Whatever our perspective on democracy - liberal, republican or deliberative - it is difficult not to recognize that this always involves some form of citizen participation. In mediated societies, such as ours, political participation is indistinguishable from the media. With the traditional mass media, participation is limited - in terms of actors, themes, and extension. With the Internet, these limits to the participation of citizens are at least potentially, overcome: each and every one can speak of the issues they want, with the extension they want. However, the possibility to participate does not mean necessarily teh will to participate - that is, the possibility of participation is updated in some cases but not in others. What are the reasons that underlie this duplicity? To try to clarify these reasons we undertook a study of citizens' political participation through the portal of Portuguese Parliament (www.parlamento.pt), specifically in the forums, petitions, personal pages and blogs of MPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]