The Dynamics of Federalism: Belgium and Switzerland Compared

In recent years, several countries have moved to a more federal state structure. In particular in Europe, regional decision-making is on the rise. In order to evaluate these dynamics, this paper looks into the cases of Belgium and Switzerland. Both countries share a large number of characteristics, but have witnessed moves in opposite directions regarding the decentralization of decision-making powers. Whereas Belgium has increasingly hollowed out its central decision-making, Switzerland’s regional powers have transferred more competences to the central level. This paper argues that these differing dynamics are the result of socio-economic variables. In particular, the decision to (de)centralize is the result of a trade-off between heterogeneity of preferences, and economics of scale. The former has been increasing in Belgium, resulting in more decentralization, while the latter has pushed the Swiss cantons to centralize more competences.