The participatory democracy is not a given, a present received by individuals and communities, but their creation, in accordance to their vision and behaviour. The participation is not a panacea good for solving all the problems of the communities. It is a necessary condition, but not enough for the sustainable development of the local territorial communities. In order to explain-make intelligible the participation to the inhabitants there is a need for a sociological „romanianscopy”: what do the religious traditions say regarding the participation to the secular issues? How about the sapiential traditions regarding the involvement in „he public affairs”? What has said and done the communist propaganda? What is the paternalistic mentality? Why is it „riginal” the Romanian democracy of today? The inhabitants participation is the antidote of the paternalism? How can we overcome passivity and indifference at a macrosocial, community level? How about the indifference of the inhabitants? In this article the author offers a few sociological commentaries instead of answers to such questions...