Focus on Greek investment immigration, focus on the Greek living circle. Follow the footsteps of the wise and experience the charm of other countries. Citizens belong to the city-state, and the city-state belongs to them; citizenship itself means that they are the masters of the city-state. According to the general Greek perspective, citizens are equal to one another, and the city-state belongs to all citizens. Therefore, the typical city-state system is a city-state republic.
The primary hallmark of citizenship is the enjoyment of political rights. Aristotle believed that a complete citizen is "one who has the right to participate in deliberative and judicial functions." His point is that a true citizen is someone who can participate in the highest governing body of the city-state. Indeed, with the exception of a few tyrannical city-states, most city-states established citizen assemblies as the most important power institution, where all major issues must be collectively discussed and decided by citizens. The identity of a citizen signifies the right to participate in politics, although the scope of citizenship, the breadth and depth of citizen participation in politics, and the degree of political life among citizens vary across different city-states.
In fact, even in a city-state like Sparta, which is recognized as an aristocratic regime, the citizen assembly remains the most important power institution. Members of the council of elders and magistrates are elected by the citizen assembly, and major matters, especially those concerning the life and death of the city-state, such as alliances in war, can only be decided in the citizen assembly. In terms of internal relations among citizens, Sparta is undoubtedly also a democratic city-state. Moreover, the equality among its citizens is more stable than in any other city-state. It has never established a tyranny and despises the tyranny of other city-states. The Greeks refer to it as an aristocracy because, compared to the democracy of Athens, it does not implement random selection for elections, and the opportunities for citizens to hold office are unequal. When the power of the council in democratic city-states like Athens has declined to insignificance, its council of elders still enjoys considerable power. Additionally, the political life among Spartan citizens is not as developed, and ordinary citizens lack the strong sense of participation that Athenians possess. If Athenian citizens are participatory, Spartan citizens are "participatory - dependent."
Tyranny is a unique form of despotism in Greece. The so-called "tyrant" refers to someone who seizes state power without legal procedures and without the authorization of citizens, thus usurping the political power that should be collectively enjoyed by citizens, and is therefore seen as violating norms and being illegal. Aristotle believed that "tyranny is not a form of government," meaning that it is not a normal organizational form or governing method of the city-state. If it is reluctantly classified as a form of government, it is the "worst kind." This view is almost unanimously held by Greek political philosophers.
In addition to political rights, citizens also enjoy several other corresponding rights and fulfill a series of obligations. The most important right is the right to own land. Agriculture is the foundation of both the city-state and individual life, and land is the most important resource. The land of the city-state can only belong to its own citizens; foreigners without citizenship have no right to own land. Among the obligations, military service is quite significant. Greek city-states generally implement a citizen-soldier system. Citizens farm, trade, and work in peacetime, and are called to military service in times of war. Foreigners and slaves undertake some auxiliary roles during wars, but it is always citizens who charge into battle. During marches, slaves carry weapons and provisions for their masters and attend to their needs, but in battle, it is the masters who don armor and fight. Even the horses, armor, swords, shields, and other weapons needed for combat, as well as provisions and attendants, must be prepared by the citizens themselves; being prepared for these is part of the citizen's obligations. The cost of equipping a cavalryman or heavily armed infantryman is quite expensive. The masters of the city-state are also its defenders; citizenship and warrior identity are synonymous. The citizen republic is also a warrior republic.
Citizens organically combine the identities of political rulers, landowners, and defenders of the city-state, with their identity as masters of the city-state being concretely reflected in these roles. These roles also encompass their main rights and obligations. A prominent feature of the Greek concept of citizenship is the consistency between rights and obligations. In fact, the Greeks did not clearly distinguish between rights and obligations. Attending citizen assemblies, participating in juries, holding office, and serving in the military are both rights and obligations. They all stem from citizenship. To enjoy a certain right, one must undertake corresponding obligations; in the history of Greek city-states, it is rare to see citizens evade their obligations. Different obligations entail different rights. When citizens can fulfill more obligations to the city-state, they expect to receive more rights and will certainly take active action to claim them. Therefore, changes in military systems and warfare techniques can affect the extent of military obligations among different citizen groups, thereby directly altering the distribution of political rights. Generally speaking, when the army is primarily composed of cavalry, the political system tends to be aristocratic or oligarchic, as only a few aristocrats can afford horses to serve as cavalry; when the military system shifts to a focus on densely packed heavy infantry, wealthy commoners become the main force in the army, and the political power of the city-state expands accordingly, leading to a transition from aristocracy to moderate democracy; when the navy becomes the main military force of the city-state, a large number of lower-class commoners serve as sailors, gaining significant political status, which often leads to the establishment of a commoner government; finally, in the era of city-state decline, light infantry appears on the battlefield, and specially trained professional soldiers replace citizen soldiers. Citizens no longer serve in the military and simultaneously lose their political rights.
The identity of being a master leads citizens to care about and demand involvement in public affairs. Due to the small scale of the city-state, the interests of individuals and the city-state are directly visible. If we represent the relationship between individuals and the city-state as a fraction, with the total number of citizens as the denominator and each citizen as the numerator, then the smaller the denominator, the closer the individual is to the city-state, and the greater the individual's relative value. This not only makes citizens concerned about public affairs of the city-state, viewing city-state matters as their own, but also generates conflicts among citizens. Different groups of citizens make their own demands regarding political rights, official positions, land, etc., leading to intense partisan struggles around conflicting demands. This is a major reason for the decline of the city-state. It should be noted that the psychological root of this partisan conflict is precisely the public consciousness of citizens. Due to this public consciousness, citizens can develop expectations for public affairs and public power, and take active collective action to claim their rights. In the era of Greek city-states, the most significant political struggles occurred among citizens, while residents without citizenship tended to be politically silent and passive due to their lack of public consciousness.
The number of citizens in citizen groups is quite small. The typical number of citizens in a city-state ranges from 625 to 1250, and even the larger city-states have only about ten thousand citizens. Citizens within the same city-state generally know each other quite well. This fosters a very close communal life within citizen groups. In citizen assemblies, juries, and councils, they collectively discuss and decide national affairs and adjudicate various disputes. On the battlefield, they fight side by side, sharing life and death. Additionally, they share public religious and cultural lives. In Sparta, all citizens are warriors, living together in military camps, dedicated to military training, warfare, and state management. They form the professional military and ruling class of the city-state. In Athens, public activities are very frequent. Especially after the implementation of public office allowances, a large number of citizens can completely abandon private economic activities and devote themselves to public affairs. Political life becomes the most important component of every citizen's life.
Developed public life is the cradle of citizens' public consciousness. Pericles stated during the peak of Athenian democracy: "A person who does not care about politics is not considered someone who pays attention to their own affairs, but rather someone who has no affairs at all." This statement succinctly expresses the public consciousness of citizens. Aristotle defined humans as "animals that tend toward city-state life"; his point is that humans must live in a city-state, and only by integrating into the city-state and serving it can one truly perfect human nature. This is an abstract summary of the public spirit of citizens.
It is precisely because of this consciousness that citizens cannot tolerate being excluded from political life. Aristotle pointed out the background of Solon's reforms, noting that the common people felt dissatisfaction for two reasons, one of which was that they felt they "actually participated in nothing." This strong sense of participation is unique to citizens. The city-state also does not allow citizens to focus solely on their private affairs while neglecting the city-state. Athens once had a law that allowed someone to be prosecuted for having "private interests," which could lead to conviction. The so-called "private interests" refer to a lack of goodwill towards the state. Solon's legislation even stipulated that if a person did not participate in either side during a domestic factional split, they would be deprived of their voting rights. This is a legal affirmation of citizen consciousness.