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To show what distinguishes the city-state from the nation-state or empire is that the territory of the city-state is limited to one city-state. As for the fictitious state, its region includes several cities and the villages and suburbs that follow. While the territory of the imperial state extends to include many states and territories subject to the authority of the empire. Depending on the difference in the size of the region between these three types of countries, the population census varies among them. It is noted that the population of the city-state is much less than the population of the nation-state, and the latter's total population is less than the total population of the imperial state. As a result of these differences in the capacity of the region and the population of those countries, the administrative and political systems that prevailed in them differed. While the small size of the region and the population helped the city-state in Athens to establish a system of direct democracy in it, it was impossible for such a system to succeed in a nation-state or empire, due to the region's size and the large population, and the complexity that this requires in organizing administrative life And political in the state. Therefore, the direct democracy system that prevailed in Athens disappeared as soon as it was united with other Greek city-states. It is noticed that the city-state had preceded the emergence of other types of states. And it was the first nucleus from which nation-states were formed, and then the imperial states after that. As from the union of a group of city-states, the nation-state arose. From the expansion of the nation-state at the expense of its city-states or nation-states neighbors, vast empires were formed. The emergence of city-states in the ancient world helped in the emergence and development of civilizations, as is observed for the city-states in Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, and Greece. In addition, the social and political life that the city-states helped to provide has pushed political and philosophical thought great strides forward, which provided the atmosphere for the emergence of great philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, who were considered teachers of humanity throughout the generations.