POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN HISTORY

This paper deals firstly with the two main theories of political power which have existed historically, the ascending or popular and the descending o totalitarian, and then it discusses their three most significant moments. Specifically, the Classical Antiquity and the classical or republican version of the ascending theory; secondly, the extensive period from the Roman Empire to the late Modern Age, including the Middle Ages, when the descending theory of power rules almost unanimously; and finally, our Contemporary Age, when the ascending theory is recovered, although the classical or republican version turns into the modern or liberal one.