Routledge Belgian Exceptionalism: Belgian Politics between Realism and Surrealism (Routledge Advances in European Politics)

This book takes stock of Belgium’s exceptional and – for some foreign observers –schizophrenic position in the political world and explains its idiosyncrasy to a non-Belgian audience. Offering a broad and comprehensive analysis of Belgian politics, the guiding questions throughout each of the chapters of this book are: Is Belgium a political enigma, and why? Along which axes is Belgium "exceptional" compared to other countries? And what insights does a comparative study of Belgian politics have to offer? The book therefore provides a critical assessment of how Belgian politics "stands out" internationally, both in good and bad ways – including consociationalism, federalism, democratic innovations, Euroscepticism, government formation, gender equality, among others – and which factors can explain Belgium’s exceptional position. Based on cutting-edge research findings, the book will be of wide interest to scholars and students of Belgian politics, European Politics and Comparative politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Review "The Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte wrote, "This is not a pipe", under his famous painting of a pipe. One might also write, "This is not a country", under a picture of Belgium, playing like Magritte, little games with the eyes of the beholder. The picture of Belgium that is drawn in this book is, however, not an exercise in irony, but a first-rate analysis of the country and its sometimes puzzling and intriguing political institutions and practices. Belgium does combine a number of features that makes it at first sight quite unique and maybe impossible, but the solid political science presented by the contributions in this book explains convincingly why and how this is a real country indeed." Kris Deschouwer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. About the Author Didier Caluwaerts is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Min Reuchamps is Professor of Political Science at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium.