Democracy nowadays is a word much used and even more misused. It has many meanings and has turned up in surprising places--the Spain of General Franco, the Greece of the colonels, the Pakistan of the generals, the Eastern Europe of the commissars--usually prefaced by some qualifying adjective such as "guided," "basic," "organic," "popular," or the like, which serves to dilute, deflect, or even to reverse the meaning of the word.

The Greeks viewed dictatorship as the worst possible form of government, so their government evolved as the exact opposite. Their civilization was broken down into small city-states (never more than 10,000 citizens), and all the men voted on all

Because of the unwieldiness of direct democracies in areas with medium or large populations, the closest practicable model of a direct democracy is the Participatory model. In this model, citizens play an active role in the government through neighborhood assemblies and workers’ councils. Supporters of this theory say that citizens would be less apathetic towards government if they were given more chances to participate; apathy is not inherent in human nature. To achieve this, supporters call for the reform of political, social, and economic institutions. Participatory Democrats feel that citizens should have a voice not only in government but also in corporations, unions, schools, churches and other institutions that have a direct impact on their lives. Also, theorists believe citizens cannot be expected to participate well in government if they are subject to authoritative rule in other areas of their lives. Citizen involvement is the focus of the Participatory model (Lewis).

The concept of democracy continued to be prevalent in Europe with the philosophies of an English philosopher by the name of John Locke and a French philosopher named Jean Jacques Rousseau. Locke’s book, Two Treatises (published in 1690), stated that under the "social contract," the government's job was to protect "natural rights", which included "the right to life, liberty, and the ownership of property." Rousseau expanded on this idea with his book, The Social Contract, in 1762. In essence, these two philosophers said that the people should have input on how their government is run. This school of thought paved the way for modern day American Democracy (Lefebvre).

As in a Protective Democracy, emphasis is placed on active control of representatives through elections. Political and social equality exist in a Developmental Democracy. Overall, the Developmental model assumes people can achieve civic virtue and become good people through active participation in democracy (Lewis; Hudson 13-15).

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