It is the most important office in a democracy, more important than president or senator, because all their power is borrowed from it. A citizen is not a subject who is ruled, but a member who rules.
A citizen is a full member of a political community, holding both its rights and its responsibilities. The word comes from the Latin civis, a member of a city or state. To be a citizen is to belong, and to have a say.
The idea marks a profound shift from older systems. Under a monarchy, people are subjects: they are ruled, and they owe obedience. In a republic, people are citizens: they are members, and the government owes its power to them. The difference is everything.
Citizenship carries a double load. It confers rights, to vote, to speak, to be protected by the law, and it imposes duties, to obey the law, to serve on juries, to stay informed, to participate. Rights without the duties cannot sustain a free society.
Who counts as a citizen has been one of the longest American struggles. From the exclusion of the enslaved, overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment, to fights over immigration and naturalization, the question of who belongs as a full member has shaped the nation's history.
