ABSTRACT
The reluctance of citizens in present-day democracies to participate in politics is a matter of considerable concern to many observers. Their concern is fed by two sources: first, this reluctance is understood to reflect an erosion of the legitimacy of these democracies; and second, it is set against the background of a normative understanding of democracy, according to which political participation is a constitutive characteristic. This understanding is implicit in the democracy concept, for government by the people, however it may operate in detail, and is quite simply inconceivable without the political participation of the citizens. However, there are widely differing ideas about the necessary extent and type of participation. They depend on the normative model that serves as our point of reference. The issue of political participation by the citizen can accordingly not be discussed in isolation; it can be meaningfully addressed only in the framework of normative models of democracy.
