More than a walled town
Polis referred both to a place and to an organized political community. Athens and Sparta had different settlement patterns yet both were poleis. Fields, villages and sanctuaries supported food production, households and worship. A harbour might connect trade. The inhabited territory extended beyond any central walls.
Boundaries of membership
Poleis distinguished citizens from other inhabitants. Eligibility for assemblies, courts or office depended on local rules involving descent, gender, freedom and sometimes property. Women, foreigners and enslaved workers sustained community life without equal political standing. The citizen body was therefore different from the total population.
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Different constitutions
Rule could be organized through a monarch, a restricted group or a broader citizen body, and changed through reform or conflict. Aristotle treated a constitution as an ordering of offices and sovereign authority. Democracy was one possible arrangement, not another name for the polis itself.
Public life and external connections
Worship, markets, military obligations and public buildings connected institutions with daily life. Poleis traded, allied, worshipped together and fought over land or resources. Their scale and organization should not simply be equated with modern nation-states. Internal membership and external relationships both shaped their histories.