2021-02-182017-01-011909445022565027WOS;000416775300006SCOPUS;2-s2.0-85029212524http://hdl.handle.net/10784/25581This article addresses the question if the model of representative democracy that continues to this day is consistent with the ethos that is often attributed to democracy today. In this regard, from a normative methodological scope, this paper starts with the idea that a democratic system is based on the notion of “self-government». From this ground, the article proposes a theoretical review of the model of representative democracy. From that review will be highlight some theoretical inconsistencies and undemocratic effects involving the representative model, and therefore claims the notion of participative democracy. © 2017, Corporacion Universitaria Republicana. All rights reserved.spaCorporacion Universitaria RepublicanaDemocracyRepresentative democracyRepresentative mandateSelf-governmentinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article2021-02-18Velásquez A.G.10.21017/Rev.Repub.2017.v22.a24