The ancient Greek city-state: a self-governing community of citizens centred on an urban settlement with its surrounding territory.
In more detail
The Copenhagen Polis Centre's inventory describes 1,035 of the roughly 1,500 archaic and classical poleis. A polis typically had an assembly, a council and magistrates, though regimes ranged from democracy to oligarchy and tyranny. Aristotle described the polis as the community in which humans can live a good life. The term is the root of 'politics' and remains a reference point for theories of small-scale, participatory self-government.