This, of course, is the point that is always made by participation theorists. Our approach differs from theirs in arguing for more,not less, structural differentiation. We take seriously the normative principles defended by radical democrats, but we locate the genesis of democratic legitimacy and the chances for direct participation not in some idealized, dedifferentiated polity but within a highly differentiated model of civil society itself. This shifts the core problematic of democratic theory away from descriptive and/or speculative models to the issue of the relation and channels of influence between civil and political society and between both and the state, on the one side, and to the institutional makeup and internal articulation of civil society itself, on the other. Moreover we believe that the democratization of civil society the family associational life, and the public sphere necessarily helps open up the framework of political parties and representative institutions.