The end of the Cold War, technological changes and social-cultural evolution have brought about the end of the mass army. In most of the countries where there still exists a conscription system, i.e. almost everywhere in continental Europe, the debate on the end of the draft is now open. Among these nations, Belgium was the first to decide to adopt an all-volunteer force (AVF). It is also the country where the transition to an AVF will be the quickest. The article first describes the content of the present reform of the Belgian military organization (the so-called Delcroix plan) and its various aspects. It then analyzes its structural and internal causes.

Given the two important functions of the media, offering a world image and setting the public agenda, the main question in this article is: "What is the image of society offered by the media?" For that purpose three years of the radio programme "BRT-Aktueel" are analyzed on the basis of a printed index. A distinction is made between home news, news on states, news on groups of countries and international organizations. The main conclusions are: 1. Most of the coverage concerns foreign issues; 2. Within each category there is a clear influence of temporary events. This influence seems more important for foreign topics; 3. The news coverage is strongly concentrated on a relatively small number of issues. This conclusion applies on all categories; 4. Social and domestic policy dominate the home news; 5. The coverage of international issues deals mostly with Europe, then with the USSR, and the United States. Other countries are part of the periphery and get attention when a major crisis occurs. The question rises which factors determinate the selection of issues. Within the limits of this research a few factors can be mentioned: geographical proximity, the structure of the media, the role of press agencies, the international status of a country, the selection by the journalist. It is quite clear that this problem of objectivity ofthe media is a major problem which is linked to the role of the media in a democratie society.

The study of comparative European politics since the 1930s shows a shift from a largely normative and institutional concern with a few larger European countries towards a clear subdiscipline of modern political science. Marked influences were the need to rethink democratie development in the light of the rise of totalitarianism and the rapid decline of democracy in most emerging new states after 1945. The field shows a strand influence of the wish to bring the particular experience of individual countries onto the map of general comparative politics. Thus, one finds the effect of a typical cross-Channel dialogue contrasting Britain and France, the extrapolation of 'polarised pluralism' from an Italian background, the deliberate challenge to the Westminster model from consociational democracy theorists, and the transposition of Norwegian experience onto a Macro-Model of Europe in center-periphery terms. More recent developments also mirror new political developments, e.g., neo-corporatism, the rise and crisis of the welfare state, and concerns about public policy generally. Yet such challenges pale compared to the potential effect which processes of European integration, the decline of bipolar international polities, and above all problems of democratic development in post-totalitarian Eastern and Central Europe, must haveon comparative politics in and on Europe.