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Political Participation

.... the private autonomy of citizens, each of whom pursues a life of his/her own; second, democratic citizenship, i.e., the inclusion of free and equal citizens in the political community; and third the independence of a public sphere that operates as an intermediary system between state and society." (Kellner, nd )

Habermas state that it is these three elements which:
"form the normative bedrock of liberal democracies (irrespective of the diversity otherwise of constitutional texts and legal orders, political institutions and practices)." Assuming then that this is true, then it can be understood that without any one of these three that democracy within a country must be in part on the decline. (Kellner, nd)
Habermas goes on to state that this institutional design is one that "embodies ideas from different political philosophies." Habermas explains that each of the traditions of democracy "gives a different weighting to equal liberties for everybody, democratic participation and government by public opinion. The point made by Habermas is that "government by public opinion" is a necessary ingredient for a working democracy whether it be governed by the Democratic democracy or the Republican democracy. This is further affirmed in the work entitled: "Now or Never" presented