The idea of democracy which emerged in the Athenian polis constitutes a major determinant of social and political life at the and of the 20th and the begining of the 21st century. Both indirect and direct democracy find followers in defferent civilisational areas. It should be emphasised that in fact there are many different democracies and, depending on the actual conditions, different views on the true meaning of the concept of democracy. They result mainly from different uses of the concept in the theoretical domain and in the domain of social and political practice.