For too long Belgium remained an unexplored terrain by comparative political scientists. Belgium's politics were best known through the writings of Arend Lijphart, who considered it a model case of consociationalism. Over the past ten to fifteen years, the analysis of consociationalism has been complemented by a more detailed coverage of Belgium's spectacular transformation process from a unitary into a federal state, moving rapidly now to disintegration. Likewise, several peculiar aspects of Belgian politics, such as the record fragmentation of its party system, have been covered in edited...

Anyone observing the recent scandals in the United Kingdom could not fail to understand the political importance of the rewards of high public office. The British experience has been extreme but by no means unique, and many countries have experienced political over the pay and perquisites of public officials.

This book addresses an important element of public governance, and does so in longitudinal and comparative manner. The approach enables the contributors to make a number of key statements not only about the development of political systems but also about the differences among...

This Handbook presents the first comprehensive study of policy analytical practices in comparative perspective.

It explores emerging developments and innovations in the field and advances knowledge of the nature and quality of policy analysis across different countries and at different levels of government by all relevant actors, both inside and outside government, who contribute to the diagnosis of problems and the search for policy solutions.

Handbook chapters examine all aspects of the science, art and craft of policy analysis. They do so both at the often-studied...

This new volume in Policy Press s series of national explorations of policy analysis brings together a number of experts in policy research and analysis to focus on Belgium. Many of the contributions include new empirical data gathered specifically for this book through surveys and interviews with key figures within and outside government circles. The editors have taken care to create teams of contributors from both sides of the Belgian language border, which, along with the breadth of topics considered, helps make this easily the most comprehensive study of Belgian policy analysis to be...