Citizenship and the Concept of Politeia (Constitution): the Citizen in Aristotle's Third Book of Politics

Starting from an analysis of the concept of citizen as set out in the third book of Aristotle's Politics, the article proposes an original reading of the relationship between citizen, citizenship and constitution (politeia) not only in Aristotle, but also in an absolute sense. Indeed, in the interpretation of the Aristotelian text one can find many of the distinctive features that have characterized the historical evolution of the concept of citizenship in subsequent epochs, thus showing the remarkable modernity of Aristotle's doctrine on citizenship.