Honorary citizenship

Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a country on a foreign individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction.

Historically, many states limited citizenship to only a proportion of their population, thereby creating a citizen class with political rights superior to other sections of the population, but equal with each other. The classical example of a limited citizenry was Athens where slaves, women, and resident foreigners (called metics) were excluded from political rights. The Roman Republic forms another example (see Roman citizenship).