ABSTRACT
Belgium is often referred to as a partitocracy, that is, a political system where political parties play a chief role in most aspects of political life. This chapter presents the main political parties in Belgium. It first describes the origins and further development of each of the political parties and party families. Next, it looks at how parties organize, as well as at the very important position of party leader(s) (typically referred to as ‘president’) and at the (declining) party membership. It concludes with a discussion of the way in which parties have secured a large amount of financial support from the state.
