Direct democracy and political participation – myth or reality

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to examine the question of direct democracy and political participation in modern societies in order to answer the question whether it is really an important part of the political reality of modern societies. The direct democracy dates back even to the ancient Athens of fifth and fourth centuries BC. But in this case the democracy had been limited to the citizens only (it means mature males of citizen families) and this group formed as little as at about 10% of the population of Athenian state. Nowadays, the question of the so-called “participatory budget” forms rather part of propaganda (mainly before the local election) and not part of the political reality. And so, the question of political participation ofcitizens canbedescribed rather interms ofpolitical myths thanpolitical reality.