Since December 23rd, 1981 the Flemish Community has an autonomous organ: the Flemish Executive. Its first year of activity was characterized by difficulties on four levels. 1. The lack of an own administration seriously hindered its functioning. It had to appeal to «national» civil servants, who were not subject to its higher authority. The setting up of an own Flemish administration occurred laboriously because of delay (it wilt only be operational on June 1st, 1983) and the fact that approximatively one fifth of the jobs is not filled. 2. There were also numerous disagreements with the central authority, due to the not always perfect delimitation between the respective competences and as a result of the urge of that central authority to keep it on tutelage. 3. The central authority granted rather limited pecuniary means to the communities and regions. They seriously impede the conduct of an autonomous Flemish policy. 4. The proportional political composition of the Flemish Executive led to internal tensions; nevertheless it has not caused the apprehended paralyzing effect.

This article analyses the first years of existence of the institutions of the French Community and the ·walloon region established by the constitutional revision of 1980 and its accompanying laws. The Community, which groups the Francophone Belgians of Wallonia and Bruxelles, was given certain powers in cultural matters and in such «personalisable» matters as health care, white the Walloon region was given a series of economic powers. The 1980 legislation created a Council and a Executive for each. The article divides the time since the passage of the laws into two periods. In the first period, from October 1980 to November 1981, the Executives were still part of the national governement; in the second period, which began after the general election of November 8, 1981, the Executives are no langer part of the national executive. They are now directly elected by the Councils according to a system of proportional representation of all parties with a sufj-icient electoral quotient. The article describes the establishment of these institutions and their legislative and budgetary activities since 1980. It concludes with an assessment of the experience that stresses the difficulties created by the complexities of the 1980 laws and recommends a fusion of Region andCommunity similar to that already extant in Flanders.

The ecology movement consists of several different sub-groups: traditional conservationists, environmental agitators, critical intellectuals and scientists as welt as the «back-to-nature» counter-culture and the Green parties. This article concentrates on one of the most interestingparts of the Flemish ecology movement: the «alternative life-style» movement Anders Gaan Leven and its Green party Agalev. The social position of the ecologists can be set with the help of the concepts «resistance» and «integration». On the one side, they seem to be the heir of the protest movements of the sixties. On the other side, they are part of a trend towards political demobilization. Politically, the Green parties draw their support from the « secundary elites »: people who are young, highly educated but who are not (yet) part of the establishment. The theories of Inglehart and Boy connect this sociat position with the political orientation of the ecologists. In the specific case of Flanders, the Green party Agalev seems to become the political alternative for progressive christians who have broken with the Catholic «pillar», hut who cannot recognize themselves in the other traditional parties.

The main explanation of the financial difficulties of the city of Liege are, on one hand, the growth of outlays due to the fusion of the communes in 1977, and, on the other hand, the rise of the interest rates. For the elections of October 1982, a «labour» coalition faced a «conservative» coalition. After the elections, the «labour» joined with the ecologists. For the first time, the ecologists are at the head of a big city, a city that is virtually in insolvency.