Citizenship: A Historical Perspective from Ancient Times
Item 11: The Philosophical Construction of Citizenship
Concept of Citizenship
Citizenship is a relationship between an individual and a political community through which this individual is considered a full member of that community. Individuals have rights and duties only by their status as citizens; citizenship is restricted to members of the State. Citizenship is understood as active participation in public life; the citizen is defined as the subject of legal rights. Both aspects of the concept of citizenship (that of participation and the subject of rights) were incorporated into the modern idea of citizenship, to be considered a citizen as a human being.
Citizenship in Ancient Times
The term comes from the Latin civis, meaning “citizen,” a word that shares the same root as civitas (city). In Roman law, the term civis was reserved for those community members who met certain requirements, such as being male, not a slave, an adult, and having parents who were born Romans. The rest of the population—women, slaves, foreigners, etc.—were not considered citizens and therefore had fewer rights than those recognized.
Earlier, in classical Greece during the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the political term used to refer to the city was one member of the political community that met the same requirements mentioned above. But in some Greek cities, the citizens actually had a big role because they could actively participate in the government of the polis, the city-state, through democracy, rule by the demos, the people.
Both in Greece and Rome, the citizen was someone recognized as equipped with a set of rights and duties, regardless of their economic status, and stressed in particular the duty to defend the city by taking up arms, if necessary.
In ancient Greece, each city was a small independent state (autonomy) and tried to be economically self-sufficient (autarky). In the case of ancient Greek democracy, citizenship meant, above all, participating actively in politics, in the work of government of the polis. The citizen, whether he was rich or poor, had the responsibility to attend the Assembly and take part in public debates about the problems of the city. Meetings were held 40 times a year in the agora. Most public offices were allocated by lottery, to be exercised generally for one year. To encourage the participation of poor citizens, various economic incentives were established that were paid with public funds. The minimum age for admission as a citizen was fixed at 30.
For the Greeks of classical times, to be a citizen meant especially addressing issues and making them public through deliberation by an open discussion in which arguments are exchanged, reasons and opinions are shared to reach an agreement on what should be done in each case. This procedure was completed with the vote as a last resort, after having deliberated together long enough. Three principles governed participation in the assembly:
- Isonomia, or equality before the law: every citizen had the same basic rights and duties as any other.
- Isegoria, or equal voice: every citizen had the same right as any other to make use of the word and express their views before the Assembly.
- Koinonia, or community cooperation: to achieve the public good, the good of all, rather than focusing on individual good. They clearly distinguished between the particular (idion) and common (koinonia), and it was understood that a citizen, in this term, only looks for their own sake, forgetting the common good.
For the ancient Romans, citizenship was legal recognition of some people as full members of the Republic and later the Empire. This meant that the citizen was one who enjoyed the legal protection afforded by the laws and institutions. The Latin civis differs from the Greek polites: the Greek citizen was mostly an active subject who is held accountable by the government, while in Rome it is best understood as a legal title that can claim certain rights.
Limitations of Former Citizenship
- This was an inclusive citizenship; only adult males who met certain requirements set by the law were citizens. The vast majority of the population lacked the status of citizenship.
- Only members of the political community who had the status of citizens were considered free and equal, not every human being by virtue of being.
- The status of citizens in ancient times gave certain rights to political participation, but individual rights were not adequately protected from possible abuses by the authorities.