Belgium has 25 political parties divided among speakers of French and Flemish and four self-governing regions. Solutions that give each participant a taste of victory in complicated circumstances are called '' a la Belge'' - in the Belgian manner.

Belgium, a country of 10 million people, sometimes puts itself forward at international gatherings as a good model to follow when big powers and unyielding ideologies cannot find common ground.

Today's events were the first time since the creation of Belgium and its constitutional monarchy in 1830 that the special powers of the Government had been used in such a way.

Not the Intended Use

According to scholars, the clause of the Constitution cited was drafted to cover eventualities in which the monarch was incapacitated by illness or insanity. Some political leaders today attacked the use of the clause to cover dissent, but none said they would vote against Baudouin's return to power.

The only other time the Government had taken over the King's powers was in 1940, when Baudouin's father, Leopold III, remained behind with the army in Belgium after the Nazi occupation while the Cabinet fled to London. Leopold, suspected of collaboration with the occupiers, was never permitted to return to the throne and gave way to his 20-year-old son in 1950 after a tumultuous referendum.