Here's something I bet you didn't know...

Belgium has gone 250 days without a national government... of sorts. How is this possible, you may ask, surely this is resulting in anarchy?

The flashmobs, pranks, parties, and stunts were organised using the now established motor of spontaneous political activism – social networking sites Facebook and Twitter – but with a key difference. While protesters from Minsk to Cairo mobilise online to try to bring down hated governments, in Belgium the campaign is aimed at getting a government.

There is little evidence the elected politicians are listening. The caretaker government of the Flemish Christian Democrat, Yves Leterme, fell apart last April, the third collapse in two years. The June election reinforced the linguistic, political and cultural conflicts paralysing the country, with victory going to rightwing Flemish separatists in the Dutch-speaking north over leftwing, pro-Belgium socialists in the francophone southern region of Wallonia.

Ever since then the king has appointed a string of mediators to cobble together a workable coalition. All have failed. On Wednesday the latest broker, Didier Reynders, the caretaker finance minister, reported no progress and was told to keep trying for another fortnight.

On Thursday the word in Brussels was there would be fresh elections in April, a ballot likely to entrench the divide, deepen the crisis of political accountability and legitimacy, and result in yet further months of government-less squabbling.

Aside from the very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very... boring obsession with internet social media (driven by the mass media, middle-class self-obession) this is very interesting. There is no workable majority, at least no workable majority in presently constituted parliamentary Belgium, and there is not likely to be in the foreseeable future. But what about the anarchy? Won't somebody please think of the children?

There is no talk of royal abdication. There are few signs of Belgium breaking up. But nor is there any sense of direction, of how to escape from deepening division, of how to restructure a balkanised political system which encourages paralysis.

The country is prosperous and well-run bureaucratically. The caretaker Leterme government has just accomplished a smooth and much-praised presidency of the European Union.

There is still a national government, the national government that doesn't come and go with elections. If this Belgian episode proves anything it proves how inessential elections are to the system of western 'democracy'. If democracy is rule of the people then none of us live in a democracy.