Editing Confederation (section)

===Belgium===
Many scholars have claimed that the [[Kingdom of Belgium]], a country with a complicated federal structure has adopted some characteristics of a confederation under the pressure of separatist movements, especially in [[Flanders]]. For example, C. E. Lagasse declared that Belgium was "near the political system of a Confederation" regarding the constitutional reform agreements between Belgian ''Regions'' and between ''Communities'',<ref>French ''Le confédéralisme n'est pas loin'' Charles-Etienne Lagasse, ''Les Nouvelles institutions politiques de la Belgique et de l'Europe'', Erasme, [[Namur]] 2003, p. 405 {{ISBN|2871277834}}</ref> and the director of the ''Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques'' (CRISP) [[Vincent de Coorebyter]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.crisp.be/UK/UK_index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203222600/http://www.crisp.be/UK/UK_index.html |url-status=dead |title=Belgian research center whose activities are devoted to the study of decision-making in Belgium and in Europe|archive-date=3 February 2007}}</ref> called Belgium "undoubtedly a federation...[with] some aspects of a confederation" in ''[[Le Soir]]''.<ref>French: "La Belgique est  (...) incontestablement, une fédération : il n'y a aucun doute  (...) Cela étant, la fédération belge possède d'ores et déjà des traits confédéraux qui en font un pays atypique, et qui encouragent apparemment certains responsables à réfléchir à des accommodements supplémentaires dans un cadre qui resterait, vaille que vaille, national." Vincent de Coorebyter "La Belgique (con)fédérale" in [[Le Soir]] 24 June 2008</ref> Also in ''Le Soir'', Michel Quévit of the [[Université catholique de Louvain|Catholic University of Louvain]] wrote that the "Belgian political system is already in dynamics of a Confederation".<ref>French: ''Le système institutionnel belge est déjà inscrit dans une dynamique de type cs'', [[Le Soir]], 19 September 2008</ref><ref>Robert Deschamps, Michel Quévit, Robert Tollet, "Vers une réforme de type confédéral de l'État belge dans le cadre du maintien de l'union monétaire," in ''Wallonie 84'', n°2, pp. 95-111</ref>

Nevertheless, the Belgian regions and the linguistic communities do not have the autonomy to leave the Belgian state. As such, federal aspects still dominate. Also, for fiscal policy and public finances, the federal state dominates the other levels of government.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

The increasingly-confederal aspects of the Belgian Federal State appear to be a political reflection of the profound cultural, sociological and economic differences between the ''Flemish'' (Belgians who speak Dutch or Dutch dialects) and the ''Walloons'' (Belgians who speak French or French dialects).<ref>Le petit Larousse 2013 p1247</ref> For example, in the last several decades, over 95% of Belgians have voted for political parties that represent voters from only one community, the separatist [[New Flemish Alliance|N-VA]] being the party with the most voter support among the Flemish population. Parties that strongly advocate Belgian unity and appeal to voters of both communities usually play only a marginal role in nationwide general elections. The system in Belgium is known as [[consociationalism]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wolff|first1=Stefan|title=Disputed Territories: The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict Settlement|date=2004 |publisher=Berghahn Books|pages=30–31| isbn=978-1571817181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYTKZ0z6QygC}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wippman|first1=David|editor1-last=Wippman|editor1-first=David|title=International Law and Ethnic Conflict|date=1998|publisher=Cornell University Press|page=220|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uy1CCqO6qUIC|chapter=Practical and Legal Constraints on Internal Power Sharing| isbn=978-0801434334 }}</ref>

That makes Belgium fundamentally different from federal countries like [[Switzerland]], [[Canada]], [[Germany]] and [[Australia]]. National parties receive over 90% of voter support in those countries. The only geographical areas comparable with Belgium within Europe are [[Catalonia]], the [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]] (both part of [[Spain]]), [[Northern Ireland]] and [[Scotland]] (both part of the [[United Kingdom]]) and parts of [[Italy]], where a massive voter turnout for regional (and often separatist) political parties has become the rule in the last decades, and nationwide parties advocating national unity draw around half or sometimes less of the votes.