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‪The social sciences have no function or predictive value. Their role is to question the meaning of observed phenomena. Thus, contrary to what the title of this contribution seems to call for, the purpose of this article is not so much to provide an answer to the question asked about the future of the participatory imperative as to provide an opportunity to ask others. The author proposes to work on this question in a synthetic way by observing its diffraction into multiple sub-questions, more or less independent and interrelated. Through a series of seven structuring questions, the author reviews the modalities and contemporary issues of participatory democracy. They draw the balance sheet of a decade of research and experiences related to citizen participation, made of multiple doubts and fears but concerned with describing a complex reality caught between democratic processes and “de-democratisation”.‪