Taking Care of Policy in Times of Crisis: Comparative Lessons from Belgium’s Longest Caretaker Government

Abstract

When the financial crisis hit the Eurozone, Belgium, along with several other countries, postponed its consolidation policies until after the general elections. What followed was the longest caretaker rule that any stable democracy had ever experienced. This article analyses the phenomenon of policy continuity and change during this double crisis. It illustrates how the exogenous economic crisis overrode the endogenous political crisis, showing the extent to which international policy determinants expanded the remit of caretaker policy-making. At the same time, our analysis of the nature of caretaker conventions, the nature of multi-level governance, the permanence of administrative personnel, and the re-invention of parliament offers opportunities to draw lessons and deepen comparative research on policy termination and maintenance in the face of crisis.

Do government formation deadlocks really damage economic growth? Evidence from history's longest period of government formation impasse

“…This government was empowered to take all decisions in relation to ordinary matters, and urgent matters when so needed-in particular those related to the EU and the international arenas (Bouckaert & Brans, 2012;Brans et al, 2016). This government was empowered to take all decisions in relation to ordinary matters, and urgent matters when so needed-in particular those related to the EU and the international arenas (Bouckaert & Brans, 2012;Brans et al, 2016).…”

“…4 The presidents of the Belgian Senate and of the House of Representatives were then asked by the king to mediate between the political parties, but they did not reach an agreement, and in early October 2010 negotiations between the main parties broke down. And so ended the longest ever period of government formation deadlock in a democratic, parliamentary regime-541 days of deadlock and 590 without a full-powered government (Bouckaert & Brans, 2012;Brans et al, 2016) Immediately following the resignation of the government in April 2010, government services issued two circulars specifying the conventions and guidelines for the caretaker government 6 (April 26 and May 7, 2010; Brans et al, 2016). The two main issues blocking any agreement were the model of funding for the bilingual region of Brussels and the regions, and certain institutional questions affecting the Senate and the electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (Abts et al, 2012).…”

“…New mediators were appointed while the king asked the former prime minister to stay in office as a caretaker government with limited powers. Thus, the 2011 budget was not in fact approved until May 2011, and in the meantime, the caretaker government had to pass regular resolutions prolonging the 2010 budget on a month-to-month basis, in keeping with the system known as "provisionary 12th's," whereby government departments continued to receive the same budgetary allocations received in the previous year, generally for 3-month periods (Bouckaert & Brans, 2012;Brans et al, 2016). The latter was the subject of a highly sensitive dispute between Walloon parties (which wanted it to remain as a single district) and Flemish parties (which wanted the district to be split in two).…”

“…According to Bouckaert and Brans (2012, p. 174), the caretaker government did, however, have to face a number of pressing matters, such as complying with international defense commitments (i.e., NATO operations in Libya), introducing migration legislation, and contributing to EU measures to support the euro, and so forth. But no major structural policy reforms were implemented (Troupin, Steen, & Stroobants, 2015) that might have affected critical issues in the domain of pension systems, social affairs, energy supply and environment, employment and labor market, and competitiveness (Brans, 2012;Brans et al, 2016).…”

“…As a result, government formation deadlock extended over more than 6 months in Belgium after the June 2007 election, 10 months in Spain after the December 2015 election, 7 months in the Netherlands after the March 2017 election, 6 months in Germany after the September 2017 election, and 3 months in Italy after the March 2018 election. However, the record is held by Belgium, which took the not insignificant number of 541 days, following the June 2010 election, to establish a full-powered federal government (Brans, Pattyn, & Bouckaert, 2016).…”