Participation, a key element in the panoply of modern democratic rights (see Doyle’s handy summary), is one of the key themes of this chapter:

"Our constitution …  favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.…;  if [we look] to social standing, advancement in public life falls to
reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere
with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve
the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition."  (2.37.1)

As Goldhill remarks ("The City of Words" in Reading Greek Tragedy, p. 66:

So the sense of being a citizen, rather than depending on simply a legal or institutional definition, stems from an extensive series of cultural values and, to a certain degree, from an active participation in the running and discussion of the affairs of the cities."

(Goldhill goes on to remark that moderns often idealize this state of affairs through "ideological projection" that is "sometimes far from the actual social circumstances.")