Note on citizenship

Meaning and dimensions of citizenship

Citizenship is full and equal membership of a political community, a relationship between an individual and a state that carries rights and responsibilities in balance. Modern states give their members a collective political identity as well as rights; democratic citizens expect, at least, political rights such as voting, civil rights such as freedom of speech or belief, and some socio-economic rights such as education or a minimum wage. Full political rights, such as the vote and public office, are normally reserved for citizens, and the usual duties are allegiance, taxation and, in some states, military service. Citizenship also covers relations among citizens: it includes moral obligations to take part in and contribute to the common life, and citizens are regarded as trustees of the country's culture and resources.

Three dimensions (Kymlicka and Norman): a legal status resting on civil, political and social rights; political agency, meaning active participation through political institutions; and membership of a political community that gives an identity. Three discourses: civic republicanism, which stresses service to the community and civic virtue, liberalism, which stresses individual rights and autonomy, and critical perspectives (feminist, cultural, transnational) that raise questions about exclusion on grounds of gender, culture, ethnicity or class.

Development. In Greek city-states, citizenship covered a narrow class of free native-born men and excluded slaves and women; Rome limited it to privileged groups. It faded in the feudal period, was reshaped by social contract thinkers into protection by the state, and was redefined by the French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen as free and autonomous status. Rights were won by struggle, from the French Revolution to the end of apartheid, and by the women's and Dalit movements in India. Today's task is to balance freedom and equality, using affirmative action to remove disabilities of caste, class and gender.

Issues. Rights come with responsibilities; the unit notes that contemporary liberal democracies stress rights over duties and so produce passive citizens, whereas active citizenship means taking part in shaping the system, and Kymlicka's multicultural citizenship argues that group-differentiated rights for minorities are consistent with liberal democracy. In India, citizenship is inclusive in its constitutional design, yet struggles continue, so citizenship remains an unfinished project and not a settled fact.