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This article examines French ecomuseums and the participative democracy. The two concepts are closely linked. This philosophy and practice, witnessed since the 1970s, have been promoted by a group of young curators. Their rhetoric was rooted both in the cultural sector as « new museology » and the French Socialist Party. The relationships between curators and population in the frame of participative democracy offer the opportunity to resolve some management and financial problems in regional and local ecomuseums.