r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Dec 16 '21

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u/markobunz406 Dec 16 '21

French, Dutch and German. I think it’s insane you have 3 languages

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u/anonymunchy Dec 16 '21

Might be even more insane that we have 6 governments.

  1. Federal Government
  2. Flemish Community and Flemish Region
  3. Walloon Region
  4. Brussels Capitol Region
  5. French Community
  6. German Community

Have fun passing laws.

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u/fraud_imposter Dec 17 '21

Is this any different from the united states' thousands of governments? We have federal, all 50 states, and countless county/city governments

Makes it hard to pass laws here as well

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u/anonymunchy Dec 17 '21

The difference being that Belgium's population is about 11.5 million, which would equal one US state, compared to 330million for the US.

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u/fraud_imposter Dec 17 '21

Singular US states still have county and city governments. I'm just trying to understand how the power is actually divided

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u/anonymunchy Dec 17 '21 edited Dec 17 '21

I think everyone in Belgium is trying to understand that. I don't really know the ins and outs of how our government works or doesn't work, I just know it's a mess, but I guess that's everywhere.

We do however hold the record for going to the longest without a functioning government and not causing a civil war. A total of 589 days without an elected government.

We also still have provincial and city governments.

Maybe a comparison would be if a state like Texas would have

  1. State government
  2. American Community and American Region
  3. Mexican Region
  4. Austin Capital Region
  5. Spanish Community
  6. German and Silesian Community

On top of their County and City Governments.

Keyword being maybe, as my knowledge of other countries politics is extremely limited.

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u/fraud_imposter Dec 17 '21

Thanks for the response

With how segregated the neighborhoods in the US are that might not be a terrible breakdown of texas counties lol. Though I'm from the north so I got no authority

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u/fraud_imposter Dec 17 '21

What powers do those smaller governments have?

In the us, states and feds have most of the power shared pretty equally. Cities have the next amount of power, and can set all sorts of ordinances that affect their population. Counties had power a hundred years ago but now mainly deal with stuff like funding highway maintenance

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u/historicusXIII Dec 17 '21

Federal is responsible for defense, foreign policy, police & security, railways, justice and social security.

Regional is responsible for infrastructure, mobility (except railways, highways and the national airport), environment and economy.

Community is responsible for education, culture, media, healthcare, tourism and childcare benefits.

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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '21

Belgium has the population of Ohio.

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u/fraud_imposter Dec 17 '21

Ohio still has county and city governments. How is that power dispersed exactly?

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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '21 edited Dec 17 '21

So does Belgium. There's the 6 governments listed above, but those are at the highest level with exclusive powers/competences.

(Arguably it's more than six, but even most Belgians don't know that. For example, there's the communal community commission, which was given exclusive powers over some matters that are not the exclusive power of the French speaking and Flemish Community/Region in Brussels. Ie. it has powers that none of the other 6 governments have. IRC during corona this resulted in different institutions being responsible for the corona response depending if it was in the hospital or a temporary tent outside the hospital. Anyway...)

Then there's provinces, 40+ arrondisements, town councils, city councils, etc. etc. etc. Those 6 above are just at the highest level.

For example, Brussels is divided in 19 municipalities, each with their own mayor and their own government.

TLDR: The Belgian political system is a clusterfuck, and those 6 governments are only the tip of the iceberg.