ABSTRACT

Federal change in Austria was in the centralist direction; in Belgium it has followed a decentralist path. For many years, the two main linguistic/cultural communities of Flemings and Francophones inhabited the unitary constitutional shell of Belgium. However, over the past forty years the unitary Belgian state has federalized its institutions through successive state reforms, eventually leading to a constitutional revision formalizing its federal character in 1993. The process of federalization has permeated all spheres of political activity, but the particular focus of this chapter is on the institutional changes within education and mass media. Nationwide systems in these two policy areas were gradually replaced by Flemish and Francophone halves.1 The aim of this chapter is to trace this process of federalization.