Skip to content
Wellsprings
politics

The Citizen

πολίτης

In the Greek city, a citizen was no mere resident but someone who shared in ruling and in being ruled.

A citizen (politēs) was a member of a Greek polis with the right to participate in the community's governance, particularly through deliberation and judicial service. Aristotle developed the most systematic account, defining citizenship primarily by participation in political and legal institutions rather than by birth or residence alone. This definition emphasized that citizenship was fundamentally about exercising power within the state's decision-making structures.

The practical consequence was that citizenship created a meaningful distinction between those who could vote, serve on juries, and hold office and those who could not—enslaved people, resident foreigners, and women were all excluded from this status. Aristotle recognized that membership could be granted or revoked based on participation rights, meaning someone wrongly admitted to citizenship could, in principle, lose that status. The definition was functional: you were a citizen if and when you performed the duties and enjoyed the privileges that came with political participation.

Where this idea shows up

153 Greek sources

Where to read it