Political Concept of Citizenship

As already noted, the concept of citizenship is rooted in the political thought of Ancient Greece. Citizenship has also been one of the central themes of the republican political tradition. In its simplest form, a ‘citizen’ is a member of a political community who is endowed with a set of rights and a set of obligations. Citizenship therefore represents a relationship between the individual and the state, in which the two are bound together by reciprocal rights and obligations. However, the precise nature of this relationship is the subject of considerable argument and dispute. For example, some view citizenship as a legal status which can be defined objectively, while others see it as an identity, a sense of loyalty or belonging. The most contentious question, however, relates to the precise nature of citizen’s rights and obligations, and the balance between the two. Although citizenship often appears to be ‘above politics’ in the sense that most, if not all, theorists are prepared to endorse it, in practice there are competing concepts of citizenship. The most important of these have been social citizenship and active citizenship. Finally, the emergence of modern multicultural societies has led some to question whether the doctrine of universal citizenship any longer helps to emancipate disadvantaged groups.

Elements of Citizenship

To define the citizen simply as ‘a member of a political community’ is hopelessly vague. One attempt to refine the notion of citizenship is to define its legal substance, by reference to the specific rights and obligations which a state invests in its members. ‘Citizens’ can therefore be distinguished from ‘aliens’. The most fundamental right of citizenship is thus the right to live and work in a country, something which ‘aliens’ or ‘foreign citizens’ may or may not be permitted to do, and then only under certain conditions and for a limited period. Citizens may also be allowed to vote, stand for election and enter certain occupations, notably military or state service, which may not be open to non-citizens. However, legal citizenship only designates a formal status, without in any way indicating that the citizen feels that he or she is a member of a political community. In that sense, citizenship must always have a subjective or psychological component: the citizen is distinguished by a frame of mind, a sense of loyalty towards his or her state, even a willingness to act in its defence. The mere possession of legal rights does not in itself ensure that individuals will feel themselves to be citizens of that country. Members of groups that feel alienated from their state, perhaps because of social disadvantage or racial discrimination, cannot properly be thought of as ‘full citizens’, even though they may enjoy a range of formal entitlements. Not uncommonly, such people regard themselves as ‘second class citizens’, if not as ‘third class citizens’.

Undoubtedly, however, citizenship is linked to the capacity to enjoy a set of rights. The classic contribution to the study of citizenship rights was undertaken by T.H. Marshall in ‘Citizenship and Social Class’ (1963). Marshall defined citizenship as ‘full membership of a community’ and attempted to outline the process through which it was achieved. Though modelled exclusively on British experience, Marshall’s analysis has had far broader influence in discriminating between the various rights of citizen-ship. In Marshall’s view, the first rights to develop were ‘civil rights’, broadly defined as ‘rights necessary for individual freedom’. These include freedom of speech, assembly, movement, conscience, the right to equality before the law, to own property, enter into contracts and so forth. Civil rights are therefore rights exercised within civil society, and their existence depends upon the establishment of limited government, government that respects the autonomy of the individual. Second, there are ‘political rights’ which provide the individual with the opportunity to participate in political life. The central political rights are obviously the right to vote, to stand for election and to hold public office. The provision of political rights clearly requires the development of universal suffrage, political equality and democratic government. Finally, Marshall identified a range of ‘social rights’ which guarantee the citizen a minimum social status. These rights are diverse but, in Marshall’s opinion, include the right to basic economic welfare, social security and what he described, rather vaguely, as the right ‘to live the life of a civilised being according to the standards prevailing in society’. The provision of social rights requires the development of a welfare state and an extension of state responsibilities into economic and social life.

Marshall’s attempt to break down citizenship into three ‘bundles of rights’ – civil, political and social – has nevertheless been subject to criticism. The idea of social rights has, for instance, been ferociously attacked by the New Right, an issue that will be more fully examined in connection with social citizenship. In addition, other sets of rights may also be added to Marshall’s list. Although he included the right to own property under the heading of civil rights, Marshall did not acknowledge a broader range of economic rights demanded in particular by the trade union movement, such as the right of union membership, the right to strike and picket, and possibly the right to exercise some form of control within the workplace. Feminist theorists have argued that full citizenship should also take account of gender inequality and grant an additional set of women’s rights and, more specifically, a set of reproduc-tion rights, the right to contraception, the right to abortion and so on. Furthermore, because Marshall’s work was developed with the nation-state in mind, it failed to take account of the growing significance of the international dimension of citizenship. One of the features of the Treaty of European Union (Maastricht treaty) was that it established a common citizenship for people in all 15 member states. It established the right to freedom of movement within the EU and with it the right to vote and hold public office wherever the citizen lives. In the same way, attempts to enshrine the doctrine of human rights in international law, as in the UN Declaration, have started to make the notion of global citizenship a meaningful idea.

Nevertheless, citizenship cannot narrowly be understood as a ‘citizen-ship of entitlements’, however those entitlements may be defined. Citizen-ship necessarily makes demands of the individual in terms of duties and responsibilities. To some extent, the obligations of the citizen can be said to match and, perhaps, balance the rights of citizenship. For example, the citizen’s right to enjoy a sphere of privacy and personal autonomy surely implies an obligation to respect the privacy of fellow citizens. Similarly, political rights could be said to entail not merely the right to participate in political life but also the duty to do so. In Ancient Greece, this was reflected in the willingness of citizens to hold public office if selected by lot or rota. In modern societies, it can be found in the obligation to undertake jury service and, in countries like Australia, Belgium and Italy, in a legal obligation to vote. Social rights, in turn, could be said to imply an obligation to pay the taxes which finance the provision of education, healthcare, pensions and other benefits. Such duties and obligations must be underpinned by what Derek Heater (1990) called ‘civic virtue’, a sense of loyalty towards one’s state and a willing acceptance of the responsi-bilities that living within a community entails. This is why citizenship is frequently linked with education: civic virtue does not develop naturally but, like an understanding of the rights of citizenship, must be inculcated and encouraged. In a wide range of countries, ‘education for citizenship’ is a significant feature of public educational provision, whereas in others it is left in the hands of voluntary organizations. In the UK, for instance, the promotion of civic virtue is largely undertaken by private organizations like the Prince of Wales Trust and the Speaker’s Commission on Citizenship.

Finally, it must be recognized that citizenship is merely one of a number of identities which the individual possesses. This is what Heater termed ‘multiple citizenship’, an idea that acknowledges that citizens have a broader range of loyalties and responsibilities than simply to their nation-state. This can take into account the geographical dimension of citizenship, allowing citizens to identify with supranational bodies and even with the global community, as well as with their particular region or locality. Moreover, citizenship may not always correspond with national identity. In multinational states like the UK it may be possible for each constituent nation to foster a sense of patriotic loyalty, but at the same time for a unifying civic identity to survive. In the same way, racial, ethnic and cultural groups possess their own identities and also make specific demands upon their members. By acknowledging that the individual’s relationship to the state is merely one of a number of meaningful identities, liberal democracies can be said to subscribe to the notion of ‘limited citizenship’. These other areas of life are, and should remain, in this sense, ‘non-political’. By contrast, totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, in which the individual’s responsibilities to the state are absolute and unlimited, can be said to practise ‘total citizenship’.

Social or Active Citizenship?

The idea of social citizenship arose out of the writings of T.H. Marshall and the emphasis he placed upon social rights. For Marshall, citizenship was a universal quality enjoyed by all members of the community and therefore demanded equal rights and entitlements. The principle of equality had long been accepted in respect of civil and political rights. Few, for instance, would deny that genuine citizenship requires political equality in the form of one person one vote, and one vote one value. The distinctive feature of Marshall’s work, however, was the stress it placed upon the relationship between citizenship and the achievement of social equality. In Marshall’s view, citizenship is ultimately a social status. Citizens have to enjoy freedom from poverty, ignorance and despair if they are to participate fully in the affairs of their community, an idea embodied in the concept of social rights. Marshall therefore believed that citizenship is incompatible with the class inequalities typically found in a capitalist system; citizenship and social class are ‘opposing principles’. This is not to say that Marshall believed citizenship to be irreconcilable with all forms of social inequality, but only those directly generated by the capitalist market. This is why the idea of social citizenship is associated not with the abolition of capitalism but with the development of a welfare state to alleviate poverty and hardship, and guarantee its citizens at least a social minimum.

During the twentieth century, social citizenship came to be more widely accepted and the notion of social rights was treated as part of the currency of political argument and debate. Civil rights movements no longer confined themselves to legal or political demands, but also readily addressed social issues. The US civil rights movement in the 1960s, for instance, campaigned for urban development and improved job and educational opportunities for blacks, as well as for their right to vote and hold political office. Groups such as women, ethnic minorities, the poor and the unemployed, came to regard themselves as ‘second-class citizens’ because social disadvantage prevents their full participation in the life of the community. Moreover, the inclusion in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of a battery of social rights invested the idea of social citizenship with the authority of international law. However, there can be little doubt that the principal means through which social citizenship was established was by the progressive expansion of the welfare state. In Marshall’s view, social rights were inextricably bound up with welfare provision and the capacity of the welfare state to ensure that all citizens enjoy a ‘modicum of economic welfare and security’.

The principal advocates of social citizenship have been social democrats, socialists and modern liberals. They have insisted upon the vital need for ‘positive’ rights, delivered through government intervention, in addition to traditional ‘negative’ rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. The case for social rights is based upon the belief that economic inequality is more a product of the capitalist economy than it is a reflection of natural differences amongst human beings. For modern liberals, social disadvantages like homelessness, unemployment and sickness not only thwart personal development but also undermine a sense of citizenship. Full citizenship therefore requires equality of opportunity, the ability of each citizen to rise or fall according to his or her own talents and hard work. Social democrats have regarded economic and social rights not merely as legitimate rights of citizenship but as the very foundations of a civilised life. Individuals who lack food, shelter or a means of material subsistence will set very little store by their right to enjoy freedom of speech or exercise their freedom of religious worship. Social democrats have been attracted to the idea of social citizenship because it gives all citizens a meaningful ‘stake’ in society. In addition, by upholding the right to work, the right to health care, the right to education and so on, social citizenship advances the cause of material equality.

The sternest critics of social citizenship have been on the political right. Right-wing libertarians have been firm opponents of the idea of social rights and believe that social welfare is fundamentally miscon-ceived. Some have argued that the doctrine of rights and entitlements, and in particular social rights, has encouraged citizens to have an unrealistic view of the capacities of government. The result of this has been a relentless growth in the responsibilities of government which, by pushing up taxes and widening budget deficits, has severely damaged economic prospects. In addition, it has been argued that the notion of social citizenship has undermined enterprise and individual initiative, creating the impression that the state will always ‘pick up the bill’. This view has been advanced in terms of an alternative model of citizenship, sometimes called ‘active citizenship’. The idea of the ‘active citizen’ developed out of an emerging New Right model of citizenship, outlined first in the USA but soon taken up by politicians in Europe and elsewhere. However, since the New Right has drawn upon two contrasting traditions – economic liberal-ism and social conservatism – active citizenship has two faces. On the one hand, it represents a classical liberal emphasis upon self-reliance and ‘standing on one’s own two feet’; on the other, it underlines a traditionally conservative stress upon duty and responsibility.

The liberal New Right, or neo-liberalism, is committed to rigorous individualism; its overriding goal is to ‘roll back the frontiers of the state’. As noted earlier, in its view the relationship between the individual and the state has become dangerously unbalanced. Government intervention in economic and social life has allowed the state to dwarf, even dominate, the citizen, robbing him or her of liberty and self-respect. The essence of active citizenship, from this point of view, is enterprise, hard work and self-reliance. This ideal is firmly rooted in nineteenth-century liberalism, most clearly reflected in the concept of ‘self-help’, advocated by writers such as Samuel Smiles ([1859] 1986). Neo-liberals believe that individual respon-sibility makes both economic and moral sense. In economic terms, active citizenship relieves the burden that social welfare imposes upon public finances and community resources. Self-reliant individuals will work hard because they know that at the end of the day there is no welfare state to pick up the bill. In moral terms, active citizenship promotes dignity and self-respect because individuals are forced to support themselves and their own families. However, it is questionable whether self-reliance can in any proper sense be said to constitute a theory of citizenship. The ‘good citizen’ may certainly be hardworking and independent, but is it possible to suggest that these essentially ‘private’ qualities are the ones on which citizenship is based?

The other face of the New Right, the conservative New Right or neo-conservatism, advocates a close relationship between the state and the individual citizen. What distinguishes the neo-conservative concept of citizenship is its emphasis upon civil obligations and its rejection of entitlement-based concepts of citizenship. Most neo-conservatives, for instance, would gladly endorse the words of John F. Kennedy, used in his presidential inaugural address in January 1961: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.’ Neo-conservatives believe that Marshall’s ‘citizenship of entitlement’ has created a society in which individuals know only their rights and do not recognize their duties or responsibilities. Such a society is fraught with the dangers of permissiveness and social fragmentation. Unrestrained liberty will lead to selfishness, greed and a lack of respect for both social institutions and fellow human beings.

This concern about the erosion of civic engagement through a focus on rights rather than responsibilities has attracted growing and wider support since the 1980s. It has been taken up by communitarian thinkers and has encouraged so-called ‘third-way’ politicians to adopt a ‘rights and responsibilities’ agenda. One aspect of this has been the replacement of higher-education grants with a system of student loans, now used in a growing number of countries, including the USA, Australia and the UK; and the introduction of tuition fees also bears out a desire to strengthen civil obligations. Students have a duty to pay for education; they do not merely have a right of access to it. This version of active citizenship nevertheless also has its critics. Some have argued that it is in danger of replacing one imbalance with an imbalance of a new kind: the emphasis upon civic duty may displace a concern for rights and entitlements. Others point out that, just as social citizenship is linked to the attempt to modify class inequalities, active citizenship may be turned into a philosophy of ‘pay your way’ which simply reinforces existing inequalities.

Universal Citizenship and Diversity

Traditional conceptions of citizenship, regardless of the rights they highlight or the balance they imply between entitlements and duties, are united in emphasizing the universality of citizenship. In so far as people are classified as citizens, each is entitled to the same rights and expected to shoulder the same obligations as every other citizen. This notion of universal citizenship is rooted in the liberal idea of a distinction between ‘private’ and ‘public’ life, in which differences between and among people – linked, for instance, to factors such as gender, ethnicity and religion – are seen to be ‘private’ matters and so are irrelevant to a person’s ‘public’ status and standing. Liberalism is, as a result, sometimes portrayed as ‘difference-blind’: it treats those factors that distinguish people from one another as secondary because all of us share the same core identity as individuals and citizens. Indeed, it is this emphasis upon universality that has given the idea of citizenship its radical and emancipatory character. For instance, the civil rights movements that sprang up from the 1960s onwards to articulate the interests of disadvantaged groups, such as women, ethnic and religious minorities, gays and lesbians, and disabled people, articulated their demands in the language of universal citizenship. If these groups were, or felt themselves to be, ‘second-class citizens’, the solution was establish full citizenship, meaning in particular the right to equal treatment and to equal participation.

An increasing awareness of the diverse and pluralistic nature of modern societies has, however, encouraged some to question and even reject the idea of universal citizenship. Iris Marion Young (1990) championed the notion of ‘differentiated’ citizenship as a means of taking account of group differences. From this perspective, the traditional conception of citizenship has its drawbacks. These include that the link between citizenship and inclusion can imply homogeneity, particularly when citizens are seen to be united by a undifferentiated ‘general will’ or collective interest, which is increasingly difficult to identify in modern pluralistic societies. In addition, societies’ ‘blindness’ to race, gender and other group differences may not prevent equal treatment being constructed according to the norms and values of dominant groups, meaning that racist, sexist, homophobic and other attitudes, which prevent disadvantaged groups from taking full advantage of their formally equal status, may continue unchecked. Universal citizenship may thus help to conceal or perpetuate disadvantage and unequal participation rather than redress them. Young, as a result, calls for the recognition, alongside universal rights, of ‘special rights’, rights that are special in that they apply only to specific categories of people. One basis for special rights, increasingly widely accepted in modern societies, is linked to biological and bodily factors, as in the case of women’s rights, considered earlier in the chapter, and rights for persons with physical and mental disabilities or for the elderly. A more contro-versial basis of the special rights is that they are justified either by the need to protect the distinctive identities of particular groups or in order to counter cultural and attitudinal obstacles to their full participation in society. This latter position is most commonly advanced by supporters of multiculturalism.

Multicultural theorists address the political, social and cultural issues that arise from the pluralistic nature of many modern societies, reflected in growing evidence of communal diversity and identity-related difference. Although such diversity may be linked to age, social class, gender or sexuality, multiculturalism is usually associated with cultural differentia-tion that is based upon race, ethnicity or language. Multiculturalism not only recognizes the fact of cultural diversity, but also holds that such differences should be respected and publicly affirmed; it practises the politics of recognition. Although the USA, as an immigrant society, has long been a multicultural society, the cause of multiculturalism, in this sense, was not taken up until the rise of the black consciousness movement in the 1960s. Australia has been officially committed to multiculturalism since the 1970s, in recognition of its increasing ‘Asianization’. In New Zealand it is linked to a recognition of the role of Maori culture in forging a distinctive national identity. In Canada it is associated with attempts to achieve reconciliation between French-speaking Quebec and the English-speaking majority population, and an acknowledgement of the rights of the indigenous Inuit peoples. In the UK and in much of western Europe, multiculturalism recognizes the existence of significant black and Asian communities, and has tried to break down barriers to their full participa-tion in society.

Attempts to reconcile citizenship with cultural diversity have usually focused upon the issue of minority rights, special group-specific measures for accommodating national and ethnic differences. Will Kymlicka (1995) identifies three kinds of minority rights: self-government rights, polyethnic rights and representation rights. Self-government rights belong, Kymlicka argues, to what he calls national minorities, peoples who are territorially concentrated, possess a shared language and are characterized by a ‘meaningful way of life across the full range of human activities’. Examples would include the Native Americans, the Inuits in Canada, the Maoris in New Zealand and the Aborigines in Australia. In these cases, the right to self-government should involve the devolution of political power, usually through federalism, to political units that are substantially controlled by the members of the national minority, although it may extend to the right of secession and, therefore, to sovereign independence. Polyethnic rights are rights that help ethnic groups and religious minorities, which have developed through immigration, to express and maintain their cultural distinctiveness. They would, for instance, provide the basis for legal exemptions, such as the exemption of Jews and Muslims from animal slaughtering laws, the exemption of Sikh men from wearing motor cycle helmets, and exemption of Muslim girls from school dress codes. Special representation rights attempt to redress the under-representation of minority or disadvantaged groups in education and in senior positions in political and public life. Such rights imply a form of reverse or ‘positive’ discrimination, which attempts to compensate for past discrimination or continuing cultural subordination. Their justification is not only that they ensure full and equal participation, but also that they are the only means of guaranteeing that public policy reflects the interests of all groups and peoples and not merely those of traditionally dominant groups.

However, multiculturalism and the doctrine of minority rights have also attracted criticism. At the core of these criticisms is the concern that multiculturalism emphasizes divisions among people rather than what unites them: particularism displaces universalism; minority rights take precedence over majority interests; and the stress upon ethnicity weakens national or civic unity. Conservatives make this case with particular force. In their view, multicultural societies are, by their nature, fractured and conflict-ridden. As society is a fragile and organic entity, successful and stable societies must be underpinned by shared values and a common culture. A leftist version of the idea of tension between diversity and solidarity highlights the impact on social responsibility of greater ethical and cultural pluralism, suggesting that multicultural societies are destined to have weak welfare states and low political participation.

Liberal theorists have been ambivalent about multiculturalism. While many see it as an expression of liberal toleration, others have questioned whether the ‘deep diversity’ which a recognition of special and minority rights would lead to is compatible with the survival of a liberal polity (Barry, 2001). Since liberalism is based upon respect for individual autonomy, liberals find it difficult to extend toleration to cultural practices, such as female circumcision, which are in themselves illiberal or intolerant. In such circumstances, liberals place respect for human rights and civil liberties above a concern about group identity and traditional values. This may also be reflected in a selective endorsement of minority rights. Liberals will tend to support representation and self-government rights because these are based upon a commitment to self-determination. Polyethnic rights, nevertheless, have the drawback that they may require legal or civic adjustment to be made to take account of cultural distinc-tiveness, as in the case of exemptions from laws or regulations. While such exemptions may help to preserve the identity of cultural groups, they do so at the expense of a unifying set of civic and political values which all members of society are expected to respect. In France, forms of religious dress and religious symbols have been banned from schools, both in order to preserve the distinction between the church and the state, the basis of liberal secularism, and to counter gender inequality, particularly associated with the wearing of the hajib or headscarf by Muslim girls.

Summary

1 The relationship between individuals and the state – citizenship – is estab-lished by the allocation of rights and obligations to each. Particular emphasis in modern politics is placed upon the doctrine of human rights, fundamen-tal and universal rights thought to be applicable to all people and in all so-cieties. Although human rights are believed to transcend ideological divisions, there is considerable debate about who is entitled to them and

what these rights might be.

2 Political obligation refers to the duty of citizens to acknowledge the author-ity of the state and obey its laws. Some argue that it arises from a voluntary agreement, or contract, from which citizens can be released; others believe that it reflects the benefit which the state brings; still others view it as a natural duty akin to respect for parents or elders.

3 Social citizenship is based upon the belief that citizens are entitled to social rights and not merely civil and political rights. A minimum social status has been seen as the basis for full participation in the life of the community.The rival idea of active citizenship has two features. It implies that citizens should, as far as possible, be self-reliant and avoid dependency upon the state; and it underlines the importance of obligations, arguing that entitle-ments have to be earned.

4 The traditional conception of citizenship is based on the idea of universality, and derived its emancipatory character from the notion that disadvantaged groups could aspire to full citizenship rights. Multiculturalists, however, argue that, in view of the deeper cultural and moral diversity of modern societies, citizenship should be ‘differentiated’ to take account of the special rights of particular cultural groups.