Equality by lot

An op-ed in the Belgian La Libre.

How allotted citizen assemblies could have prevented the failure of the fiscal reform

By Eric Jourdain

Whereas the necessary fiscal reform plan is figured in the government agreement, the seven parties of the Vivaldi government have not reached an agreement. It is time to put the brakes on the particracy, to reanimate democracy and to give an unexpected role to the prime minister.

On July 22nd, our prime minister Alexander De Croo was extremely disappointed. He published an open letter in the written press deploring the fact that “the political class is sometimes so preoccupied by its own matters that it forgets the people and the causes that it must serve”. This was after the failure of the fiscal reform, when the prime minister realized with bitterness that the seven parties which compose the Vivaldi coalition would not reach an agreement on approving yet another version of the fiscal reform presented by the finance minister.

The reform project did figure in the federal government accord presented in September 2020, which explicitly planned for a balanced budget and the reduction in the fiscal pressure on the workers (employees, civil servants and self-employed).

In a country which has the ambition to reach a work participation rate of 80%, one would think that this reform would serve the general interest. In fact, more people at work translates automatically to an increase in contributions to social programs and to fiscal revenue, and a decrease in social expenses by the community.

How to allow a prime minister to resolve this impasse in the future?

By adding a few articles to our constitution specifying the following points:

• Define what is an allotted citizen assembly.
• Stipulate that when a reform project set out in the government accord is not adopted within 3 years after the formation of the legislature, the head of government may invoke a new article in the constitution. The new article, say Article X, would allow the prime minister to convene a Citizen Assembly via sortition to which he would propose to adopt the legislation that the parties refuse to adopt. The vote of the Assembly would be binding.

In case of a positive vote, that would mean that the prime minister and the Citizen Assembly have together prevented an impasse, and possibly a governmental crisis. This would get around the harmful effects of particracy.

We ask from the prime minister to be “above” the political parties, but the current constitution does not given him the means. It is difficult to be at the same time the head and the hostage of the governing coalition.

This change in the constitution and the resort to Citizen Assemblies would promote the emergence in Belgium of men of state that would fellow citizens wish for.

The benefit of changing the Constitution

This would mean that the government is no longer hostage to one or several parties.

It significant change in the functioning of our institutions, could be the beginning of the end of the particracy. This change corresponds to the wishes of a large part of the population which is sometimes exasperated with the behavior of the political class.

Isn’t it Maxime Prévot, the president of the Engagés party, who stated in the press in the spring of 2022 that “we must stop the particracy which is rotting our country away”?

A poll publish by the newspaper Le Soir reveals that more than 70% of Walloons no longer have trust politics, and the situation is hardly any better in the two other regions the country.

This situation is becoming worse year by year and we intend to correct it by showing that the introduction of sortition into our institutions allows in this case to avoid a crisis of government. It encourages citizen participation in public life and promotes better understanding between politicians and citizens.

The democratic legitimacy of this constitutional change

In the specific case of the fiscal reform, it must be emphasized that:

• This bill was outlined in the government accord, the 7 parties being thus in its favor,
• Since the beginning of the legislative term the finance minister has already presented several versions,

The bill that the prime minister would submit to the vote of the Citizen Assembly would therefore have been the object of political and public discussion,

• It is likely that the refusal to vote for the proposal is due partly or even solely to electoral considerations.

These different points provide a democratic legitimacy for appealing to the new article X of the constitution proposed above.

Indeed,

• Why should the interests of a few people count for more than the interest of the whole population – 11 million people? Is that democracy?
• Why should we accept that our elected officials refuse to pass a law that conforms to the general interest?
• Why should we accept that when we have a solution to an enormous problem which creates many others: unemployment, public deficit, mistrust in democracy, etc.
• Why should we accept that when we have an alternative? A break with particracy.

This alternative is sortition.

We must remind the elected that they are our deputies and that we have deputized them not to take care of their own affairs but to take care of ours.

Filed under: Academia, Elections, Press, Proposals, Sortition |