The Changing Parameters of Political Control in Western Europe

This article seeks to capture the most important recent changes at the level of political control of the government in the parliamentary democracies of Western Europe. Whereas much of the international comparative politics literature has tended to focus on patterns of parliamentary control only, this study sets out to distinguish five key forms of political control of the government, namely electoral control, parliamentary control, judicial control, control by the head of state, and control by powerful private sector actors. Other changes at the level of the four conventional forms of political control apart, the real winners of the recent structural transformations would appear to have been individual private sector actors, such as globally operating firms and private mass media in particular. Rather than merely making the task of governing more complex and demanding, these developments threaten to undermine the very principle of responsible government – a problem for which there would seem to be no easy institutional remedy.