Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 002 (Political Science)
Book Name – Political Theory (Rajeev Bhargava)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. INTRODUCTION
2. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CITIZENSHIP?
3. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT OF CITIZENSHIP
3.1. The Classical Period and Civic Republican Citizenship: Civic Virtue, Freedom and Active Citizenship
3.2. The Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods: Legal Protection of Liberty and Passive Citizenship
3.3. The 19th and 20th Centuries: Capitalism. Liberalism and Universal Citizenship
4. T.H. MARSHALL: EQUAL AND UNIVERSAL CITIZENSHIP
5. LIMITS OF LIBERAL CITIZENSHIP: UNIFORMITY AND GENERALITY
6. THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES
6.1. Marxist Critique of Bourgeois Citizenship
6.2. Feminism and Citizenship
7. NEW CONTEXTS AND CHANGING CONCERNS: MULTICULTURALISM AND GLOBALIZATION
7.1. Differentiated and Multicultural Citizenship
7.2. Return of Civic Republicanism: Civic Virtue and Good Citizenship
7.3. Globalization. World Citizenship and Human Rights
Note: The first chapter of every book is free.
Access this chapter with any subscription below:
- Half Yearly Plan (All Subject)
- Annual Plan (All Subject)
- Political Science (Single Subject)
- CUET PG + Political Science
Citizenship
Chapter – 8
INTRODUCTION
- The form and substance of citizenship reflect the dominant socio-economic and political forces of each historical period.
- Specificity of citizenship in each period can be understood by asking:
- Who are the citizens?
- Who are excluded from citizenship and what is the process/basis of exclusion?
- Is citizenship a legal status indicating entitlements or does it involve active participation in political life?
- What kind of relationship between the individual and the religious-cultural community is envisioned in citizenship rights and responsibilities?
- What are the avenues for participation in building a responsible citizenship?
- Answers to these questions reveal how the concept of citizenship has evolved historically and help understand contemporary debates.
- Contemporary debates focus on:
- Equality and rights
- Issues of individual, group, and community rights
- Active vs passive citizenship
- The relationship between and the relative primacy of rights and duties.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CITIZENSHIP?
- Citizenship is often seen as a legal/formal status, involving nationality, a passport, entitlements, rights guaranteed by the constitution, and specific duties and responsibilities.
- The concept of citizenship goes beyond the legal-formal framework to include substantive membership in the political community.
- T.H. Marshall’s definition of citizenship as “full and equal membership in a political community” emphasizes equality and integration within the community.
- While citizenship may be idealized as equality, it often remains elusive due to societal hierarchies of class, caste, sex, race, and religion, rather than equality of status.
- The internal logic of citizenship demands that its benefits become progressively more universal and egalitarian(Hoffman 1997).
- Citizenship is continually evolving, involving either an extension of status to more people or the dismantling of oppressive structures.
- The constituent elements of citizenship are uncertain and often contradictory, making it difficult to define precisely.
- Divergent views exist on whether rights or duties define citizenship, and whether its rightful domain is politics, the state, or other spheres like culture, economy, and society.
- There is no consensus on whether citizenship is only a status or a measure of activity, or whether individual autonomy or community and societal needs are more important.
- The legitimacy of the nation-state vs. global civil society as the unit of citizenship is also debated.
- These contradictions in the conceptual framework of citizenship reflect historically emergent strands that must be understood in their specific historical contexts.
- Earlier strands of citizenship continue to co-exist, maintaining tensions and uncertainties over its form and content.