In Belgium, it's a remnant of the past.
When Belgium was a unitary and not a federal state, it was simple: you had provinces and
municipalities. There was (and is) an intermediate layer called arrondissements as well, but this is
hardly used and I wonder what is their exact function.
Then Belgium became a federal state. The three autonomous regions are Flanders, Wallonia, and
Brussels. All but one province are entirely within a region. The only problem was the province of
Brabant. So this province was cut in three parts: the new province of Flemish Brabant (capital:
Leuven, or Louvain, since in English the French name of the city is often used), the new province of
Walloon Brabant (capital: Nivelles), and Brussels. Now Brussels wasn't to become a province, but a
region, the reason being it is a. the capital of the federal state, so you can compare it in this
respect (but not in others!) to a federal district, and b. is was bilingual (French and Dutch).
I'd say the Brussels municipalities can't be put on the same level as Belgian provinces. It's just
the province layer that's missing in Brussels. But I agree that this is rather arbitrary. It's just
how you look at it.
By the way: the capital of Wallonia is Namur, but the capital of Flanders is ..... Brussels! So
another entity here that has the capital outside of it's territory.
Apart from autonomous regions, there are also the so-called communities. These are linguistically
defined. There is a (Neerlandophone) Flemish community (Flanders and Brussels), a Francophone (or,
as the official name is, "French") community (Wallonia minus the German speaking parts, and
Brussels), and a Germanophone community (the nine Germanophone municipalities in Liège province).
All communities, as well as all regions and the federal state have their own cabinet, with ministers
and a prime minister. Only the Flemish community and the region of Flanders decided to have one
cabinet for both. So there are six cabinets in this country! The areas of power of the central
state, the regions, and the communities are very strictly defined, so that they don't clash over
competences.
And finally, the Germanophone community consists of two parts. They are, as it were, each other's
exclaves (or fragments)! Difficult to say which one is the main part. I'd say the northern part,
because the capital Eupen is there, and I suspect most Germanophone Belgians live in the northern
part. But the southern part is larger.
Peter S.
michael donner wrote:
> cant answer the question but it reminds me
> from what you reveal below
> it seems the municipalities of the brussels region are technically on the
> same level as the provinces of the other 2 belgian regions
> or put differently the municipalities of the brussels region are tertiary
> entities while all the other belgian municipalities are quaternary ones
> or in still other words belgium is not all there
>
> m
>
> but actually i have found that partial structural gaps like this are fairly
> common
> & moreover if you dig deeply & broadly enough
> you will find that practically everywhere is not all there on some level
> & that just about everywhere ultimately fades off into a crazy mix of
> partial or missing layers
>
> while we are searching the world for extremes
> i wonder what is the numerically highest or actually deepest level of
> subdivision & therefore of boundaries on earth
>
> for example
> i have an old map of my home town i would say shows quintenary divisions
> following the levels of country & state & county & municipality
> namely our ghost school districts as they existed before consolidation
> & i suppose that the private landholdings within these districts at that
> time would have been sextenary divisions
>
> nor do i imagine the sextenary level would be hard to surpass
> especially in a big city with wards & districts & condo apartments etc
>
> but i just wonder how far out or up or down this process could be taken
> or rather how far it has actually been taken somewhere
> & where that somewhere is
>
> m
>
> >
> >Brendan Whyte wrote:
> >
> >> >If you accept the above argument, the only islands which would meet
> >> >Brendan's strict definition of an enclave
> >>
> >> ...AT SEA...
> >>
> >> >would be those whose
> >> >territorial sea is totally surrounded by the territorial sea of
> >> >another state - and, as yet, I have been unable to think of any....
> >>
> >> Thanks Martin.
> >>
> >> Enclaves are most useful when considered for areas of equal/similar
> >> sovereignty, ie EITHER internal units OR nations, OR EEZs/Highseas, etc.
> >> Thus we can think of high seas enclaves in EEZs or EEZs inside other EEZs
> >> (ie St Pierre, Channel Islands, Monaco) or national level enclaves in
> >> nations, but enclaves at one level bordering on a unit of higher level of
> >> sovereignty are less interesting as they have fewer practical implications.
> >> Hence less interest in the 2 or 3 Belgian provincial fragments that adjoin
> >> its neighbouring nations.
> >
> >There are two exclaves (I would say)/fragments (you would say) I know of:
> >the municipality of Voeren
> >and the municipality of Comines-Warneton. They are not only provincial,
> >but also regional. This is
> >one level up. Belgium is a federal state, divided into three regions. Two
> >of them are divided into
> >provinces, and these into municipalities. The third region, Brussels,
> >lacks the province layer and
> >is directly divided into (19) municipalities.
> >The third provincial 'fragclave' was Sugny (province of Luxembourg, but
> >surrounded by province of
> >Namur and France) was abolished on 1-1-1977, in the giant Belgian
> >municipal reshuffle that took
> >place.
> >
> >On the subject of claves of a lower order (e.g. municipalities): In
> >Brussels, the municipality of
> >Elsene/Ixelles is cut in two by Brussels (the Louizalaan/Avenue Louise
> >area). On older maps, the
> >same goes for the municipality of St. Gillis/St. Gilles. On newer maps,
> >the small part east of the
> >Louizalaan, at the Little Ring, is absent. Does it still exist? Or has it
> >been added to either
> >Brussels or Elsene/Ixelles?
> >
> >Peter S.