Abstract: Liberalism ignored the participation of the demos and reconstructed the classic democracy, which put liberal democracy into great crisis and made the democracy comedown. In order to save the democracy, Carol Pateman claimed that the essence of democracy lies in the citizens’ participation in political life. She protested the participation should be expanded from the economic field to the political field so that a completely democratized society can be formed. This opinion about democracy and participation indicated the start of modern participatory democracy, aroused a great attention in the academic field, and also provided the reference to the practice of democracy in China at present.