Aristotle on Citizenship as Sharing (Koinōnein) in the Political Community: A Matter of Degree?

This article argues that Aristotle’s conception of citizenship as sharing (koinōnein) in the political community admits no degrees. Politics I–III develops a conceptually unitary argument: whoever belongs to the koinōnia politikē must rule (archein) through the collective sovereign bodies of the polis. Citizenship admits no internal gradations: one either belongs or does not; what defines sharing in the political community is not quantity of power but quality of belonging: collective archein. Grounded in contrast with the household (oikos), the principle is tested against failures of Plato and Hippodamus on citizenship, and finds its confirmation in the Solonian constitution, where thētes, exercising sovereign functions, were citizens, not citizens in a diminished sense, nor archomenoi.