In the words of Caroline Pryor (2002):

 

Simply put,
Jefferson viewed democracy as a verb.  Democracy, he would infer, is informed action, waiting within the experience of each citizen for acknowledgement and empowerment (West 1991; Schleifer 1991).  This information may mean we need to revisit a long forgotten theme – that in colonial
America, citizens were expected to act in dual roles: communal (helping one another) yet independent (entrepreneurial).  In order to accomplish both tasks in a knowledgeable manner, the colonial citizen required some experience as a citizen leader as well as a citizen determinant of one’s income.

 

Pryor, C.  (2002).  The mission of the scholar: research and practice.  (Wolfe & Pryor, Eds.). 
New York:  Lang.