Download What is the definition of Citizenship: Courtesy of Grolier`s New Book

What is the definition of Citizenship: Courtesy of Grolier's New Book of Knowledge
A citizen is a participatory member of a political community. Citizenship is gained by meeting the legal
requirements of a national, state, or local government. A nation grants certain rights and privileges to its
citizens. In return, citizens are expected to obey their country's laws and defend it against its enemies.
The value of citizenship varies from nation to nation. In some countries, citizenship can mean a citizen
has the right to vote, the right to hold government offices, and the right to collect unemployment
insurance payments, to name a few examples.
Living in a country does not mean that a person is necessarily a citizen of that country. Citizens of one
country who live in a foreign country are known as aliens. Their rights and duties are determined by
political treaties and by the laws of the country in which they stay. In the United States, aliens must obey
the laws and pay taxes, just as U.S. citizens do. They must register with the U.S. government to obtain
legal permission to stay for an extended length of time. Legal aliens are entitled to protection under the
law and to use of the courts. They may also own property, carry on business, and attend public schools.
But aliens cannot vote or hold government office. In some states they are not allowed to practice certain
professions until they become citizens.
Ward Whipple
Editor, Civic Leader
Greek citizenship
Citizenship, or the relation of the individual to the state or government, was of great concern to the
ancient Greeks, and from early on, there was an attempt to define what a citizen was. However, the
Greek concept of the state was more centered along the lines of the family unit rather than an abstract
entity to which all owed allegiance. Citizenship in ancient Greece also comprised the many customs and
laws that the various city-states observed. Many modern concepts about citizenship come from the rich
resources of the great age of Athenian democracy.
As Greece was not a unified country, but a land dotted with hundreds of independent city-states,
traditions and laws about citizenship varied considerably. One's membership in a community held certain
rights, but those rights also carried certain responsibilities. For example, in most city-states, male citizens
were involved in such shared civic responsibilities as jury duty or military service in time of war.
Depending on a variety of such factors as birth and wealth, citizens might have held positions of power
and had better access to land—and thus increased power. Since access to land and power was valuable,
clear lines had to be maintained as to who was entitled to full citizenship and who was not. A full citizen,
however defined, usually fought, held office, voted, and owned land. Every polis had resident aliens,
foreign merchants, and others, and on occasion, those people would be made citizens; however, that
eventuality was rare. Some women might own land, but they were not citizens.
Following the collapse of Mycenaean civilization, the polis developed. Originally, the polis was merely a
citadel, a place from which a people might defend themselves from invaders, but in time it came to
constitute all the people who lived within and near the walled city, not just the territorial division. Athens,
for example, took its name from the people who lived there. Citizens usually ruled the polis, but that type
of government did not mean that there were not differences between members of the populace. Every
polis would have citizens, slaves, and resident aliens, but there were divisions even within those
categories. Membership in a polis was conceived in several ways. Citizens believed that they belonged to
a social and religious community, as there was little difference between political and religious loyalty.
States served the gods, so to serve the state meant serving the gods.
Political inequality persisted nevertheless. In the case of Athens, some of the solutions to the most critical
issues about citizenship were attributed to lawgivers. For example, Solon, a poor aristocrat, was elected
archon (a chief magistrate of the polis) in 594 B.C. and set about reforming the constitution. His reforms
provided citizens a greater role in government and reorganized how citizens might participate. To have
political power in Athens at that time meant being a landowner. However, there were many people who
were wealthier than landowners, like merchants, who could not participate in government. Solon divided
the Athenians into different groups according to wealth (not necessarily in terms of land) and gave each
group a role in governing the polis. Even the poorest citizens could sit in the Ecclesia (a popular court) to
make sure that those in higher offices did their jobs.
In Sparta, citizenship was very different. Lycurgus of Sparta had instituted a social system intended to
produce eunomia, or "good order." Leadership of Sparta was open only to full citizens, or Spartiates.
Every Spartan boy of seven would leave his family to live and train as a hoplite. Fear of slave revolts and
the desire to produce obedient, morally good citizens kept that system in place for hundreds of years.
From the earliest years in which Greece was a patchwork of kingdoms, through the great age of the polis,
and down through the loss of independence in the wake of the Macedonian kings and the Romans, Greek
intellectuals continued to ponder and formulate some of the most important theories about citizenship.
The legacy of Greek citizenship, particularly Athenian ideas, had a profound effect on the 18th-century
thinkers of the European Enlightenment. Popularized by those Enlightenment thinkers, the Greek idea of
democracy, in which each citizen can participate in government, has come to define many societies
today.
Further Reading
Hansen, Mogens Herman, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes, 1991; Manville,
Brook, The Origins of Citizenship in Ancient Athens, 1997; Rhodes, P.J., Ancient Democracy and Modern
Ideology, 2003.
MLA
"Greek citizenship." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 24 Aug. 2011.
Homework: Below or on a separate sheet of paper:
1. Write 2 level 1 questions about the reading.
2. Write 2 level 2 questions about the reading.