Manfred Kohler

Language Politics in Belgium and the Flemish-walloon Conflict: Reason for a State to Fail or Driving Force Behind Federalism and Conciliation Manfred Kohler

This diploma thesis strives to examine the relation between language politics and the process of federalization in Belgium with an emphasis on the Flemish-Walloon conflict. The main thesis here is that language laws drove the process of federlazation in Belgium from a once unitary state. It is thus the goal here to show whether this is true or whether there have been additional factors that have come into play in Belgium's evolution towards a federal state.