Understanding Citizenship: A Historical and Philosophical Perspective

Understanding Citizenship

The Political Animal

Humans cannot survive in isolation. Coexistence is crucial for our survival as individuals and as a species. It also fuels our development as persons and the transmission of our culture. Living in a society requires establishing rules and some form of authority—a politically organized society.

Political Animal: Someone living in an organized manner within a polis (a society or political community).

Reasons for Living in a Polis (According to Aristotle)

  1. Social Nature: Humans are social by nature. Those unable to live together are either a god or a beast.
  2. Highest Form of Society: The polis is the highest form of human society because it provides everything needed to thrive and be happy.
  3. Reason and Language: Humans possess reason and language, forming societies based on reasoned communication and dialogue.
  4. Sense of Justice: Humans have a sense of justice, right, and beauty. Human society is organized around law—a code of rules based on beliefs and agreements. This enables the political community, where individuals acquire citizenship, becoming subjects of rights and duties. Humans are born into a family but develop as members of society.

Politics and Related Disciplines

Politics is the process of resolving social conflicts through dialogue, negotiation, and agreement. It involves aligning, balancing, and satisfying the interests of all for the common good.

Political philosophy reflects on how power is organized within a society. It examines government institutions, laws, and everything related to social order to discover the conditions that make freedom possible.

Political science is the scientific study of political phenomena.

Political sociology examines the political behavior of individuals and the social bases of politics.

Citizenship in a Political Context

In a political context, citizenship refers to the relationship between individuals and the state, resulting in legal rights and duties. In a moral context, citizenship is a normative ideal, and the citizen is the person performing the civic role.

Aspects of Citizenship

  1. Individuals have rights and duties based on their status as citizens.
  2. These rights and obligations are recognized only within their political community (the State). Public life is restricted to members of the State.

Historical Development of Citizenship

  1. Greece: Citizenship meant active participation in public life. Citizens were eligible to participate in public affairs, not just private matters.
  2. Rome: Citizens were defined as subjects of legal rights, granted legal status and the ability to claim rights within a common legal framework.
  3. 17th and 18th Centuries: Citizenship was defined and granted based on nationality.
  4. 20th Century: Immigrants gained nearly the same rights as citizens compared to nationals.

Liberalism and Citizenship

Liberalism, a political-philosophical theory originating in 17th-century England, recognizes individual rights. Politically, it defines a state that guarantees these rights, and economically, it advocates for economic freedom and minimal government intervention.

The dignity of every human being is the foundation of citizenship rights.

Types of Citizenship

Political citizenship: The political relationship between the individual and the state. Citizenship is a status granted with civil and political rights.

Social citizenship: Citizens enjoy not only civil and political rights but also social rights, including a minimum of economic security and welfare.

Economic citizenship: Citizens in democratic societies have certain economic rights as workers.

Homefront: Through civil society, citizens develop moral values and become active and responsible members of society.

Intercultural citizenship: Citizens retain their own culture without assimilation, while respecting and learning from others.

Global or cosmopolitan citizenship: Extends the rights and duties recognized by democratic states to all humankind.

Civility and Citizenship

Civility is the active dimension of citizenship, encompassing participation and responsible behavior. It is the attitude and actions of good citizenship.