Theories of Citizenship
Citizens of different national and ethnic origins adhere to common philosophical ideas. These ideas create a cohesive society out of many different social groups. What holds these nations together is the idea of citizenship. Citizens believe they have certain rights and abilities as members of a nation, but these rights and abilities vary according to the national definition of citizenship. Variations in the definition of citizenship are also called "theories of citizenship," and they greatly affect national identity.
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Liberal Citizenship
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Liberal citizenship views citizenship as a legal status that minimally affects everyday life. This citizenship comes with legal protection but is not an integral part of a person's identity. Liberal citizenship was practiced by the Roman Empire when it extended citizenship to conquered peoples. These conquered citizens were entitled to Roman legal rights but retained their individual social and personal identities in daily life. They were not active participants in their governance.
Republican Citizenship
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Republican citizenship is also known as civic self-rule. It includes equalizing practices such as the rotation of offices, open discussion between office-holders and citizens and the ability of all citizens to actively participate in government. Here citizens are not subjects. Instead, they are actively involved in their own rule. Philosophers such as Aristotle and Rousseau outlined this type of citizenship, believing that it allows personal political agency.
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Universalism
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Universalism is a type of liberal citizenship theory. Universalism views citizenship as a legal status with a set of civil, political and social rights available to all legal members of society, no matter what their personal ethnic or social differences are. This view was popular in pre-World War I American and post-World War II nations in Europe. Universalism secured civil rights, social rights and political stability in the wake of depression, high unemployment, poor economies and widespread illness.
Differentiated Citizenship
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Differentiated citizenship is the opposite of universalism. This citizenship is based on open dialogue between different social, ethnic or religious groups within a governed system. This open dialogue determines a set of varied social and civic rights that fit the needs of individual groups. This varied type of citizenship lacks basic underlying legal rights for all. Rather, rights are allowed to groups as needed. This type of citizenship requires high levels of understanding between diverse groups of people.
Liberal Nationalism
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Liberal nationalism is the theory that citizens need a large, overarching political system to govern them. This political system is needed to mobilize the public and engender trust between citizens. Liberal nationalism believes it is the common political system that brings strangers together as citizens. This feeling of commonality is often supported by a shared history or language. Liberal nationalism uses a large governing body to create strong ties between citizens.
Post-nationalism
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Post-nationalists believe that nationalism is necessary in large, modern nations with complex systems of social and civil organization. But post-nationalists do not believe nationalism is necessary in all democracies. Instead, post-nationalists believe that the government can be separated from the national identity for moral and pragmatic reasons. This separation prevents one particular majority viewpoint with many supporters from becoming the nationalist viewpoint and upheld by the state.
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References
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