The Problem of Political Representation Today in Western Europe

The great ideologies of the 19th Century have accustomed us to thinking of the relationship of domination in the one-sided dimension of “exercise of domination”, with particular emphasis on the coercion that a dominant minority exercises over a dominant majority. We are less accustomed, especially in Western Europe, to taking into consideration the other aspect of the relationship of domination: i.e. the fact that the dominant positions are formed and continually sustained by the consensus, the recognition of representation and legitimation in the exercise of domination. Except for a situation of immediate physical danger a certain degree of consensus is always present in a situation of domination, even though it is sometimes on the part of the dominated only the result of not wishing to put up with the consequences of deviant behavior1.