Central-Local Relations in Flanders

The scale of Flemish municipalities keeps dominating the political agenda in Flanders. In recent years the Flemish government has stimulated the municipalities to merge on a voluntary basis. If they do so, they can receive more competences and strengthen their position. However, this policy has not generated any success so far. In this paper the authors place these efforts in a historical perspective, before addressing the current policy in Flanders concerning scale and decentralisation. In the final part of the paper the authors introduce some foreign experiences with scale and decentralisation. It is remarkable that the current debate in Flanders does not stand on its own. The authors try to determine what lessons Flanders can learn from these foreign experiences.