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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.