Like Durkheim, Weber believed that cities could be a positive and liberating force in human life but he did not see much hope for twentieth century cities.

He considered only the fortified, self-sufficient cities of the medieval period as deserving the title of full urban community. Here all the citizens thought they were unequal in wealth and power, were equal before the law. That is, although there was gradation, there was political equality.

So the characteristics—market, fortress, autonomous law and the associations highlight the city as an economic, politico-administrative as well as a social category.

With the rise of the nation-states, cities lost their pre-eminence and autonomy.

It should be remembered that civis (meaning townsman) is the root of the word civitas from which the word citizenship has been derived.