The metatheory on the democratic process poses a conceptual framework for the empirical analysis of democratic processes in liberal democracies. A model of democratic processes is being developed which proceeds from certain metatheoretical presuppositions. It distinguishes, inter alia, between three subsystems of the political system and defines their relevant collective actors. Moreover, a concept of political structures and political performance is being proposed to provide theoretically for an empirical explanation of diverse process phenomena by different structural arrangements in liberal democracies.