Policy analysis by academics

Through their policy relevant research outputs and integration in policy networks, Belgian academics ‘speak truth to power’ (Wildavsky 1979) or ‘make sense together’ (Hoppe 1999) in political and public debates about policy problems and options. At the turn of the millennium, the federal and regional governments have moved to institutionalizing policy relevant research in what are called interuniversity research pillars, and middle to long term research programmes, thematically organised along the priorities decided by the respective governments. Next to these structural interfaces, there are other access points for academics to bring their expertise to policy-making. Sectoral academic experts maintain multiple relationships with knowledge brokers. They are welcome guests in opinion sections of the written and spoken media and hold positions in the strategic advisory bodies of different governments. Several of them are also active in think tanks, or act themselves as consultants in commercial university spin-offs. This chapter analyses the structural and individual access of academics to policy-making in Belgium. The empirical material is based upon documents analysis and budget information, on a study of knowledge utilisation in labour market and education policies in Belgium, and on a recent survey on the impact of social science research on Flemish policy-makers.

The role of news media in the policy process in Belgium

In this chapter, the authors analyse the role of Belgian news media in policy-making. The chapter starts with a characterization of the Belgian media landscape, with its absence of ‘national’ media, a strong public service broadcast and an increasing degree of media concentration. Next, by analysing the ways in which the media report on and define issues, the chapter explores how the media are generators of knowledge, what their resources are, and what influence they have on decision-makers. What is the current role of the Belgian news media as policy players; how are policy problems framed; and what is their role as advocates, investigators and evaluators? To answer these questions, the authors rely on empirical research on Belgian media, agenda-setting, and framing.

Public consultation and participation in Belgium: directly engaging citizens beyond the ballot box?

In Belgium, as in many other countries, there is a growth of diverse types of public inquiries and public consultation arrangements in policy-making. The rationales behind these consultation processes differ as to perspectives on democracy. Some inquiries and consultations are conceived from an instrumental perspective from which it is believed that engaging citizens in policy analysis has something tangible to contribute, by for instance enriching knowledge of specific policy problems, or by fostering policy support necessary for implementing solutions. From a more substantive view on democracy, citizens’ inquiries are rooted in participative and deliberative democracy, and are expected to contribute to legitimacy. In this chapter, the authors analyze the variety of public inquiries and consultation arrangements in Belgium at different levels of government, with a view to clarifying the public’s role in policy making and policy analysis beyond the ballot box.

Policy analysis in the Belgian legislatures: the marginal role of a structurally weak parliament in a partitocracy with no scientific and political tradition of policy analysis

This chapter examines the formal existence and actual use of resources relevant for policy analysis that individual parliamentarians, parliamentary groups and the parliament, as a whole, have at their disposal in the federal House of Representatives, the Flemish and the Walloon parliament since the mid-1990s. The use and effectiveness of these comparatively meagre resources are strongly constrained by the structural need of majority MPs and groups to offer continuous and unconditional support to inherently unstable coalition governments composed of four to six parties.

Interest groups and policy analysis in Belgium: examining the policy-analytical capacities and practices of prominent citizen and economic groups

This chapter analyses the way in which interest groups acquire critical information and how they use this knowledge in their interaction with policymakers. The authors briefly introduce the Belgian system of interest representation, and clarify the (varying) role organized interests play in policymaking. Next, the “policy capacities” of a diverse set of prominent Belgian interest groups are analyzed. Here, the authors address how these groups organize to produce policy advice, and which actors supply them with critical information. The authors furthermore clarify their political activities, as well as discuss how these groups evaluate their policy work.

Policy analysis in the central and regional governments

This chapter analyses the locus and modus of in-house policy work in the Belgian central and regional government. First, it describes and explains differences in the way in which policy analytical roles within the department and agencies are organized. Second, it reviews the structures and procedures through which in-house policy analytical information is injected into the policy process. Thirdly, it comparatively analyses how Belgian governments have reorganized their policy work in response to the international professionalizing policy-making agenda, of which the main components are greater attention to evidence, evaluation, strategy, coordination, and consultation. The analysis draws upon two empirical sources. One is a recently conducted study on in-house policy work; the second is a survey, conducted in 2013, specifically designed for the contributions to this book.

Analytical techniques in Belgian policy analysis

This chapter analyses policy analytical methods in Belgian policy work. Government wide synoptic policy analytical tools have now and again attracted champions in Belgium’s governments. This was the case with PPBS in the late 1960s in the federal government, and with efficiency analysis and strategic planning in the 1990s in the Flemish government. Yet, they never survived the bureau-political games they engendered. At a lower level of ambition and within the dynamics of separate policy sectors, a plethora of formal analytical methods have been deployed, in both the ex ante and ex post stages of the policy cycle. These include quantitative methods such as cost-benefit-analysis and forecasting as well as qualitative methods such as Delphi, foresight, and impact analyses of different kinds. This chapter discusses the variation in formal analytical methods against the background of three trends: sectoral policy professionalisation, evidence-based policy, and the Europeanisation of policy analytical work.

Introduction: policy analysis in Belgium – tradition, comparative features and trends

This introductory chapter contextualizes and analyses the characteristics of the discipline and practice of policy analysis in Belgium. It first highlights the relatively young tradition of policy analysis in Belgium. Secondly, it identifies the characteristics of the Belgian political systems and their likely impact upon the nature of policy analysis. Thirdly, it specifies the current and emerging trends and challenges relevant for the practice of policy analysis and policy-making.

Ideas as close as possible to power: Belgian political parties and their study centres

Belgium, like Italy, is often considered a text book example of partitocracy. The dominance of political parties involves many functions and dysfunctions in a polity that is highly fragmented along linguistic and ideological lines. Political parties not only assert their institutional position as gate keepers to what demands and interests are aggregated for legislative and executive politics. They also play a dominant role in the policy-making process, by framing problems, ideologically promoting solutions, and negotiating compromises in the cumbersome formation and continuation of coalition government. Like other actors who play a role in the policy-making process, political party organisations too are faced with the increasing complexity of problems, and with the demand to back up their proposals with expert-based argumentation. In Belgium, each party organisation comprises a study service. Although their origin and history has been documented in general party organisation studies, this chapter is the first contribution to understanding the way these intra-party study units are organized and how they generate policy relevant advice. Findings concern all major political parties, across the language border.

Political control and bureaucratic expertise: policy analysis by ministerial cabinet members

While in many Western-European countries the ascent of special advisors is a relatively recent phenomenon, Belgium has long engaged ministerial cabinets as structural interfaces between politics and administration. Relatively large by international standards, ministerial cabinets consist of political advisors who as “an extension of their minister” put pressure on the civil servants in order to ensure political responsiveness. At the turn of the millennium, the reduction and revision of ministerial cabinets in favour of strengthening the administration’s role in policy formulation gained a place on the agenda. In several of the Belgian administrations, the policy analytical capacity has been strengthened, and the relations between the administration and ministerial cabinets improved in the direction of greater complementarity of roles. This chapter makes comparative literature on politico-administrative relations, and of survey material on the policy analytical roles of ministerial advisors and civil servants to analyse how bureaucratic policy expertise is balanced with political control. The analysis will point at the enduring functionality of ministerial cabinets in a polity characterized by fragile coalition government and partitocracy.