ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. This book seeks to build upon existing analysis of political participation by presenting a predominantly qualitative analysis of the nature of political participation in contemporary liberal democracy. It argues that the ways in which citizens become involved in political life is a crucial component of the current state of democracy. To provide an adequate overview of the wide range of structures that sustain the political participation, the book discusses a comparative analysis of a major political party, a campaigning pressure group, several examples of state-citizen dialogue and an alternative lifestyle collective. This collection of examples of political participation is intended to represent the spectrum of political activity that stretches between the state and civil society. Finally, the book summarizes a series of tentative observations about the potential route that democratisation, in the sense proposed by Jurgen Habermas, might take in light of the findings presented.
