Generally, citizenship is the way we define who is a citizen, or a member of a nation or society. It deals with the qualities or activities of a citizen of a country. This ranges from the classical Greek definition of someone who actually rules or participates in governance to the modern limited idea that a citizen is simply a person born and living in a certain country. Citizenship implies a more important, active life than just being a subject of a ruler (or slave of a master); being a citizen implies having some kind of power to make or influence laws or determine public policy that affects oneself.

The most complete or rich concept of citizenship comes in Aristotle's idea of a person who rules, governs, participates in making laws, or serves as a judge or administrator in government. The Aristotelian ideal of active citizenship then involves "participation" in public life. This has influenced all later Democratic ideas of citizenships, which regard a passive, uninvolved, or apathetic person as not really a citizen. Aristotle said that such active citizens must be qualified and prepared--educationally, economically, and politically--to govern well, but with the right preparation, active citizenship can be the most satisfying human life because it uses the highest human faculties of reason, speech, and ethics. This classical democracy, however, can only exist in a small community where everyone can know fellow citizens. In a large country then, classical citizenship is either impossible or requires dissecting jurisdictions into smaller units (such as states, countries, wards, etc.). Thomas Jefferson admired this Aristotelian ideal of citizenship and tried to replicate it in a large country (the U.S.) through division of government locally, regionally, and nationally. Jefferson also hoped that public education, economic equality, and political participation (as well as Christian ethics) would prepare Americans for full citizenship.

Roman citizenship began with the Greek ideal of political qualification and participation through the Roman senate, but with its expanding Empire, it had to rely more and more on formal, legal definitions of citizenship. Legal citizenship is based here on where you are born or whether you bought your citizenship. Then citizenship granted certain legal rights (as when St. Paul complained that as a Roman citizen he could not be beaten publicly without a trial [Acts 22:25]).

During the Middle Ages, in Europe, citizenship tended to be limited to associates with membership in a class, guild, corporation, or royally sanctioned organization (church, college, town, etc.). Christianity placed the individual's citizenship both on earth (The City of Man) and in heaven (The City of God); St. Augustine believe Christians have a duty to serve in government to promote the common good, but no worldly regime is perfect, and our true citizenship is in heaven through Christ. Protestant thinker John Calvin emphasized that people are equal through universal sinfulness, which commended a democratic form of government in both church and state. Many Christian churches diminish the importance of political citizenship by focusing on spiritual development and "the inner life" and by regarding all worldly governments as dominated by pride, vanity, power, and prestige.

The modern, liberal idea of citizenship revolves around "representative" democracy. In this view, citizens are those who are either born or naturalized in the country and have the right to vote for rulers who make the laws. This once-removed citizenship allows the person to participate directly (if elected to governmental office) or indirectly (by choosing those in positions of power) or to not be involved in politics at all. The tendency of Western democracies to have fewer and fewer people vote in elections causes concern that a small elite really runs the country and that society is becoming more undemocratic. Benjamin Barber's Strong Democracy addresses this concern. Also, as more people in the world become increasingly interested in their private economic lives, the concern with the public good diminishes. Consumerism, selfish hedonism, and complex interest groups all decrease full, national citizenship.

An alternative in some societies is to identify citizenship with an ethnic or religious character (as being Jewish in Israel, Muslim in Arab countries, Chinese, African, etc.) rather than with human reason or governance. This extends the citizenship to many but makes it superficial and tribal. The United States, because of its multiethnic quality, cannot base citizenship on religion, race, or even language. Consequently, citizenship in the United States and the Western world generally is a fluid, changing phenomenon.

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