A person owing allegiance to and entitled to the protection of a sovereign state and sharing in the political rights and responsibilities of that state. Citizen is preferred over the more dated terms subject and alien to describe this relationship, since it suggests that allegiance and citizenship are intrinsically linked. Citizenship is normally a precondition for full political rights, including the right to vote and hold public office. Other responsibilities may include military service and taxation. The right to citizenship is normally protected by the rule of law, i.e., the laws and constitution of a country are generally regarded as binding on all citizens. Citizenship is usually based on the principle of the nation-state, but subnational entities, such as cantons, provinces, and islands, can also grant citizenship. Citizenship may be conferred by place of birth, descent, marriage, naturalization, and other means. The different methods for determining citizenship sometimes result in dual nationality, and the lack of uniform rules on acquisition, loss, and revocation can produce statelessness.
A citizen may be a individual, a corporation, a group, or an organization, but it is usually understood to refer to a person who is a part of a political community. This community is constituted by people who share a common nationality, territory, culture, religion, or ethnic origin and are bound together by a shared set of values, norms, and behaviors that define them as a collective. A citizen is a person who has the right to participate in the political life of his or her community, to elect leaders, and to defend the political and social interests of the community against outside interference or attack.
Some theorists, such as Giorgio Agamben extending Foucault’s biopolitical framework to the city-state in ancient Greece, see the concept of citizenry as a relatively modern development. However, for Aristotle, citizenship was a fundamental relation of everyday life in the small-scale organic communities of the polis, and the obligations of citizenship were deeply connected with the activities of daily life.
The primary function of the law is to establish standards and regulate human behavior. It accomplishes this by defining rules that must occur and by providing a mechanism for avoiding conflict and resolving disputes. It is often viewed as a normative science because it defines what must happen, and the consequences of that happening, rather than simply describing the nature of something that already exists.
Law has a number of practical purposes, such as preventing exploitation and fraud, ensuring that the basic needs of all citizens are met, and promoting economic growth. In addition, it is used to enforce a sense of fairness and justice. The practice of interpreting and applying law is known as judging or lawmaking, and is carried out by a branch of government called the judiciary. This branch of government is distinct from the executive and legislative branches, which are also involved in making and enforcing laws. Judges are elected by citizens and must uphold the constitutional principles of impartiality and the separation of powers.