administration took a premium when a Belgian translation of the New Public Management (NPM) doctrine radically changed the status and rewards of the top rank of the administration. Both of these changes comply with cross-nationally observed trends, where pay for ethics schemes for politicians seek to rebuke allegations of sleaze, and marketization increases top civil servants’ salaries to a level that is competitive with private sector managerial positions. Yet, the translations of these trends should not be taken at face value. The Belgian MPs’ move to transparency was highly ambiguous, reflecting a reconciliation of income protection for everyone with diverse political principles of parliamentary pay. The premium for top civil servants from NPM, in turn, suffered a severe political backlash, demonstrating the partisan translation of global public sector reform in a national context.