ABSTRACT
In a democratic society political participation takes many forms. Individuals may join freely in activities designed to seek office or to control, influence or monitor government and the state administration. Yet democratic theory is not consistent in its approaches to participation. To some extent this is part of the legacy of the historic compromise between liberalism, combining individualism with a fear of the masses, and democracy, with its universalism and underlying stress on mass involvement in the political process. Those who conceived the fundamental element of democracy as the popular choice of élites through the mechanism of elections were continuing the liberal tradition. Others placed far more stress on the importance of an active citizenry.
