The end of the ‘consociational mood’? Generational differences in sense-making of regionalization among Belgian Dutch-speakers

Regionalization has become increasingly salient for citizens. To assess whether citizens perceive regionalization as legitimate, studies have focused on understanding public opinion towards power devolution. Yet, few have considered regionalization as a self-reinforcing driver of public opinion. Drawing on the literature of policy feedback, the paper argues that the political narrative justifying the large-scale redefinition of the state has had a lasting, socializing effect on how citizens make sense of regionalization, known as normative policy feedback. To empirically demonstrate this mechanism, the paper explores sense-making of Dutch-speaking citizens in Belgium. Through inter-generational comparison it finds a fading consociational mood among participants socialized in a federal Belgium. In contrast, participants socialized in pre-federal Belgium continue to believe in the necessity of protecting language rights and segmental autonomy. The article thus shows that while participants support regionalization, they have qualitatively different normative assumptions regarding its purpose.