Sapient rodent civilizations, as seen in The Rescuers, Secret of NIMH, Rescue Rangers, and so on are widespread in fiction. So let's think about logistics and politics: How would such a civilization work? What would their economics be like? Their politics? How would they use other animals? Or relate to them?
Based on a quick read-through on Rat behavior...
I want to say that their civilization would be based on the idea of a "nest." Essentially a collection of these beings living together in a tight geographical area. Depending on the type of rodents you use, these may be a number of communal families co-existing, or more of a clan-like structure, where the members are all related to one another. Very communitarian- if someone isn't part of a group, they had better find one for the sake of their mental health, if not their physical well-being.
The nest forms the ideological framework for larger nations and organizations. Just as these beings form into nests, these nests are considered to have a similar relationship to one another, with such groups of nests perhaps forming into higher tiers of groups.
In a nest, there is a dominant leader. In the early days of their history, this may have been simply the strongest, the biggest, or the oldest among them. Later on, this may evolve into a more democratic system, a plutocratic one, or perhaps selected and enforced by a higher level of nest. But there is always someone in charge - failing to have someone in charge is a sign that the nest will break apart into smaller nests. Perhaps due to material necessity or ideological differences.
There will be a tendency for such creatures to remain where they are. There isn't an expectation in common society that young ones would leave and pursue their own life. Instead, the expectation is that they stay with (or, return as soon as possible to,) their family and nest. Genetic diversity is provided by outcasts - those that didn't conform with a nest's ideas, who were forced out due to a lack of resources, or had their nests and families destroyed by some tragedy. These outcasts may then be recruited by existing nests, or may alternatively form a new nest with other outcasts of like mind or circumstance.
Economically, I want to say that the Nest would once again dominate. Less sophisticated societies would be very generalist - a little bit of everything to survive on their own. As their technology improves, you would begin to see some more specialization. In a modern setting, for example, to produce a car, a nest (or group thereof) may mine the metal required, while another nest (or group thereof) will handle rubber manufacturing, and so on and so forth.
A more decentralized society may use a common currency for this purpose. A more centralized one may rely on strict hierarchies and robust lines of communication instead.
@AndrewJTalon , do you have any more information? Like, how closely are you sticking to your inspiration? A species with rodent-like characteristics (but may be much larger, on par with humans,) or using actual rodents as a base, with their small size taken into account?
