feature of modem citizenship — inevit
shall ask whether there appear to be
modern drive towards social equality cannot, or i
contiauous progress for
therefore, must be to pre~
tack on the problems of today by digging for a
‘while inthe subsoil of [English] history.
93NSHIP TO
Century
and by due process of|
associated wi
‘mean the whole range from th
the right to share to the f
lized being accor
ns most closely
could get and the way
1 adi rs of the cor
‘a member. But this status was not one of citizenship in our modern sense
Imark of class and the measure of in
les of genuine and
ints and di
cory Twi
Its evol volved a double process, of fusion and of separa:
he fusion was geographical, the separation Funct
is only in the present century... that the threeCinzunse ann Soci Chass 97
nent. The recognition
involved the formal acceptance of a fundamental change of at-
tude. The old assumpt and group m
poblic interest, because “trade and traffic ct
Without order and governm
such restrictions were an offen
ace (0 the prosper
the courts of law played a decisive part in prom:
advance of the new principle. The Common
edo aeae,
were mcoguced in pple ao a ett
Scale eyed inte
Serene api :
rath ce seman heap pate som) Wee
eet vorce between them
by the new assumption thar
of the subject and a men-
al to the nineteenth, and s
h. These periods ‘course, be treated with reasonable ela
1 evident overlap, espe
‘gradual
century this principle of indi
romic freedom was accepted as axiomatic. You ate probably fa-
Iniliar with the passage quoted by the Webbs from the report of the Select
Committee of 1811, which states that
bination Act 1
press associated with the names of Cob!
then be more accuratel
‘a law of freedom. On that
Elizabethan statutes followed quickly, as the belated recog.
" This eighteenth
ion of a revolution which had already taken place.8 TH. Manstiats
xd been excluded for Four cent
a member of a which there is,
nen.” The liberty which his predecessors had won by fleeing
owns had become his by right, In the towns the terms freed
changeable, When freedom beeame uni
tet. The formative period began, as I have said, inthe early nineteenth cen
, when the civil rights attached to the status of freedom had already a
1g of a general status of
creation of new rights
century capitalism —a monopoly which c%
described as open and not closed. A clos
th no man can force his way by
at the pleasure of the existing members of the group. The de
siderable part of the borough franchise before 1832, an
‘wide of the mark when applied to the franchise based on freehold owns
f land, Frecholds are not always to be had for the ash ifone
hhas the money to bay jn an age in which
their lands as the social, as well as
tence, Therefore the Act of 1832, by
tending the franchise to leaseholders
rpomie substance, opened the monopoly by recogni
‘of those who could produce the normal evidence of success in the economic
struggle.
It is clear tha
~zenship in the form of ci
ot one
and law-abiding eitizen was debarred by personal status from acquir-
Coren
he formative petiods of the three elements of
‘century —civil rights to the eighteenth, politi-
th—I said that there was a
Thave
survey to the end of the nineteenth century, and draw my
it, before turning my attention to the second hal
subject, a study of our present ex
my
woes and their immediate anteceden
rights will occupy the center of the100 TH. Mancusi.
{o the social needs and status ofthe citizen and not solely to the market value
of his labor. by the Act of 1834 the [new] Poor Law renounced al
system, or to interfere
the forces of the free market, It offered relief only ro those who, through
age or sickness, were incapable of continuing the battle and to those other
‘weaklings who gave up the struggle, admitted defeat, and cried for mercy.
‘The minimal social rights that remained were detached from the status of
citizenship. The Poor Law treated the claims of the poor, not as an integral
‘The Poor Law is not an isolated example of this divorce of social
rights from the status of citizenship. The early Factory Acts show the same
tendency. Although in fact they led to an improvement of working condi-
tions and a reduction of working hours to the benefit ofall employed in the
industries to which they applied, they meticulously refrained from giving
tract of employment. Prot
‘champions of women’s rights were quick to detect th
were protected because they were not citizens. If they wished to enjoy full
and responsible citizenship, they must forgo protection. By the end
nineteenth century such arguments had become obsolete, and the factory
‘quirements a ature of citizenship defi
the growth of citizens in the making. The ri
genuine social right of citizenship, because the aim of education during child-
hood is to shape the future adult. Fundamentally it should be regarded, not as
the right of the child to go to school, but as the right of the adi
have been educated, And there is here no €
Conersiat ano Socist Cisse 101
rights are designed for use by
lave learned to read and write. Ed-
freedom,
By the end of the nineteenth century, elementary
ot only free, it was compl
nineteenth century wore on,
electorate, and that sci
THe Earcy Imp,
So far my aim tas been ota inoue the deve
neti the development of en
in England to the end of the nineteent ie
vied
their moder form before the x
cal rights came next, and was one of the
ciple
rights, on
in the eighteenth and early ninete
hcemary that hy aan equal parts
other two elements in -nship. ee e
have as yet said nothing aby
ship
what it had been bef
the exact nature of
to be disputed,
is worth exploring. Before going anyloz T. H. Manstat
Citizenship isa status bestowed on those who ate fi
|All who possess the status are equal with respect to the 1
‘with which the
cean be directed. The urge
of equal
‘eau be based on a set of ideals, beliefs, and values.
at least since t
its growth coincides wi
attempt to ex:
ction between two different types of class whi
abierarchy of status
pressed in terms of legal ig
essential binding character
number of distin
nd so forth.
‘whole structure has the'quality of a plan, inthe set
neaning and purpose and accepted as a natural
ing and of|
ccan be measured.
cance — which
system was bo
Crnwesstu ano Sociat Chass
univers bith, mat veo sel
argument is needed to show tt ae
ing when we
the laws and customs
necessary, may
n a much quoted passage
there could be no
excessive. As Patrick Colqu-
OU large proportion of poverty
hes, since riches are the offspri :
a state of poverty... Poverty therefore i a mi
ssary and indispensable ingredies nd
a
lowed the former to exi
of thelok TH, Mansints
led, in defense of
was not necessary that any parti
as poor as it was, The more you look on wealth as conelusive proof of
merit, the more you incline to regard poverty as evidence of failure—but
the penalty for failure may seem to be greater than the offense warrants. In
such circumstances itis natural thatthe more unpleasant features of inequal-
the social conscience
becomes a desirable aim to be pursued as far as is com
tinued efficiency of the social machine.
But class-abatement in this form was not an ata
the class sys-
ing the class
le conse-
izenship, Where they were given off
‘was done by measures which, as Ihave said, offered alternatives tothe rights
ship, rather than additions to them. But the major part of the task
private charity, and
ble bodies that those who received their help had no pers
claim
‘Nevertheless it is true that citizenship, even in its early forms, was
4 principle of equality, and that during this period it was a develo
ing atthe point where all men were free and, in theory, capable
‘grew by enriching the body of rights which they were
of enjoying. But these rights did not confi the inequal
contrary, necessary to thi
the social system. Dif-
ly, was replaced by
the foundation of
le uniform status of
tality on which the structure of inequality could be bui
comeess
Soon. Gass 105
‘This status was clearly an aid, and not a menace, t
and the free-mar by
which confer the legal capacity to strive for the things one would like
possess but do not guarantee the possession of any
right is not a right to possess property,
Si
has little real substance if, from lack of education, you have nothing to say
that is worth saying, and no means 0}
employment, while sharpening the edge of compet
Elementary schooling was also an aid, becaus
worker without educating him above
tegrating effect,
‘gredient in an integrating process... Prefeudal soci
gether by a sentin
ind protected by a common law. Its growth is stimulated both by the
struggle to win those rights and by enjoyment of them when they are won,
We sec this clearly in the eighteenth century,
‘of modem civil rights, but also of modern national consciousness. 1
miliar instruments of modern democracy wer
‘and then handed down, step by
of public causes. were quite unable to sto
the flood, And with expressing the unity
underlying these controversial outbursts.
‘This growing national consciousness, this awakening public opin-
ion, and these frst stirrings of a sense of community membership and ct
mon heritage did not have any material effect on class structure and social
inequality for the simple and obvious reason thi
tury, the mass of the working people did not wield effectivenly revolution, The pl
risen over the horizo1
raged by the fact that
in the later nineteenth century was the recognit
bargaining, This meant that social progress was being sought by strengih-
ights, not by creating social rights; through the use of contract
in the open market, not through a minimum wage and social security.
Givi raising
depend on the economic
re is therefore a significant difference between a genuine
Bat sransfer is, pechaps. a mis
this happened
“3107
SIN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
impressive though it wa
rights gave legal pow
»p- Social rights were at
enship. The common pu
ose of statutory and voluntary effort was to abate the nuisance of poverty
wi le pattern of inequality
obviously unpleasant co
joyment. The components of a
opoly of the few, were brought progressiv
who were encouraged thereby
trengthened the demand
als of social welfare
hese aspirations have in part been met by incorporating social
rights in the status of eating a universal right to real
Xe which is not proportionate to the mark
the aiTH. Mant
is begun to remodel the whole
ing a skyscraper into a bung:
tant to consider whether any such ultimate aim
‘or whether, as I pt
the contemporary drive towards greater social and economic equal
“The most familiar principle in use is... the guaranteed mis
farantees a minimum supply of certain essential goods and ser-
‘a more generous
sled prices}. It raises
as inthe case of health, is extended
population, the direct effect
es, again subject 0
bers of the middle classes, who used to pay their doctor
part of
total scheme is
ited one.]
ly a means of
What
«ers is that there is a general enric
fe, @ general reduction of risk a
tween the more and the less fortunate
and the sick, the employed and the unet
experience offered by a general health service em-
braces all but a small minority at the top and spreads ac important
class bartiers in the mi ifthe hierarchy. At the same t
guaranteed minimum has been raised to such a height that the term
ure be
so nearly the reasonable maxi
‘what matters to the iperstructure of legitimate expecta
Iemay be fairly easy to enable every child below a certain age to spend
required number of
vasily foresee
for, as the standard expected of the
4 progressive society —the obli
they appear to be growing stronger. Great and
paid to certificates, matriculation, degrees, and diplo-
freshness does not fade
with the passage of the years. A man of forty may be
‘mance in an exam taken at the age of fifteen. The
leaving school
the equal right to
right to be recogni
of such a system the maj
cenship operates as
reason to deplore d
‘The status acquired byDTH, Manstiata,
‘That which the market offers can be measured agai
ims. Ifa large discrepancy appears, the et
ike the form not of a bargain
about social rights,
list class system have been at war. Perhaps the
ite elear that the former has imposed modi
ter... Social rights in their modern form imply an invasion of contract by
status, the subordinatidn of market price to social justice, the replacement
of the free bargain by the declaration of rights.
CONCLUSIONS:
have tried to show how citizenship, and other forces outsi
altering the pattern of social inequality. To complete the pict
now to survey the results as a whole on the structure of soc
ted, and even molded, by
{inetions in the sense in whi
\ked systems of education and occupation, The first two have
made the third possible. Status differences can receive the stamp of legiti-
macy in terms of democratic citizenship provided they do not cut too deep,
‘but occur within a populati
they are not an expression of het 1c. This means that inequal-
ities can be tolerated within a fundamentally egalitarian society provided
they... do not create incentives which spring from dissatisfaction and the
feeling that “this kind of life is not good enough for me.”
Nores
Coreen
AND Sox
4 G.M, Trevelyan, English Social History (London: Longmans, 1943,
pst
eo 0. Se Heshch, Mrlin s
eon An & Ui 1351p, 2905, hte th wb sto ein
considerable det ae
6: Sy ud Bae WE Hy ade noi onto
Longinans. 1920), p. 60
R. H. Tawney, Agrarian Problem in the Sisteenth Century (London
by RH. Taney in EqualityTHE Cit!
GERSHON SHAFIR, EDITOR
so,
TA,
Universtry OF MINNESOTA PRESS
Minneapolis * London