The theses of the preponderating impact of the political parties in Belgian polities in the «interbellum» stems from definite political sources in that period. It has to be critically analysed. For the political parties, although the most observerd decision-makers, are in many respect not the sole nor the most prominent ones.

The major changes in the Belgian partysystem occurred within the context of the rise of the welfare state. Most welfare provisions were subcontracted to the different «zuil» organisations, with their political parties functioning as masterorganisation. The contrasts between «catholic» Flanders and «red» Wallonia dominated the political agenda, and led up to the fractionalisation of the party-system. The political positions of the parties remained unchanged: ascendancy of the catholics, challenged by the socialists, with the liberals holding the balance, and communists and «federalist» parties beingback in opposition after a short period of governmental participation. Although party identification has shifted from ideological towards clientelist motives, the party preference of the electorate did not alter. The functions of parties did change: the power of mandatories decreased and parties increasingly control and even formulate public policy. Television has personalized political propaganda, which is, in between elections, professionally made by highly subsidized cultural masterorganisations. The costs of electoral propaganda, nowadays runned by commercial - advertising bureaus, have increased substantially. All this led to the decline of the propaganda by volunteers.

The Belgian political system is of ten qualified as a particracy, this is a variation of the classical parliamentary democracy, in which political parties dominate the political decision-making process more than the other subsystems, such as parliament, the government, the public administration, the judiciary power, the broadcasting institutions, the written press etc. This preponderancy is achieved by the partypolitisation of the positions in and the functio ning of these subsystems. Partyleaders exert nowadays a major influence on the constellation of a new government and the designation of its ministers. Through the governmental program and special extraparliamentary pacts they map out more and more government's future policies. The ministerial cabinets execute the control over the public administration on behalf of the parties of the majority and aften take over some of its peculiar functions. The recruitment of public servants and their promotion depend highly upon the institutionalized patronage of the governmental parties. The power to select the candidates for the general elections has shifted away from the rank-and-file member to the local and national partyleaders. Partydiscipline is one of the major causes of the shift of the government making function, the legislative and controlling functions of parliament to the party headquaters. The recruitment and the promotions of magistrates was already before World War II largely politicized. Although the structural integration between the newspapers and parties has decreased since 1945, the political parties have strengthened their control over the designation of the diree:tors and administrators of the Belgian broadcasting institutions.

The political debate in Western polyarchies readily points to a «Parteienstaat», «particrazia», or particracy. Empirical verification, however, is by far more difficult to carry out, though it is a descriptive necessity for further analysis of this phenomenon. An initial attempt to detect the particraties in Western Europe has been performed and revealed two particracies: Belgium and Italy. Other polyarchies have either the cabinet or the president as the most influential actor, an,d some seem to have a real concurrence of approximately equivalent actors. The reliability of this first attempt, however, must be improved.

The Belgian polyarchy has developed into a «particracy» in which the political parties have a preponderant impact on the political decisionmaking. As in every polyarchy, the political parties fulfill a set of vital functions in the Belgian system. But that does not explain its «particratie» particularity. The particracy arises as a consequence of four factors. The parties are fixed by the «zuilen» (pillars) into an «internal-imperialistic» role. The power of the parties increased considerably, an increase of which the politization of the instruments for, and the agencies of, policy is one of the most important, together with the capability of making and unmaking issues. The impact and power of the opponents of the parties in the decision-making process have been diminished to a considerable extent. This weakening involves the king, the parliament, theadministration, the electorate, and, ultimately, the cabinet because of the growing impact of the parties on policy design and policy output as well as on the appointment of ministers. Finally, the choice of the consociational pattern of politics of accomodation by the elite indicates the instrumental function of particracy in Belgian politics.