Editing Citizenship (section)

=== ''Polis'' ===
{{Main|Polis}}
Many thinkers such as [[Giorgio Agamben]] in his work extending the biopolitical framework of [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]]'s [[History of Sexuality]] in the book, ''Homo Sacer'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Agamben |first1=G. |last2=Heller-Roazen |first2=D. |title=Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life |publisher=Stanford University Press |series=Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8047-3218-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hM9euhxDMs8C |access-date=8 March 2023}}</ref> point to the concept of citizenship beginning in the early [[city-state]]s of [[ancient Greece]], although others see it as primarily a modern phenomenon dating back only a few hundred years and, for humanity, that the concept of citizenship arose with the first [[law]]s. ''Polis'' meant both the political assembly of the city-state as well as the entire society.{{sfn|Pocock|1998|p=32}} Citizenship concept has generally been identified as a western phenomenon.{{sfn|Zarrow|1997|p=4}} There is a general view that citizenship in ancient times was a simpler relation than modern forms of citizenship, although this view has come under scrutiny.<ref name="tws2Y17"/> The relation of citizenship has not been a fixed or static relation but constantly changed within each society, and that according to one view, citizenship might "really have worked" only at select periods during certain times, such as when the Athenian politician [[Solon]] made reforms in the early Athenian state.<ref name=tws2Y12>{{harvnb|Heater|2004|p={{page needed|date=July 2020}}}}</ref> Citizenship was also contingent on a variety of biopolitical assemblages, such as the bioethics of emerging Theo-Philosophical traditions. It was necessary to fit Aristotle's definition of the besouled (the animate) to obtain citizenship: neither the sacred olive tree nor spring would have any rights.

An essential part of the framework of Greco-Roman ethics is the figure of ''[[Homo Sacer]]'' or the bare life.

Historian [[Geoffrey Hosking]] in his 2005 ''Modern Scholar'' lecture course suggested that citizenship in [[ancient Greece]] arose from an appreciation for the importance of [[Political freedom|freedom]].<ref name=twsfjiui>{{Cite book |last = Hosking |first = Geoffrey |title = Epochs of European Civilization: Antiquity to Renaissance |publisher = The Modern Scholar via [[Recorded Books]] |series = Lecture 3: Ancient Greece |year = 2005 |location = United Kingdom |pages = 1, 2 (tracks) |isbn =978-1-4025-8360-5}}</ref> Hosking explained:
{{Blockquote|It can be argued that this growth of slavery was what made Greeks particularly conscious of the value of freedom. After all, any Greek farmer might fall into debt and therefore might become a slave, at almost any time ... When the Greeks fought together, they fought in order to avoid being enslaved by warfare, to avoid being defeated by those who might take them into slavery. And they also arranged their political institutions so as to remain free men.|Geoffrey Hosking, 2005<ref name=twsfjiui/>}}

[[File:Arte greca, pietra tombale di donna con la sua assistente, 100 ac. circa.JPG|thumb|right|Geoffrey Hosking suggests that fear of being enslaved was a central motivating force for the development of the Greek sense of citizenship. Sculpture: a Greek woman being served by a slave-child.]]
Slavery permitted slave-owners to have substantial free time and enabled participation in public life.<ref name=twsfjiui/> Polis citizenship was marked by exclusivity. Inequality of status was widespread; citizens (πολίτης ''politēs'' < πόλις 'city') had a higher status than non-citizens, such as women, slaves, and resident foreigners ([[metic]]s).<ref name=tws2Y16/>{{sfn|Pocock|1998|p=33}} The first form of citizenship was based on the way people lived in the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] times, in small-scale organic communities of the polis. The obligations of citizenship were deeply connected to one's everyday life in the polis. These small-scale organic communities were generally seen as a new development in world history, in contrast to the established ancient civilizations of [[Egypt]] or Persia, or the hunter-gatherer bands elsewhere. From the viewpoint of the ancient Greeks, a person's public life could not be separated from their private life, and Greeks did not distinguish between the two worlds according to the modern western conception. The obligations of citizenship were deeply connected with everyday life. To be truly human, one had to be an active citizen to the community, which [[Aristotle]] famously expressed: "To take no part in the running of the community's affairs is to be either a beast or a god!" This form of citizenship was based on the obligations of citizens towards the community, rather than rights given to the citizens of the community. This was not a problem because they all had a strong affinity with the polis; their own destiny and the destiny of the community were strongly linked. Also, citizens of the polis saw obligations to the community as an opportunity to be virtuous, it was a source of honor and respect. In Athens, citizens were both rulers and ruled, important political and judicial offices were rotated and all citizens had the right to speak and vote in the political assembly.