Belgium Versus the Lingua Franca Thesis

This chapter argues that despite its ability to sustain itself as a political system for almost 200 years, Belgium gives substantial empirical support to the lingua franca thesis. The existence of different public spheres within this political system has played a major role in preventing the satisfactory enactment of democratic representation at the national level, inducing centrifugal forces that have gradually led to the partial disintegration of the state. The federalization of Belgium along linguistic lines in 1993 can, in essence, be seen as the crescendo of a long process whereby the supposedly natural logic of the lingua franca thesis has gradually set in. If we take Belgium as our only case, the prospects for a well-functioning and sustainable multilingual democracy are not especially encouraging.