ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the impact of the decolonization process on what could be called the Belgian power structure, that is to say, the specific type of equilibrium between social and political forces which is a feature of that country and also has economic roots. As far as metropolitan public opinion was concerned, there was a complex evolution, through the decolonization crisis, into an understanding of Third World problems, perhaps different from other Western countries. In short, its control of colonial affairs meant that the traditional right, mainly francophone, Catholic and Unitarian, could maintain a dominating influence in Belgium, far greater than otherwise would have been the case. In Belgium it had taken almost half a century for that dominance to give way to developing popular movements. The loss of the colony, as a field of exclusive power, thus contributed to curtailing the influence of that social group inside Belgium during the sixties.
