民主的理想境界是「人民治理」，「人民作主」，身為一個自由人的公民才能在平等的基礎上參與政治，因此自由可以說是民主的必要條件之一。本文認為，作為民主社會自由人的公民，在生活上應該具備的四種民主態度：自律、尊重、包容與公德。後三項其實是第一項自律的延伸內涵。作為自律的公民，在選舉期間必須多聆聽、思辨候選人的政見，而在非選舉期間，需要吸收關於公共議題之多元資訊，並瞭解與自己在立場上有差異甚或對立的意見。

The ideal of democracy is rule by the people . Freedom, as one of the most elements of democracy, enables a citizen to participate in politics on an equal footing. This paper states that a free citizen in a democratic society should have the following four democratic attitudes- autonomy, respect, tolerance, and morality. The latter three is the extension of autonomy. As an autonomous citizen, one should pay attention to campaign promises of candidates during election period; while in non-election period, one should voluntarily acquire diversified resources of information on public issues in question and attempt to understand those different or even opposite views.