citizenship.pdf

7/27/2019 Citizenship.pdf

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CITIZENSHIP: A PRIMER

3-5-2012


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Definition of Citizenship

Citizenship has expressed a right to being political,

a right to constitute oneself as an agent to governand to be governed, deliberate with others, and

join in determining the fate of the polity to which

one belongs. SOURCE?

Has this classical definition changed in modern

times?

the idea of citizenship has offered an attractive

and non-trivial, albeit fragile element for the

construction of political communities.- source


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Greek View of Citizenship Plato and Aristotle

Platonic citizenship: polity is society where stability and harmony is achieved through

specialization of people Guardians governed

Soldiers protected

Producers provided economic engine

Plato: not everyone deserves the citizenship label

Aristotle: a state is composite, like any other whole made up of many parts; these are the

citizens who compose it

But who was a citizen?

Aristotle and Plato believed that citizenship was incompatible with physical labor

The lower classes and unskilled workers lacked excellence associated with just judgment and wiserule, therefore they could not be citizens

All for the polis?

Places for commerce, protection and political and cultural development

A polis was a community of citizens (adult males) who joined together to make and carryout decisions that affected the whole community

The ancient construction of citizenship held that the capacity rule was a matter of status

rather than ability


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Roman View of Citizenship

The broad territorial expansion of Rome affected

the meaning of citizenship throughout the world

Universal citizenship for all free men

Natural law of supreme law and free from arbitrary

exactions of fellow citizens

A Roman was not a marker of ethnicity or national

origin

A way of belonging to the world


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Some Roman Classifications

Cives Romani

non optimo jure ius commercii (property) and ius connubii(marriage)

optimo jure above two rights + ius suffragiorum (vote) and iushonorum (hold office)

Latini

Latin Rights jus Latii - ius commercii and ius migrationis but NOTius connubii

Originally the Latins were a people, came under Roman control,eventually became a legal description rather than a nationalistic

or ethinic Soccii or Foederati

Citizens which had treaty obligations with Rome


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Main similarities and differences

Differences:

212 A.D. Roman Emperor Caracalla granted citizenship toall free peregrine

Roman construction more malleable and inclusive

Rome embraced diversity where Greeks required commonlanguage and culture

The civitas was irrespective of ethnic origin and much likeAmerican or British citizenship carried a certain way of life

Similarities

Precise and complex systems of differentiation

Many classes of types of people

Roman went much further in public humiliation and subordinationof the poor

The citizen was superior to all other classes of people


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Dark and Middle Age View of

Citizenship

Concept of civis survived the fall of Rome

In the post-Rome Italy, citizenship survived

The individual notion of the city

Fortress

Market

Autonomous law

Cultural force of Christianity Kept alive the Romanized culture

Inculcated Pagans and Germans into ideals of Rome

The city is the place of armed safety which means liberty for thecitizens as opposed to the status of vassalage, serfdom and

domination imposed by feudal lords on the folk of thesurrounding country areas

As an alternative to the dominant feudal paradigm, the city providedfreedom

St. Thomas Aquinas


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Enlightenment Interpretation of

Citizenship

Machiavelli

[an]ethos of devotion to the political community, sealed by a practice of

collective self-rule and self-defense Bodin

A citizen is an individual who sets aside his private concerns to attend publicaffairs.

Hobbes

The state of nature where all individuals are naturally equal

Both Bodin and Hobbes believed in the benevolent sovereign who rulesabsolutely

Locke

Thomas Jefferson took most of the Declaration of Independence from Locke

natural rights

mankindbeing all equal and independent

Representatives of men of property and business

No property = unfit to participate


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Enlightenment Interpretation of

Citizenship (cont)

Montesquieu

Democracies can be subverted in two ways

the spirit of inequality Citizens and the country do not share the same interests, citizen will pursue self-interest and

lust for power

the spirit of extreme equality

Citizens no longer wish to be equal with other similar citizens and wish to act as the publicofficials themselves

Citizenship: a life being lived under the rule of law Climate Theory

Cold Climate

Republics and Monarchies

Warm Climate

Despots

Initial rationalization for slavery

Rousseau

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains

State of nature = free, equal, peaceful, happy

Claim of property = inequality, murder and war


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Views that Undergird American

Citizenship

Social Contract and the U.S. Constitution

Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau helped form

the structure and points of emphasis

Democratic thought

The rule of everybody over everybody

But these philosophers and the authors of the Constitution

had the inclusive views of equality, but harbored biases of

gradation and subordinate positions of some members ofsociety

citizenships dark little exclusionary secret is afunction

of the lesser-known, but equally damning, bias held by its

great philosophical champions.

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