My purpose here is only to put forward a number of tentative suggestions in order to provide some common basis and a starting ground for discussion. We are called on to examine the principle and the working of political opposition as one of the specific means of control. That is to say that in our context the notion of opposition is specific, the notion of control general. Accordingly, the issue may be formulated as follows: in the light of the problem of controlling government, that is, of checking absolute power, to what extent and in what ways is the existence of an opposition vital, useful or possible in both ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries ?

Obviously, if one deals with developing countries the very idea of ‘developing’ needs to be dissected. Some countries are purely and simply under-developed; other countries find themselves at different stages of development.