A01=Samuel Humes
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Author_Samuel Humes
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJD
Category=NHD
COP=United Kingdom
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Language_English
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Price_€10 to €20
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Product details
- ISBN 9781849041461
- Weight: 522g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 30 Sep 2014
- Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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This concise history describes the traditions and transitions that over two thousand years have developed in Belgium in a sense of shared identity, common government, and a centralised nation-state - and then over a few recent decades paved the way for Flemish-Walloon schism that now threatens to break up Belgium. It responds to the question: Why does a government, unified for more than 600 years, no longer seem capable of holding together a linguistically divided country In tracing the evolution of Belgian governance, Humes describes why and how the dominance of French-speaking propertied elite eroded after having monopolised the land's governance for centuries. The extension of suffrage, combined with the rise of literacy and schooling enabled labour and Flemish movements to gather sufficient momentum to fracture the Belgian polity, splitting its parties and frustrating its politics. The presence of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has, in a tangential way, enable the Belgian separatists to discount the merit of a national government that is no longer needed to defend the country militarily and economically.
Samuel Humes lived in Belgium from 1984 till 2008, where he was most recently director of Boston University's Brussels campus. He is a graduate of Williams College (BA), the University of Pennsylvania (MGA), and Leiden University (Drs and PhD). His latest book is Managing the Multinational: Confronting the Global-Local Dilemma; earlier publications include The Structure of Local Government Throughout the World which has been described as a seminal work in its field.
