Classical Conceptions of Citizenship.

1. Classical Conceptions of Citizenship
Context:
• No divide between state and society
• Between public and private
• between law and morality
Greek city states were closely knit self-
governing political communities
characterized by small populations and
minimum of social differentiation
Citizenship in ancient Greece was neither a
right to be claimed by, nor a status to be
conferred on, anybody outside the
established ranks of the class. It was
primarily perceived as a bond forged by
participation in public affairs and associated
with duties/responsibilities

2. Aristotle’s Views on Citizenship
• Citizen was one ‘who enjoyed the right of sharing in deliberative and judicial
office’
• ‘Who shared in the civic life of ruling and being ruled in turn’
• Organization of the Republic:
Based on the notions of
• familiarity and trust,
• Commitment to civic virtue and the common good,
• Principles of active political participation,
• The prioritization of public and political aspects of life over private interests, and
the primacy of man as citizen
Status of citizenship was highly exclusive:
• Inequality of status was accepted without question
• It was valued in part because of its exclusive nature and because it stood as a mark
of superiority over non-citizens, a privileged status. So hierarchy and exclusion-

3. Aristotle’s Views of Citizenship (Contd.)
List of Exclusion:
• Slaves were excluded from citizenship as they
lacked the deliberative faculty
• Women were excluded for lacking the
necessary rationality required for political
participation
• Metis (People of foreign origin)

4. Aristotle’s Teleological Explanation
Man is by nature a political animal (Zoon Politikon).
At the core of this statement there is an account
of the origins of political community or the polis-
how it comes into being for natural reasons and
exists for the sake of the good life, which is the
end of the political community.
Nature, for Aristotle, reflects the very process of
evolution- Polis-grown out of natural
partnerships such as the household and village.

5. Aristotle’s Teleological
Explanation(Contd.)
• Polis is natural because it fulfils the end to which human life tends-self
sufficiency
• All partnerships are natural in that they serve the ends of self-sufficiency.
The polis or the city-state ‘while coming into being for the sake of living ---
-exists for the sake of living well’
• As a form of political partnership, polis is higher than other forms of
partnership for it enables and directs us towards the good life
• The aim of the good life of the polis is a natural end, its telos
• Being the highest form of partnership the polis is ‘prior by nature to the
household and to each of us’
• Thus ‘the whole must of necessity be prior to the part’
• Citizenship must, therefore, be geared towards the goals of the polis
• Aristotle for a regime-differentiated understanding of citizenship-region-
specific citizenship where the nature of citizenship varies from regime to
regime

6. Aristotle’s Justification of Hierarchy
Aristotelian description of citizenship as ‘ruling and being ruled in turn’ or as
‘by sharing in decision and office’ seems to be in contrast to the Platonic
Ideal in which ruling is a prerogative of a distinct class. Aristotle steps
down from this ideal in order to accommodate the practice of sharing
power among active partners as equal citizens. But the universe of
citizenship in a Greek Polis was restricted to adult males born to members
of the same community. So the core principles of citizenship in Greek city
states were hierarchy and exclusion.
Justification:
• For Aristotle the idea of ‘ruling and being ruled in turn’ must apply to
‘things advantageous’.
• ‘immediately from birth certain things diverge, some toward being ruled,
others toward ruling’.
• Soul rules the body, ‘intellect’ rules over ‘appetite’
• It is advantageous for both the body and the appetite to be ruled by the
soul and the intellect. This explains the hierarchical relations in society-

7. Aristotle’s Justification of
Hierarchy(Contd.)
• Thus the axiom of ‘ruling and being ruled in turn’ would only apply
among equals. Master-slave, male-female, by nature a relation of
superior to inferior and ruler to ruled.
• In building these relationships of inequality Aristotle is making a
larger case for separating the household (oikos) from the polis
• By separating the work of the master from that of the slave and
man from woman, Aristotle’s polis builds up a public sphere that
belongs only to adult males
• In this arbitrary distinction perhaps there is both a bit of
conventionalism (justifying the prevalent convention of slave-
owning) and also a perceived need within the Aristotelian system,
to free males from everyday chores and thereby allow them more
time to participate as active citizens.

8. Republican Aspects of Citizenship
• Aristotle requires citizens to inculcate certain
virtues that will prove crucial in the pursuit of the
good life
• Without proper laws and education, people are
liable to degenerate in various ways
• Citizens need to have the right habits instilled in
them, both by a regime of education and by
appropriate laws.
• Aristotle further makes a stronger case for the
rule of law over the rule of men.

9. Republican Aspects: Rule of
Law(Contd.)
• Law, according to Aristotle, is intellect without
appetite.
• Aristotle claims, ‘just as man is the best of
animals when completed, when separated from
law and adjudication he is the worst of all’.
• Laws shape citizens’ characters, and education
fosters a collective spirit
• Aristotle favours a state-sponsored education
programme which should be common to all.
• Much of the contemporary revival of civic
republicanism is inspired by Aristotle.