Belgian System Research Articles

Flexicurity in Bismarckian Countries? Old Age Protection for Non-standard Workers in Belgium

In the debate on ‘flexicurity’, relatively little attention has been paid to how responsive traditional areas of social security have been to increasing flexibility in the labour market. This article tries to fill this gap by focusing on the Belgian pension system. In particular, it asks to what extent pension regulation in the three pillars has been adapted to the proliferation of atypical forms of employment. It does so by examining whether there are significant differences between old age protection of standard and non-standard workers. The article pursues a double research strategy: an analysis of Belgian legislation and relevant collective labour agreements is complemented with a statistical analysis of the Panel Study of Belgian Households (PSBH). The results show that part-time employment results in a lower first-pillar pension, while other forms of temporal flexibility such as career interruptions and temporary unemployment do not. In the second pillar, our findings suggest that workers with contractual flexibility and job mobility are discriminated against. Finally, non-standard workers do not appear to compensate for lower pension protection through increased participation in the third pension pillar. Our findings suggest the need for a re-assessment of the system of ‘assimilated’ periods. To conclude, we point to some implications for the design of flexicurity policies.

The politics of Belgium: Institutions and policy under bipolar and centrifugal federalism

This volume seeks to provide an integrated understanding of the Belgian political system through the prism of comparative politics. The transformation of the political system from a unitary into a federal system is used as a connecting theme linking the contributions. The volume is divided in two parts. The first part touches upon the sociological and institutional determinants of policy-making in Belgium, such as the dynamics of the Belgian federal system, the consociational features of the Belgian polity, the presence of a Belgian political culture (or of two distinct political cultures), the fragmentation of its party system and the role of political parties. The second part addresses policy performance and policy reform within the context of Belgian federalism, with a focus on divergence in policy performance and administrative practices, social security as a contentious federal policy area, policy failure and corruption and the impact of EU policies on the domestic federal order.

Party system(s) and electoral behaviour in Belgium: From stability to balkanisation

Belgium has one of the most fragmented party systems of any modern democracy. This article asks the following questions: is party fragmentation linked to the importance of the ethno-regionalist vote or to the rules of the electoral system? Has party fragmentation also produced centrifugal or polarised multipartyism (between the regions, but also within Flanders, given the spectacular rise of the Vlaams Blok)? What explains the difference in party fragmentation between Flanders and Wallonia? What are the dimensions of party competition in each community and what are the socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics of the different electorates? Which steps have the political elites taken to cope with the increasing fragmentation of the party landscape and growing voter volatility? To what extent has the increasing divergence between the regional party systems led to the building of asymmetrical coalitions at the federal and regional levels of government? The splitting of the Belgian party system into two, albeit still fragmented, party systems has further complicated the problems of coordination within a polarised, multi-cleavage and multilevel system that seriously undermines the stability of the entire political system.

‘Will it stay or will it go?’ Federalism and the sustainability of Belgium

This article provides an overview of the federalisation of Belgium. It first discusses why Belgium acquired a federal character when the politics of the centre already recognised the multilingual character of the Belgian state. Subsequently the authors discuss the specificities of the Belgian federal system when it is placed in a comparative perspective. The presence of two different types of regions – Regions and Communities – the steering capacity of a small group of political elites reluctant to give up political control, the presence of institutional asymmetries, the initially dual nature of dividing competencies and the slow development of intergovernmental relations are highlighted as specific features of Belgian federalism. In the final section, the authors assess the assets and liabilities of federalism from the viewpoint of institutional stability. They argue that while Belgian federalism contains significant institutional shock absorbers and issues of common interest, the further unravelling of the centre in a confederal direction is more likely.

How to Maintain the Quality of Laparoscopic Surgery in the Era of Lack of Hands ?

Lack of personnel in the operating rooms is not a future problem, it is today’s reality in many hospitals throughout the OECD countries. As studies anticipate that this situation will not change overnight (1), the issue of the quality of surgery within this new environment needs to be addressed on short notice. The problem is even more critical for laparoscopic surgeons, who have enjoyed proportionally more assistance since the emergence of minimally invasive surgery.After analyzing the tasks performed by OR assistants and nurses, we have looked at available techniques and tools (2) that could help laparoscopic surgeons, using the following criteria to assess their benefits: capability to address the shortage of assistance, impact on quality of surgery, economic affordability within the existing Belgian healthcare system.

De kruistocht tegen de slechte cinema. Over de aanloop en de start van de Belgische filmkeuring (1912-1929)

During the 1920s Belgium constrained the freedom of its film industry by setting up a Board of Film Classification as did many other western countries. The Belgian system however differed from the usual systems of film classification in the sense that politicians tried to avoid any kind of actual film censorship. The result was a system of voluntary film classification that placed films in one of two categories: either suitable for children or for adults (16 plus) only. Non-classified films automatically gained the label 'adults only'. It took eight years and numerous debates at all political levels to come up with a solution that could satisfy the moral guardians of Belgian society its politicians and those who distributed and showed the films all at the same time. Despite this the law was to be debated and contested by all of these groups in<br /> the subsequent years. The authors describe the eight years of campaign against the cinema and the debate that preceded the completion and enactment of the Belgian law on film classification. They follow this with an analysis of the decisions made by the classification board during the first nine years of its existence. In spite of the liberal principles that underlie the law the Belgian film classification board was soon acting as a board of censors demanding cuts in more than a third of the films that it classified mainly on the basis of portrayals of violence crime sex adultery and suicide.

Attitude of a group of Belgian stakeholders towards proposed agricultural countermeasures after a radioactive contamination: synthesis of the discussions within the Belgian EC-FARMING group

In the case of radioactive contamination of the environment with an impact on the food chain, the remediation strategy will not only be based on scientific knowledge and technical experience, but will also be dictated by peculiarities of the country. These characteristics include the agro-industrial structure, the local and international economical contexts and the political configuration including the distribution of responsibilities and competencies. This paper identifies and illustrates the most relevant characteristics of the Belgian agricultural system and political environment; it also describes the past experience with food chain contamination, which is expected to influence the attitude of Belgian stakeholders, who would be involved in the setting up of countermeasure strategies for maintaining agricultural production and food safety. The picture drawn explains why several countermeasures aiming to reduce the contamination in food products, although scientifically sound and technically feasible, are hardly acceptable or even not acceptable at all, to the stakeholders.

A Half Century of Trade Union Membership. The Cyclical Macro-Determinants of Postwar Union Growth in Belgium

Based on the seminal contribution of Bain and Elsheikh, this article explains the ebb and flow in trade union membership in Belgium from 1948 to 1995. With only four explanatory variables, the model clarifies more than 75 per cent of the fluctuations in Belgian trade union membership. The results show that rises in inflation, real wages and, due to the Ghent system, unemployment have a positive impact on unionization. Although there is an enforcement effect, a saturation effect takes over, indicating that further union growth is hampered by the union's own size. Mainly due to the 'Allgemeinkoalitionsfähighkeit' of the Belgian government system, the impact of leftist parties on unionization is not significant in a quantitative framework.

Indicators of Social Quality

In presenting social quality indicators for Belgium, we have confined our selves to explaining the national situation concerning these indicators with out reflecting on the theory of social quality itself or the broader theoretical framework. When considering social quality from a Belgian perspective, it is important to keep the national context in mind and this is covered in Part 1 of this article. Part II focuses on the outcomes of social quality indicators, with the findings presented by domain, rather than by component (securi ty, cohesion, inclusion, empowerment). An example of good practice in the context of social quality is provided in Part III, illustrating how the Belgian system of individual work time reduction embodies elements of each of the four components. Finally, we conclude this article by illustrating how Belgium performs in terms of social quality.

EU Policy-Making in Federal States: The Case of Belgium

By taking several EU directives as case studies, this article first evaluates the Belgian coordination system at the domestic and EU level and then examines the extent to which the state achieved its policy objectives at the EU level on the particular directives. The article indicates that despite the inherent difficulties and inefficiencies of the Belgian coordination system, this had no effect on the ability of the state to achieve its policy objectives at the EU level. In fact, it was other non-organizational factors that determined the extent to which Belgium was successful or not at the EU level. This challenges the conventional wisdom of scholars in the field of policy coordination who argue that there is a direct link between the internal organization of a state and its ability to achieve its objectives at the EU level. It also raises questions on the validity of the neo-institutionalist perspective which posits that efficient institutions do matter as far as the attainment of a state's policy objectives.

The Fragility of Law: Anti-Jewish Decrees, Constitutional Patriotism, and Collaboration Belgium 1940–1944

In October and November 1940, the German Military Command which ruled conquered Belgium, introduced a series of measures aimed at the identification and exclusion of the Jews of that country. The Belgian government of the day refused to allow the measures to be incorporated into Belgian law, but did permit, under their reading of the Hague Convention, government departments and local administrations to assist in implementing the German anti-Jewish Decrees. The Brussels Bar, Prosecutors and Court of Cassation refused to accept the authority of the Occupier to violate basic rights guaranteed under the Belgian Constitution. Officials in Antwerp, on the other hand, struck all lawyers identified as "Jews" from the Roll. This article examines these instances of "constitutional patriotism" and "constitutional betrayal" by these actors in the Belgian legal system, and offers some preliminary discussion of important questions about our historical and current understandings of legality, legitimacy and citizenship in light of this part of the Belgian experience of law under Nazi occupation.

Up, Close and Personal: The Discursive Transformation of Judicial Politics in Post-Dutroux Belgium

Ending the influence which politicalparties exercised over judicial appointmentswas a prominent aim of the project of reformingthe Belgian criminal justice system in the1990s. However, focusing on various highprofile scandals affecting public confidence inthe judiciary, this paper questions whether thepolitical nature of the judiciary is capable ofbeing eradicated. Drawing on the work ofChantal Mouffe, this analysis starts with aconsideration of the discursive element inpolitical identity, which is furthercorroborated by the semiotics of Saussure andGreimas. Applying this perspective to theBelgian situation in the 1990s, it is arguedthat a redefinition of politics in terms of an``us/them'' divide between citizens andinstitutions took place. In this process,judges were targeted as part of theestablishment and cast as the constitutiveoutside buttressing the collectiveidentification between the media, victims ofcrime and the general public. In explaining theinstitutional gap, individual traits of judgesconstituted a significant focus, as can beshown through the extraordinary visibility ofone judge who courted media attention when hewas tried for sadomasochistic activities in1997.

Globalisation versus relations industrielles « à la belge » ?

The article deals with current developments in industrial relation – traditionally organized within a national framework –, in the context of growing globalization. More precisely, it examines what happens to the Belgian system of industrial relations confronted to globalization. The paper first sums up the main challenges that globalization represents for national industrial relations systems. Second, it looks to those systems and refers to recent research to show how they keep their national specificity even though they are not static. They face external pressures but react with their own specific dynamics. Applied to the Belgian case, that means that the industrial relations system does not copy a foreign model nor follows an European standard. On the contrary, it remains characterized by a high level of institutionalisation, a high degree of internal co-ordination and a significant rate of union affiliation. In sum, the industrial relations « a la belge» keep their characteristics, while they integrate cross-national movements. Finally, the paper examines the specific case of multinational companies, in which interdependencies between global trends and local institutional conditions are frequent. Based on exploratory research conducted in Belgian subsidiaries of foreign groups in the chemical industry, it illustrates the complex interactions between local industrial relations and decision-making at the top of the multinational company. As such, multinationals materialize interdependencies between local and global levels. The two levels are intricate and their interactions result in local adjustments under constraints.

Le modèle des « insiders-outsiders » : entre théorie et pratiques

The paper first attempts to present the insider-outsider theory. The Belgian system of wage bargaining is highlighted in the second section. The third section compiles some empirical studies on this issue. The findings do not allow us to conclude that the insider-outsider theory works. Some countries with decentralized systems of bargaining, especially the U.S., achieve results close to ‘corporatiste’ countries. Wage in countries with centralized bargaining are more responsive to unemployment than in some countries where wage bargaining is decentralized. The ‘corporatiste’ countries do not seem to systematically get poorer economic results. The Calmfors and Driffill model with a U shaped relation between employment and bargaining level does not have much empirical support according to an OECD study. The main significant result is the clear relationship between centralization of bargaining and reduction of wage inequality. The outsiders also share this last objective.

Occupational accidents in education

In order to gain a good understanding of the current occupational accident regulations, it is important to place their origins within a historical perspective. Prior to the enactment of the Law on Occupational Accidents in 1903, the victims of an occupational accident were faced with a heavy burden of proof. In accordance with the articles 1382 and 1384 section three of the Civil Code, the victim had to provide proof of an error, the extent of the damage and the causal relationship between these two elements. The Law of 24 December 1903 introduced the “theory of occupational risk”. Occupational accidents – and later occupational diseases as well – are regarded as inevitably linked to the enterprise. The compensation for them is considered a charge of the companies, which they must factor into their production costs. On the one hand, the burden of proof is considerably relieved, as an error must no longer be proved. In fact, generally speaking, the opposite is the case: an error – even a gross error – on the part of the victim does not disqualify him from the protection of the occupational accident legislation (cf. infra, Chapter 3). On the other hand, at the same time, the victims or their survivors only had recourse to a fixed system of compensation, which is still characteristic of the occupational accident regulations in their current form. This means that only certain forms of damage are eligible for compensation and even then, only in the form of a fixed fee, so that – in contrast to civil law – the full damages are not compensated (cf. infra, Chapter 4). Only much later were specific occupational accident regulations created for public servants.1 The grounds for these were the subject of the Law of 3 July 1967 concerning the prevention of or the compensation for occupational accidents, for accidents on the way to and from work and for occupational illnesses in the public sector. This law is further executed by various Royal Decrees (cf. infra, Chapter 2). The Law on Occupational Accidents of 10 April 1971, which currently forms the basis for the occupational accident regulations in the private sector, cancelled the earlier Law of 1903. The basic philosophy, however, went unchanged. Given that the regulations for professional risk in Belgium are the product of a long tradition and because private insurers have an interest in maintaining separate occupational accident regulations, none of the proposals to do away with this distinction regarding illness and disablement has been successful. This forms an important difference between the Belgian system and those of most of the surrounding countries.

Nonparametric Frontier Model as a Tool for Exploratory Analysis of Hospital Stays

Diagnosis-related groups (DRG) were introduced in 1995 to the Belgian hospital financing system. Trimming rules are generally used when mean length of stay (LOS) is estimated by DRG. This paper proposes the use of frontier models instead of trimming rules. These models allow to take into account the characteristics of the patients, to rank hospital stays, and to indicate stays presenting discrepancy between the patient's characteristics and the resources consumed. The analysis is done with the nonparametric Free Disposal Hull (FDH) model and the method developed by Wilson to detect extreme observations, when defining the frontier is adapted to analyze large databases.

Health Care Expenditure on Schizophrenia Patients in Belgium

Schizophrenia generates a great deal of cost and burden. The aim of this study was to assess the direct costs for schizophrenia patients receiving standard treatment in different settings in Belgium. Costs were calculated for patients and for the Belgian insurance system. Data from Belgium's largest sickness fund were used to estimate health expenditures for all schizophrenia patients in Belgium. The mean direct treatment cost was $12,050 per patient per year, or $304 million for all schizophrenia patients per year. This cost constitutes 1.9 percent of the Belgian Government's total health expenditure. Government expenditure per schizophrenia patient is 10 times that of an average citizen.

Mediation and Restorative Justice in Belgium

In this article we present, discuss and try to evaluate initiatives which were recently introduced into the Belgian criminal justice system, aimed at the development of creative answers to crime that avoid the use of traditional prison sentences. We decided to focus this analysis on the practice of mediation as it is actually considered the most innovative approach to the crime problem. Mediation as a problem-solving intervention has to be considered in direct relation to the discussion of the purpose of the criminal justice system. By putting the emphasis on the dialogue between the victim and the offender, a common solution is worked out with the help of a mediator. In this way reparation, redress and sometimes even reconciliation become core values of the penal action.

Is redistribution through indirect taxes equitable?

A move towards a non-uniform indirect tax structure may result in some vertical redistribution. It will also lead to a different treatment of households with the same total expenditures but with different preferences. To evaluate the social desirability of such rate differentiation we introduce a distinction between needs (for which individuals are not responsible) and tastes (for which they are). We show some empirical results for Belgium, obtained with the microsimulation program ASTER. In these calculations we compare the actual Belgian system of indirect taxes with a simpler structure with only two rates.

Criminal justice in transition: Some provisional notes on the crisis in the Belgian system

Criminal justice in transition: Some provisional notes on the crisis in the Belgian system