ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to explain the rise of minipublics in Belgium, and describes the state of minipublics to identify what makes Belgium exceptional. For decades, Belgium has been described as a copybook example of a consociational State. The selection criteria, including a minipublic in the database, were threefold: participants should be randomly selected, the participatory process must feature a deliberative dimension, and participants must exclusively be inhabitants of Belgium. The chapter distinguishes two variables: the level of government of a minipublic’s initiator and the level of authority to which the minipublic’s issue relates. When one looks at the evolution of minipublics in Belgium, there are two phases: First phase between 2001 and 2016, and second phase between 2017 and 2019. There are also organizations, like the Burgerlobby, that advocate for the institutionalization of minipublics and the end of the Belgian coalition system.
