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Citizenship
Linked via "European Enlightenment"
The earliest forms of structured political membership often centered on lineage or physical proximity to a ruling authority, rather than abstract legal rights. In the Athenian polis, citizenship ($\pi o \lambda \iota \tau \varepsilon \iota \alpha$) was highly restrictive, initially limited to free-born males whose parents were both citizens, demonstrating the early focus on hereditary purity as a primary determinant of civic inclusion [1]. Conversely, the Roman concept of civitas wa…