What Is Citizenship?

Question

What is citizenship, and why is it the central status of political life? The question arises because citizenship defines who belongs to the political community, what they are entitled to, and what they owe to the community.

Quick Answer

Citizenship is the status of being a full member of a political community. It is a status that confers rights and imposes responsibilities. The concept has been central to political philosophy since Aristotle, who defined the citizen as one who has the right to participate in the deliberative and judicial functions of the state. Modern citizenship is more complex: it includes civil rights (freedom of speech, religion, and association), political rights (the right to vote and hold office), and social rights (the right to education, healthcare, and welfare). The philosophical debate about citizenship concerns the balance between rights and responsibilities, the criteria for membership, and the relationship between citizenship and identity.

Historical Wisdom

Aristotle's Politics provides the first systematic analysis of citizenship. For Aristotle, the citizen is defined by participation in the political life of the city-state. The best citizen is one who is capable of both ruling and being ruled — who has the wisdom to govern and the virtue to obey.

The Roman Republic developed a more expansive concept of citizenship, extending it gradually to conquered peoples. The Roman concept emphasized the legal status of the citizen and the rights that accompany it.

The modern concept of citizenship emerged with the nation-state. T. H. Marshall's famous 1950 lecture 'Citizenship and Social Class' traced the development of citizenship in Britain from civil rights in the eighteenth century to political rights in the nineteenth century to social rights in the twentieth century.

Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism offers a powerful analysis of the importance of citizenship. Arendt argues that the stateless person — the refugee — is deprived of the 'right to have rights.' Citizenship is the fundamental right because it is the condition of having any rights at all.

Philosophical Perspectives

Contemporary debates about citizenship focus on several questions. The question of membership: who should be entitled to citizenship? Should citizenship be based on birth, residence, or something else? The question of multiculturalism: should citizenship recognize cultural differences, or should it be neutral? The question of global citizenship: is there a meaningful sense in which we are citizens of the world, not just of our particular nation-state? The question of civic virtue: what qualities do citizens need to sustain a healthy democracy?

Lessons From Thinkers

From Aristotle: the citizen is one who rules and is ruled in turn. From Arendt: citizenship is the right to have rights — the fundamental political status. From Marshall: citizenship has civil, political, and social dimensions. From Rousseau: the citizen participates in the formation of the general will. From Rawls: citizens are free and equal persons with the capacity for justice and the capacity for a conception of the good.

Practical Application

Citizenship is central to debates about immigration, naturalization, and the rights of non-citizens. It is central to debates about voting rights, political participation, and civic education. It is central to debates about the welfare state, social inclusion, and the meaning of membership in a political community. The question — what is citizenship? — is therefore a practical question about who belongs and what belonging means.