Consociationalism in the Brussels Capital Region: Dis-Proportional Representation and the Accommodation of National Minorities

This chapter examines the Brussels’ consociational model, a sophisticated and original system of regional and urban governance. We focus on two critical features of broader interest to consociational theories: proportionality and minority protection. While most classic and contemporary studies of consociationalism associate the latter with proportional representation (Lijphart 1968; McEvoy 2006; McGarry and O’Leary, 2009), we demonstrate how in Brussels, mechanisms of minority protection have substantially modified proportional representation, resulting in what has been called a “protective dis-proportional representation model.” We discuss the potential benefits and limits of dis-proportionality in favor of Dutch speakers in Brussels emphasizing the broader context of Belgium’s multi-level consociationalism (favoring the French speakers in Belgium’s central government). Finally, we propose a legal analysis of the Brussels dis-proportional representation model and question the compliance of the latter with the fundamental principles of equality and non-discrimination.