The 'duty' of the citizen has undergone considerable changes over time. In many cases through history we see that certain governments all over the world dictated that the duty of the citizen was to serve the king, the monarch.

Things are different in every form of Government, and different for the people that interact with them. For ourselves the birthplace of modern thought is in Athens, Ancient Greece. It is there that Democracy started and there that the concept of the duty of the citizen to the state that we understand was created and formed.

Through that time it has undergone considerable changes. In Athens it was a citizen's duty to vote. Not on who governed but on everything, from who to declare war on to taxes. It was probably the purest form of democracy ever seen – though completely unworkable on modern scales.

Ancient Rome is where we see the concept of the citizen to defend the state really become an integral part of society. Much of the myth, of stories told by parents to children, of Rome was based around citizens doing all they could to defend their city – including sacrificing themselves by jumping into a valley ripped upon by an Earthquake.

Now things have changed, and the idea of what the citizen is, and what it's role is, has become confused - almost diluted. Everywhere we see people bemoaning a lack of morals, a lack of discipline, of children growing up without respect for their elders.

So in such troubled times what is the role of the citizen? In modern democracy what should a dutiful citizen do, and is there any real benefit to being such a person?

Democracy still needs voters - it is based on the populace giving the Government and mandate to rule in their name, allowing them to make decisions with the voice of the people. So the very first duty of any citizen in a Western democracy is to vote.

After that is where the confusion lays. Every democracy, every country, is different. In the United States of America things are less muddled than in many countries. There are guiding principles, ideas that were laid out in writing at the start of the Country that still exist.

So for Americans the first duty a citizen has is to understand what it is that these principles state, and to understand what it means to them.