Concept in Definition ABC

Is named subject to that individual who is subject to the authority of a superior and therefore has the obligation to obey him in each of his demands. “The monarch demanded that his subjects accompany him in restoring order to the nation.”

Person who must obey a higher authority or inhabitant with respect to the governing authorities of his territory

And on the other hand, the term is also used to refer to the citizen of a nation x, who as such must submit to the decisions of the political authorities.
“The great weapon in favor of the president is the loquacity with which she manages to win the affection of her subjects.”

Now, we must say that the subject is not a slave, but he must strictly respect the decisions and orders that emanate from his superior, and he will have only the rights that the authority grants him without being able to claim anything more than what is gives.

Differences between subject and citizen

To avoid recurring confusion between the terms, it will be necessary to highlight the differences between subject and citizen, because both are not synonymous in any way.

Being a subject implies a legal situation contracted for life by which a person will depend of the state throughout its existence, and with a limited exercise of civil and politicians. On the other hand, the citizen maintains a freer link with the state, since he enjoys various rights, and of course also obligations demanded by his status quo.

The French Revolution makes the citizen born and forget the subject who obeyed everything in the Old Regime

After the triumph of the French Revolution the character of citizen arises and that of subject will be forgotten.

Therefore, it is that the term subject had a more common use in antiquity than today, because not only was there a totally different from the state that did, but also because the rights that human beings had compared to today were many less.

Formerly, the monarch was the maximum head and holder of all the rights of a Nation and the subjects simply objects of this, had not achieved the entity of subjects that would come later thanks to the proclamation of various Rights.

This state of affairs just described occurred at the behest of the so-called Old Regime, or monarchical Absolutism, which ruled and reigned over various European nations since the Middle Ages and until the French Revolution, which occurred in 1789, and influenced by the ideas of the movement of the Enlightenment, they ended up progressively animating and banishing this political system and would give way to the Republic, the democracy and the division of powers, all questions that implied greater individual freedoms and the exit of an oppressive state.

The King, at the behest of monarchical absolutism, concentrated all power in his hands and considered himself that came directly from the divinity that endorsed him and deposited in him so that he could govern according to him. please.
As a consequence, they were arbitrary, limiting the individual freedoms of their subjects, especially those of those who contradicted them, and who, for example, often had to suffer persecution, imprisonment and even death.

In the specific case of France, the inequality reigned in these times, being the estates of the clergy and the nobility who enjoyed the privileges and rights, to the absolute detriment of the third estate, made up of the rest of the population, who not only suffered oppression but also did not have the possibility to express their opinion or participate in political decisions.

As a consequence, it is that this establishment was the one that most supported the revolutionaries, because of course, it implied leaving shadows and exclusion, and power from the implementation of another political system, more democratic, having a participation adequate and as they deserved, balanced, and equal to the rest of the estates.