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.