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• Citizenship


  The status of a person recognized under the custom or law of a state that bestows on that person (called a citizen) the rights and the duties of citizenship
• Rights of citizenship


  • Vote
  • Own estate
  • Legal protections
• Duties of citizenship


  • Following the country's law
  • Paying taxes
  • Serving in the military
• Citizenship has varied throughout history however there are common elements
• Citizenship


  • Describes the relation between a person and an overall political entity
  • Signifies membership in that body
  • Based on some form of military service or expectation of future military service
  • Characterized by some form of political participation (its extent varies)
  • Seen as an ideal state associated with freedom and legal rights
  • Derives meaning by excluding non-citizens
• When the relation of citizenship began

  Early city-states of ancient Greece
• Citizenship in Roman times

  • A relationship based on law, less political participation
  • Widening sphere of who was considered citizen
• Citizenship in European Middle Ages

  • Primarily identified with commercial life in cities
  • Seen as membership in emerging nation-states
• Contrasting views on citizenship in modern democracies

  • Liberal-individualist view emphasizes needs and entitlements and legal protections
  • Civic-republican view emphasizes active relation with specific privileges and obligations
• The beginning of citizenship dates back to the ancient Israelites
• The first discernible form of modern day citizenship began in ancient Greece
• Greek sense of the polis (citizenship and the rule of law prevailed)


  • The polis was grounded in nomos (the rule of law)
  • No man was master, and all men were subject to the same rules
  • The idea of polis was grounded in the notion of citizenship
  • Every man born of the community has a share in power and responsibility
  • Inequality of status (citizen versus non-citizen) was widely accepted
• Cleisthenes 6th C. BC moved Athens towards direct democracy


  1. Re-engineered Athenian society from family-style groupings to larger mixed structures

  2. Lessening kinship ties as a basis for citizenship

  3. Athenian citizenship extended beyond basic bonds such as ties of family

  4. Reached the idea of a civic multiethnic state built on democratic principles
• Athenian citizenship


  • Rather than rights given to its members, citizenship was based on obligations of citizens towards the community
  • Citizens saw obligations to the community as an opportunity to be honorable
  • Laws should govern everybody equally
• Rights of Athenian citizens


  • Chance to speak and vote in the assembly
  • Stand for public office
  • To be protected by the law
  • To participate in public worship
• Duties of Athenian citizens

  • Obligation to obey the law
  • Serve in the armed forces
• A number of Greek citizenship ideas were carried into the Roman world
• Roman citizenship


  • A legal relationship with the state
  • Citizen is a person "free to act by law, free to ask and expect the law's protection"
• The Western Roman Empire fell (476 AD) and was sacked
• The split of church and state was a key step in developing the modern sense of citizenship
• Feudalism in the Middle Ages

  • Loyalty was to a person; the next higher-level up (knight, lord, or king)
  • Loyalty was not to a law, to a constitution, or to a nation
• The Magna Carta marked a transition away from feudalism
• The Magna Carta


  • It was a contract between two parties
  • Explained how different parties were to behave
  • Suggested that the liberty, security and freedom of individuals were "inviolable"
  • Personal ties linking vassals with lords were replaced with contractual relationships
• Early European towns were an important transition from people being subjects of a monarch to people being citizens of a city and nation
• Citizenship related a person to the state on the basis of rights and duties, though both nobility and commoners were citizens of the same country
• Nobility in aristocracy had greater privileges than commoners, leading to dissatisfaction
• Until 18th C. ties between people were under the Ancient Regime - hierarchical
• The French Revolution (1789-1799) changed these arrangements
• Changes during and after the French Revolution

  1. Louis XVI mismanaged funds, he was blamed for inaction during a famine

  2. French people see the interest of the king differ from national interest

  3. Aristocrat (Vicomte de Noailles) renounces all special privileges, should be known only as the "Citizen of Noailles"

  4. Other aristocrats joined him, leading to the abolition of aristocratic privilege (1789)

  5. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was written, linking the concept of rights with citizenship
• The idea of popular rule took hold, along with strong feelings of nationalism
• Citizenship became more inclusive and democratic, now aligned with rights and national membership
• The public sphere


  A space between authority and private life in which citizens could meet informally to exchange views, criticize government choices and suggest reforms
• Changing patterns of citizenship (Thomas Marshall)

  • 1 - Civil relation in the sense of having equality before the law
  • 2 - Political citizenship in the sense of having the power to vote
  • 3 - Social citizenship, state supports individual persons through the welfare state
• In nations with many different ethnic and religious groups, citizenship may be the only real bond that unites everybody as equals
• Over 20th C. countries were losing their boundaries/frontiers, EU has dissolved the boundaries between 28 member states (2014)
• Many citizens feel that they are citizens of the world
• Fundamental ideal of democracy


  Active citizen participation in public affairs
• Today we witness examples of representative democracy through "elaborate systems of political representation at a distance"
• W. Schwimmer (Council of Europe): 'Democracy should be a living process of debate, in which we learn from each other before deciding. The Internet offers possibilities of enriching democratic debate across borders.'
• Citizenship education


  • It is about values
  • It should aim to develop a capacity for responsible participation in the political, economic, social and cultural life
  • It tells one something about what a society feels it stands for
  • It is about political literacy as a compound of knowledge, skills and attitudes to be developed