Whither the future? Some afterthoughts

Papers in the symposium reflect in various ways distinctly European perspectives on recent developments in political communications, especially in their concern for possibilities of supranational political institutions and their focus on consequences of the decline of the mass party as an institutional form. From the European viewpoint, professionalization of political communication is alien to the very nature of political parties, and hence a special interest arises in making certain the professionals are not in charge. The symposium papers highlight the connectedness of political communication to other institutions and forces and the need not to overestimate the autonomy of political communication or its cultural specificity.