The federal dynamics in Belgium: the points of views of political parties and their members

The changing dynamics and trajectories of power sharing and distribution within a federation is a crucial issue in the study of federalism. In this regard, the study of political actors' positions and the underlying frames justifying the distribution of competences within federal states are essential to understanding the dynamics shaping the transformation and evolution of federations. In Belgium, the dynamics underlying the transfer of competencies between the federal and federated levels is a particularly relevant key to understanding the evolution of federalism. Indeed, while historically the dynamic was that of a de-federalization of competencies. However, since some years, voices are being raised in favor of a re-federalization (from the federated level to the federal level) of certain competencies. The aim of this paper is a longitudinal analysis of the positions of the political actors and in particular the frames that they mobilize to justify these transfers of competences through the constraints, possibilities, and conditions within the Belgian federal system. The frame and longitudinal analysis are carried out on the electoral manifestos of Belgian political parties, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, on the interventions of political elites in the written press from the early 2000s until today.