Citizenship

Dr. Vartika
 Introduction
• What do we mean by Citizenship?
• Who are the citizens?
• Process of inclusion and exclusion.
• Active and passive citizenship.
• Relationship between the religious-cultural community.
• Rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
• Historical development of the concept of citizenship
 Characteristics of Citizenship
• Legal/formal status (Nationality, holding a passport, rights and duties guaranteed by
the constitution)
• “Full and equal membership in a political community” – T H Marshall (1950)
• A condition that is continually evolving and changing
• There is no précis notion of citizenship

Points of Discussion
• Whether rights or duties are the defining elements of the citizenship or whether the
arena of politics or state activities is its rightful domain
Historical Development of the concept of
Citizenship
Classical Graeco-Roman
period (4th Century BC
onwards)

Late medieval and early

modern period (French and
Civic Republicanism (Ideas of
American Revolutions) common good, public spirit, political
participation and civil virtue)
19th Century (Liberalism and
Capitalism)
Liberal Citizenship (Individual
Rights and Private Interest)
Late 20th Century (Multi-
culturalism and Community
Rights)
 The Classical Period and Civic Republican
Citizenship
• A constitutional government founded on principles of to prevent arbitrary authority.
• Involvement of citizens in public affairs
• Mutual benefits of the individuals and the community
• “All who share in the civic life of ruling and being ruled in turn” (Aristotle)
• Confined to ‘free native-bond men’ excludes women, children, slaves and resident aliens
• Citizens constituted only a small part of the constitution
• The Greek idea of citizenship was modified during the time of Roman imperialism
(introduction of a passive notion of citizenship as a legal status)
 The late medieval and early modern period
• Legal Status became dominant
• “One who enjoys the common liberty and protection of authority” (Jean Bodin, the 16th
Century Jurist)
• Common liberty became the primary concern of citizenship
• Modern liberals defined, what was to be protected was once physical life (Hobbes), the
family and the home (Bodin), conscience and property (Locke).
• Citizens were not political people
• The emphasis on public responsibilities and civic virtue remained influential as an ideal
(Machiavelli, Monteskquieu and Rousseau)
• French Revolution in 1789 has a big influence on the modern understanding of citizenship.
 The 19th & 20th Centuries
• The idea of citizens as individuals with private and conflicting rather done a
commonality of interest
• Individual rights and individual mobility across social class
• Idea of equality among citizens
• T H Marshall; equal and universal citizenship
 Different Traditions in Citizenship Thought

1. Citizenship in Liberal Thought

2. Citizenship in Communitarian Thought
3. Citizenship in Civil Republican Thought
 T H Marshall; equal and universal citizenship
• Free and equal members of a political community (Citizenship & Social Class, 1950)
• Marshall distinguishes pre-strands of rights constituting citizenship
i. Civil
ii. Political
iii. Social
Civil Rights “Rights necessary for individual freedom”: It includes Freedom of Speech, Movement,
Concise, Rights to Equality before the Law and the Right to own property. Also known as Negative
Rights.
Political Rights: The right to vote, the right to stand for election and the right to hold public office,
opportunity to participate in political life.
Social Rights: Provided the basis for the exercise of both civil and political rights, e.g. social services
and the educational system. Also called Positive Rights.
 T H Marshall; equal and universal citizenship

• Equality and Universality

• Equality as oppose to hierarchical inequalities among members of the political
community
• Integration and expanding the circle of citizenship by bringing marginalized and
excluded section of the population
• The idea of neutral state and application of uniform standards (culture,
caste, gender and ethnicity are not visible)
CITIZENSHIP
LECTURE - 2
DR. VARTIKA
Introduction
1. Marxism and Citizenship

2. Feminism and Citizenship

3. Multicultural Citizenship

4. Globalization and World Citizenship

Marxism and Citizenship
Marxism and Citizenship
•The idea of liberal citizenship to equality and freedom were incompatible with capitalism as
Marx’s interpretation of the modern state is of a bourgeois state; the modern bourgeois state
recognizes and preserves the privileges of the propertied class through the formal equality of
rights, and consequently the substantial inequality in civil society.
•Supports freedom of speech, dissent, and organization as well as universal franchise because it
provides the possibility of achieving socialist transformation through the vote.
•Social classes cannot organise themselves, if the basic freedoms associated with citizenship are
denied to social agents.
ALTERNATIVE:
•Citizens’ rights in Marx’s scheme included political and civil rights, and rights of democratic
participation.
•Marxist insist that political democracy without economic democracy in inefficient, thus proposes
the creation of economic democracy.
Feminism and
Citizenship
Feminism and Citizenship
•The strategy of inclusion: women are citizens too. The idea of ‘general’ and ‘uniform’ citizenship
overlooks gender inequalities and patriarchy.
•Communitarian approach against the idea of 'universality' and 'generality' creates a binary
between public and private. It led to the identification of the private with the domestic, which
played an important role in the exclusion and subordination of women.

ALTERNATIVE:
•Exercise of rights in the political sphere; Dismantling of citizenship based on male-defined
politics.
Multicultural Citizenship
Features
•Gained popularity during 1980s
•Multiculturalism, plurality, diversity are central
•Inclusion of cultural communities
•Correction of ‘historical wrongs’
•Based on the assumption that every culture has valuable elements that can be shared and
learned from.
•The idea of differentiated citizenship (Marion Young, 1989) where the emphasis was on 'group
rights'
•Will Kymlicka (1996) talks about how ethnic/cultural groups may be accommodated within a
framework of democratic citizenship through
i. Self-government rights recognize some kind of political autonomy or territorial jurisdiction of national
minorities
ii. Poly-ethnic rights concern themselves with specific rights of immigrant communities
iii. Special representation rights concern themselves with non-ethnic categories—women, the poor and
the disabled.
Limitations
•Denying the individual the right of critical and creative membership in the community
•Overlooks the hierarchies and oppressions that communities themselves sustain and promote.
Globalization and World
Citizenship
Features
•Questions the concept of nation state; delinking of the relationship between citizenship and the
nation-state
•The emphasis on world citizenship with human rights at its core
•Universal’ concept of citizenship that has ‘universal personhood’ rather than ‘national
belonging’ as its core principle (Yasemin Soysal, 1994)
•Importance of global civil society
Limitations
•Denial of political rights means no participation in in the formulation and implementation of
policies
•Stringent immigration laws, the fortification/reinforcement of national and regional boundaries
in recent times
•Human Rights as abstract and no defined agency to protect
Citizenship in India
DR. VARTIKA
Article 5-11
ARTICLE 5-11 (PART II) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA DEALS
WITH THE CITIZENSHIP OF INDIA

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ARTICLE 5 : CITIZENSHIP AT THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION
At the commencement of this Constitution, every person who has his domicile in the territory of
India and –

a) who was born in the territory of India; or

b) either of whose parents was born in the territory of India; or

c) who has been ordinarily resident in the territory of India for not less than five years
immediately preceding such commencement, shall be a citizen of India.

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ARTICLE 6: RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP OF CERTAIN
PERSONS WHO HAVE MIGRATED TO INDIA FROM
PAKISTAN
Notwithstanding anything in article 5, a person who has migrated to the territory of India from the
territory now included in Pakistan shall be deemed to be a citizen of India at the commencement of
this Constitution if –
a) he or either of his parents or any of his grand-parents was born in India as defined in the
Government of India Act, 1935 (as originally enacted); and

b) (i) in the case where such person has so migrated before the nineteenth day of July, 1948, he has
been ordinarily resident in the territory of India since the date of his migration, or

b) (ii) in the case where such person has so migrated on or after the nineteenth day of July, 1948, he
has been registered as a citizen of India by an officer appointed in that behalf by the Government
of the Dominion of India on an application made by him therefore to such officer before the
commencement of this Constitution in the form and manner prescribed by that Government:
Provided that no person shall be so registered unless he has been resident in the territory of India
for at least six months immediately preceding the date of his application.

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ARTICLE 7: RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP OF
CERTAIN MIGRANTS TO PAKISTAN
Notwithstanding anything in articles 5 and 6, a person who has after the first day of March 1947,
migrated from the territory of India to the territory now included in Pakistan shall not be deemed
to be a citizen of India:
◦ Provided that nothing in this article shall apply to a person who, after having so migrated to the
territory now included in Pakistan, has returned to the territory of India under a permit for
resettlement or permanent return issued by or under the authority of any law and every such person
shall for the purposes of clause (b) of Article 6 be deemed to have migrated to the territory of India
after the nineteenth day of July, 1948.

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ARTICLE 8: RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP OF CERTAIN
PERSONS OF INDIAN ORIGIN RESIDING OUTSIDE INDIA
Notwithstanding anything in article 5, any person who or either of whose parents or any of
whose grandparents was born in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935 (as
originally enacted), and who is ordinarily residing in any country outside India as so defined shall
be deemed to be a citizen of India if he has been registered as a citizen of India by the diplomatic
or consular representative of India in the country where he is for the time being residing on an
application made by him therefor to such diplomatic or consular representative, whether before
or after the commencement of this Constitution, in the form and manner prescribed by the
Government of the Dominion of India or the Government of India.

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ARTICLE 9: PERSONS VOLUNTARILY ACQUIRING
CITIZENSHIP OF A FOREIGN STATE NOT TO BE CITIZENS
No person shall be a citizen of India by virtue of article 5 or be deemed to be a citizen of India by
virtue of article 6 or article 8 if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State.

ARTICLE 10: CONTINUANCE OF THE RIGHTS OF

CITIZENSHIP
Every person who is or is deemed to be a citizen of India under any of the foregoing provisions of
this Part shall, subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to
be such citizen.

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ARTICLE 11: PARLIAMENT TO REGULATE
THE RIGHT OF CITIZENSHIP BY LAW
Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to

make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other

matters relating to citizenship.

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The Citizenship Act, 1955
Apart from the Articles (5-11) of the Indian Constitution, citizenship is also deeply connected with
the Citizenship Act, which was passed by the Indian Parliament in 1955.
Acquisition of Indian Citizenship as per Citizenship Act 1955: Indian Citizenship can be acquired
under the following ways :
1. Citizenship at the commencement of the constitution of India
2. Citizenship by birth: NB – This provision has different clauses for different periods
3. Citizenship by descent
4. Citizenship by registration
5. Citizenship by naturalization.

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 Other features of citizenships status of
India
i. Indian nationality law largely follows the jus sanguinis (citizenship by right of blood) as
opposed to the jus soli (citizenship by right of birth within the territory).
ii. Article 9 of Indian Constitution says that a person who voluntarily acquires citizenship of any
other country is no longer an Indian citizen. Also, according to The Passports Act, a person
has to surrender his Indian passport if he acquire citizenship of another country, it is a
punishable offense under the act if he fails to surrender the passport.
iii. Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) Card: A PIO card applicant has to be a person of Indian origin
who is a citizen of any country, other than Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan,
Afghanistan, China and Nepal; or a person who has held an Indian passport at any time or is
the spouse of an Indian citizen or a person of Indian origin;
iv. Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card: OCI Card is for foreign nationals who were eligible to
become a citizen of India on 26.01.1950 or was a citizen of India on or after that
date. Applications from citizens of Bangladesh and Pakistan are not allowed.

33
 Other features of citizenships status of
India
v. Overseas Indian Card: A new Bill is pending in Parliament [The Citizenship (Amendment)
Bill], which seeks to do away with the existing overseas citizen of India (OCI) card and the
person of Indian origin (PIO) card, and replace them with a new overseas Indian card.
vi. While PIO cardholders do not require a separate visa and can enter India with multiple entry
facility for 15 years; the OCI card is multiple entries, multi-purpose lifelong visa for visiting
India. OCI card-holders have parity with non-resident Indians in respect of economic,
financial and educational matters except in acquiring agricultural land.
vii. A PIO cardholder is required to register with local Police authorities for any stay exceeding
180 days in India on any single visit.
viii. OCI is not dual citizenship. There are no voting rights for an OCI cardholder.
ix. The President of India is termed the first Citizen of India.

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Amendments in the Citizenship Act 1955
Citizenship Act 1955, which has been amended by:

1. the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1986

2. the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1992

3. the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003

4. the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2016

5. the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019

35
Amendments in the Citizenship Act 1955
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 1986
As per the law amendment, it is no longer adequate to be born in India to be granted Indian citizenship.
At the time of birth either one of the parents has to be an Indian citizen for the person to become a
citizen of India.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 1992

The Act provides that a person born after January 26, 1950 but before the commencement of the Act
shall be a citizen of India if the father is Indian at the time of birth; after the commencement of the Act,
the person shall be Indian if either of the parents is Indian. Also replaces references to "male persons"
with "persons".

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003

The Act was passed by the Parliament in December 2003, and received presidential assent in January
2004. It is labeled "Act 6 of 2004". The Act amended The Citizenship Act, 1955 by introducing and
defining a notion of "illegal migrant", who could be jailed or deported.

36
Amendments in the Citizenship Act 1955
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2016
◦ In 2015 and 2016, the central government issued two notifications exempting certain groups of illegal
migrants from provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.

◦ These groups are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh
and Pakistan, who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.

◦ This implies that these groups of illegal migrants will not be deported or imprisoned for being in India
without valid documents. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in Lok Sabha on
July 19, 2016 to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. It seeks to make illegal migrants belonging to the
same six religions and three countries eligible for citizenship.

37
Amendments in the Citizenship Act 1955
The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019
◦ an amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955, aims to fast-track citizenship for six persecuted minority
communities -- Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians -- who arrived in India on or
before December 31, 2014, from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

◦ The CAA was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019 and by the Rajya Sabha on December 11
and was assented by the President on December 12.

◦ Two years after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed by Parliament, the Ministry
of Home Affairs (MHA) is yet to notify the rules governing the Act.

◦ The legislation cannot be implemented without the rules being notified; Matter is sub judice.

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CONSTITUTION Dr. Vartika
 FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION
Marks a major breach in political continuity, usually resulting from an upheaval such as a war, revolution or
national independence.
The purpose of a constitution is to bring stability, predictability and order to the actions of the government.

A code of rules providing guidance for the conduct of government

Written or unwritten, or codified or uncodified

Rigid or flexible

Effective, nominal or façade constitution

Monarchical or republican, federal or unitary, or presidential or parliamentary.

EVOLUTION OF CONSTITUTION
The Act of Settlement of 1701
• The Act of Settlement was passed in 1701,
Magna Carta (1215) reinforcing the Bill of Rights agreed by William
and Mary in 1689. The main aim of this
• The first document to put into writing the principle that legislation was to ensure a Protestant succession
the king and his government was not above the law to the English throne.
• It is considered as the first written constitution in • The Act played a key role in the formation of
Europe by King John the Kingdom of Great Britain

Bill of Rights of 1689

• The English Bill of Rights was an act
signed into law in 1689 by William III
and Mary II, who became co-rulers in
England after the overthrow of King
James II. The bill outlined specific
constitutional and civil rights and
ultimately gave Parliament power over
the monarchy
 EVOLUTION OF CONSTITUTION

The US constitution in 1787

• It was signed on September 17, 1787, by
delegates to the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia and established America's Other constitution
national government, fundamental laws, and
guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. • India and others

The French Declaration of the Rights

of Man and the Citizen in 1789
• On 26 August 1789, the French National
Constituent Assembly issued the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and the Citizen which
defined individual and collective rights at the
time of the French Revolution.
THE PURPOSE OF A CONSTITUTION

Establish Provide
Empower Unifying Government Protect Legitimize
States Values and Stability Freedom Regimes
Goals
 CONSTITUTIONALISM
Constitutionalism be defined as a ‘belief in constitutional government’.
It checks whether the act of a government is legitimate and whether officials conduct their public duties
in accordance with laws.

Features
Separation of Responsible Police
Popular Powers and An Respect for Respect to Civilian governed by
sovereignty (checks and accountable Rule of law independent individual self- control of the law and
balances) government judiciary rights determination military judicial
control
DEMOCRACY Dr. Vatika
What three key words/terms would you use to
describe democracy?
 Salient Features of Democracy
Democracy is derived from the Greek word kratos, meaning power, or rule.

Democracy thus means ‘rule by the demos’ (the demos referring to ‘the people’, although the Greeks originally used this to
mean ‘the poor’ or ‘the many’).
A society based on equal opportunity and individual merit, rather than hierarchy and privilege.

Democracy is, thus, both a method to arrive at collective decisions and a set of values and behavior with which people
approach decision making.
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (1863) where he said ‘government of the people, by the people, and for people' .

The people’. Anthony Arblaster (1994) describes it as a situation where power and authority ultimately rest with the people.

In contrast with an authoritarian system

Democracy refers to a government based on political equality ; diversity of opinions and interests

Established mechanism of representation (Regular Elections, Political Parties, Parliament)

Types of Democracy
Direct and Participatory Democracy/Classical
Democracy
Athenian city-state of ancient Greece during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.

Open assemblies of citizens to debate and deliberate on all matters and shared magisterial and
judicial offices.

A high level of political accountability and political activity of the citizen.

The underlying philosophy was that there was a single, shared, substantive idea of good life for the
whole community

The separation between state and society did not exist.

Rousseau was heavily inspired by this model.

Socialists, feminists, radical and deliberative democrats have drawn on this legacy as it talks
about participatory self-governance, active citizenship and community life
 Protective Democracy/Liberal Democracy

Liberals
advocate a
representative
democracy.
Franchise or
Political
political
participation
Liberals make equality was Universal
is not
Protect the Transition a distinction in effect adult franchise
considered a
rights of from between the restricted to a only after
good in itself,
citizens and feudalism to state and civil few in early struggles by
like in Most popular
safeguard capitalism; society or the liberal the working
Athenian
them from individualism, public and the democracies. class, African
democracy,
state power. market private life of ex: Locke, Americans,
but a means to
individuals. James Mill, and women.
control the
Madison and
government
Montesquieu
and ensure the
protection of
individual
liberties.
Developmental Democracy

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• The most novel, and radical, such model was developed by Jean-
Jacques Rousseau.
• A representative system must create maximum space for people
and not just by merely allowing them to vote; a concern with the
development of the human individual and the community.
• Participation makes informed and intelligent debate possible.
• Promotion of openness, accountability and decentralization within
all the key institutions of society: within the family, the workplace
and the local community just as much as within ‘political’
institutions such as parties, interest groups and legislative bodies.
Developmental Democracy

John Stuart Mill

• Broadening of popular participation, arguing that the franchise
should be
• Extended to all but those who are illiterate. He suggested
(radically, for his time) that suffrage should also be extended to
women.
• Rejected the idea of formal political equality.
• He proposed a system of plural voting: unskilled workers would
have a single vote, skilled workers two votes, and graduates and
members of the learned professions five or six votes.
People’s Democracy

Derived from the orthodox communist regimes that sprang up on the

Soviet model in the aftermath of World War II.

Designate the goal of social equality brought about through the common
ownership of wealth (‘social democracy’ in its original sense), in contrast
to ‘political’ democracy, which establishes only a facade of equality.

It is mostly based on popular struggles and movements.

Do you think all democracies, despite the
country/location, work the same way? Why or why not?
Democracy

(Lecture-2)
Dr. Vartika
Critics of democracy
Democracy is an irrational form of government as it allows non-experts to rule; brought in the concept
of ‘philosopher-kings’ (Plato)

Democracy as an ‘impure’ system where the multitude rules in their own interest (Aristotle).

Early liberals were skeptical of mass suffrage and considered political equality a threat to liberty. Ex: Tocqueville
coined the phrase ‘tyranny of the majority’ to describe the threat that democracy posed to minorities and
individual liberty.

Majoritarianism and mediocre government as the biggest weaknesses of democracy (J.S Mill).
Interpretations of Democracy
 Pluralist View

Early liberal political philosophy, and notably to the ideas of Locke

and Montesquieu

Madison: a system of divided government based on the separation of

powers and federalism that offered a variety of access points to
competing groups and interests. The resulting system of rule by
multiple minorities is often referred to as ‘Madisonian democracy’.
 Elitist View
Classical elitists, such as Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923), Gaetano Mosca, (1857–1941)
and Robert Michels (1876–1936) believed that democracy was no more than a foolish
delusion, because political power is always exercised by a privileged minority: an
elite.

Elite theorists consider a functioning democracy impossible because of the

inevitability of concentration of power (Pareto, Mosca, Mills and Michels); Joseph
Schumpeter in his influential work Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy puts up a
model of competitive elitism as the most workable one in modern industrial
societies.
 Corporatist View

Industrialized States; neo-corporatism, or liberal corporatism

‘Corporate pluralism’ thus portrays tripartism as a mechanism through which

the major groups and interests in society compete to shape government policy.

Corporatism threatens to subvert the processes of electoral or parliamentary

democracy?
 New Right View

1970s onwards

Economies work best when left alone

by the government.
 Marxist View
Political power reflects the distribution of economic power

Tension between democracy and capitalism

Power cannot be widely and evenly dispersed in society as long as class power is unequally distributed.

Political power is used to protect and advance the interests of a minority.

Inequality is not ‘natural’ but a product of specific social and economic arrangements.

The incompatibility between democracy that is based on political equality, and capitalism which is based on the right to private
property and market economy.
RIGHTS & DUTIES
Dr. Vartika
RIGHTS
 WHAT IS A RIGHT?
It is different from obligation as one has a choice whether
or not to exercise one's right (Hobbes).

Imposed by a law in a society but not all rights are legal. It

can be justified on legal, moral, ethical or human grounds.

Relationship between two parties: the right-holder and

the right-observers.
 TYPES OF RIGHTS

Civil Rights Legal Rights Moral Rights Human Rights

 Civil Rights
Civil rights are the basic legal rights a person must possess in order to have the status
of equal citizenship.
Civil rights were usually distinguished from ‘political rights’ before popular movements

African Americans civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s

Three generations of civil rights claims

Mostly secured by legislation but not all.

 Legal Rights

Rights which exist under the rules of legal systems.

These can be the right to seek redress or a legal remedy; and rights of
participation in civil society and politics such as freedom of association, the
right to assemble, the right to petition, the right of self-defense, and the
right to vote.
 Moral Rights

Culturally embedded

The central idea remains that of important interests

of individuals protected against wider moral
considerations.
 Human Rights
International moral and legal norms to protect all people
everywhere from severe political, legal and social abuses.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Addresses questions about the existence, content,

nature, universality and justification of human rights.
THEORIES OF RIGHTS
The Theory of Natural Rights: Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Thomas Hobbes

Conception of the ‘state of nature’ which creates a state of war

All natural rights except right to life should be surrendered to an

authority to prevent anarchy.
 John Locke
It is ‘a state of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one
having more than the other’.

Doesn't create a state of war

Every man has a natural right to his life and freedom of action to use his
property provided that he does not interfere with any other man’s enjoyment of
the same conditions.
 The Utilitarian Theory of Rights:
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)

Lawmakers should use what he called the ‘principle of utility’; which commands a
state to maximize the utility of the community.

Core of morality—human welfare.

Scientific and quantitative

Critics: How to quantify human welfare; too mathematical.

 John Rawls on Rights
Deeply egalitarian in spirit.

Hypothetical social contract where we must agree with all those people who will live with us in a society
based on the principles of justice that will govern it.

Greatly influenced by kant where people should be treated as ‘ends’ in themselves and not solely as
‘means’.

Critics: Rawls has failed to acknowledge the proper role that effort, merit and responsibility should have
in the distribution of resources; failure to incorporate more fully the idea of personal responsibility into
his theory.
 The Libertarian Theory of Rights:
Robert Nozick
The idea that each individual has certain rights and in particular, certain property
rights that are ‘absolute’ in character.

Argues for a historical conception of justice what he calls the ‘entitlement theory
of justice’

Defence of the free market and the capitalist system.

Critics: Absolute rights? Government interference is restricted which can hamper

social welfare.
 Contemporary Debates on Rights
Communitarian Perspectives

The only way to identify the

That liberalism rests on a series
Communitarians argue that the requirements of rights and
of mistaken metaphysical and
‘individual’ is not an abstract justice is to see how each
meta-ethical views (Michael
category but is deeply particular community
Sandel’s book- Liberalism and
embedded in his/her culture. understands the value of social
the Limits of Justice, 1982).
goods (Michael Walzer, 1983)
 Multicultural Perspectives on Rights

Group rights for ethnic and national minorities

National minorities, the viability of their societal cultures may be undermined by

economic and political decisions made by the majority (Kymlicka, 1989)

Multiculturalism would pose a challenge to the liberal notion of nation-state; has

raised important questions about the status of minorities within the nation-state.
 The Feminist Perspectives on Rights
Social or political systems based on the individual perspective of justice are highly
biased because they are shaped by the dominant individual male and not by
women or other marginalized groups.

Critique and a reconstruction of Rawls’ original position on justice as it is gender

neutral (Susan Moller in Okin’s Justice, Gender and the Family, 1989)

An ideal of universal citizenship that finds the public embodying generality as

opposed to particularity, commonness versus difference (Iris Marion Young,1989)
DUTIES
 WHAT IS A DUTY?
A duty is an obligatory act a person has to perform in favour of
another person.

Keaton – A duty is an act which should be enforced by the state in

preserving the rights given to the people and also in order to protect
the interest of the people.
Salmond – A duty is an act which every citizen have obliged to
perform, in furtherance of protecting the rights of the other people.
 Classification of Duties
Primary and Secondary Duties
• A primary duty which is independent of any other duty and does not have to depend upon other
duties. On the other hand secondary duty which is also known as a remedial duty which depends on
other duties.

Positive and Negative Duties

• Duties which are prescribed by Law are Positive Duty and which are prohibited by the Law is called
the Negative duty.

Absolute and Relative Duties

• Austin has classified duties into absolute and relative. Relative duties are that duty which is related to
some right and absolute rights are those which does not relate with any right. Austin also given
classify absolute rights
 Classification of Duties
Self-regarding duties such as a duty not to commit suicide or not to consume
drugs or liquor, etc.

Duties towards society e.g. a duty not to commit a nuisance.

Duties towards other than human beings such as duty towards God or animals,
birds, etc.

Duty towards the sovereign or the state.

LIBERTY AND EQUALITY Dr. Vartika
Liberty
 Thomas Hobbes
Liberty is the Fear and
absence of all necessity are
Critics:
Thomas impediments the
absence of
Hobbes in his to action that motivating
constraints
fictional state are not factors in
and
of nature contained in human
undermines
talks about the nature nature that
the notion of
liberty. and intrinsic impel them
choice
quality of the towards
agent. liberty.
 John Locke

Liberty is innate in
The exercise of
human nature, is
liberty should not
universal and can
be at the cost of
be apprehended
equality.
by reason.
 Rousseau
Conception of
Equate choice
liberty liberates
with the right
human beings
Liberty through to choose the
from the
conception of right option,
hierarchical
law. where the right
and unjust
option is pre-
inequality of
decided.
society.
 Bentham
A positive correlation between freedom and pleasure.

Criticized:
• Freedom is not accompanied by a sense of moral responsibility.
• It violates the harm principle—that one’s exercise of liberty should
not harm the life, liberty and possessions of others
• The pleasure of one person can cause pain to several people
• The idea of self preservation can also be challenged
 J. S. Mill
His essay On Liberty seeks to protect individual liberty from the interference of state and society.

Freedom as an essential component of the ideal of individuality.

Freedom of expression; hear opinions expressed.

Suppression of freedom of expression deprived humankind of its benefit

Freedom of expression resolves conflicts between two or more opposing views.

Clash of views facilitated by the freedom of expression that provides the intellectual impetus for thought, discussion, and
progress.
Equality
 Aristotle
Aristotle’s Athenian Constitution talked about ending aristocratic stranglehold over
land, power and honour and establishing practices of equality.

Exclusion of foreigners, slaves and women and limited to the class of citizens only.

He draws a straightforward correlation between justice and equality.

Aristotle defends natural inequality and then proposes a corresponding political

equality between some humans (usually male citizens).
 Hobbes

Equal ability of individuals

in the state of nature which
gives rise to an equality of
hope to achieve our ends.
Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin and Foundations
of Inequality (also called the Second Discourse)

The origins of inequality as a historical narrative.

Migration-groups-language-reason-competition-complex socities-private property,

division of labour and laws-exploitation - rich gining poor a facade of 'equality' -
unnatural moral equality

Creation of laws and property has corrupted natural men and created new forms
of inequality that are not in accordance with natural law.
 Marx

Critique of liberal equality.

The ruling class produces a legitimating ideology to perpetuate the

system of economic exploitation.

Human emancipation is linked to freedom from economic inequalities.

 Relationship between
Liberty and Equality

Liberty and equality are in conflict or complement each other

 Conflict
Scarcity of resources and the nature of its
distribution.
Equality is understood as equality of outcome, and
liberty is understood as freedom to choose.
Equality and liberty can also conflict with each other
when the practice of one is at the cost of the other.
 Complementary

John Rawls attempted to reconcile the values of liberty and

equality through his ‘veil of ignorance’ argument.

Conflict can be resolved if the institutional rules that define these

liberties must be adjusted so that they fit into a coherent scheme
of liberties. This scheme is secured equally for all citizens.
JUSTICE Dr. Vartika
How do we understand justice?

Something related to law. Are laws always just?

Justice is always impartial? Is it?

 Plato
Justice as one of the four principles of virtue, the other three being
temperance, wisdom, and courage.

Every individual would be true to his nature.

His idea of justice was closely connected to the idea of beauty.

Women, slaves and foreigners were absent.

 Aristotle
He closely associated the idea of justice to equality; his
idea of equality was “not for everyone, only for equals”.

Equilibrium through law.

He talked about “distributive justice” and “corrective

justice”.
With secularization, Renaissance and Industrial
Revolution, new ways of thinking about justice
emerged.
 John Rawls- Theory of Justice
Justice as “justice of fairness”.

Individuals as free and equal, rational and not egoist.

Hypothetical situation called as the ‘original position’, which is free from

gender, race, caste, ethnicity, physical strength, nationality etc.

‘Veil of ignorance’ – a device designed to minimize the influence of selfish bias

in attempting to determine what would be just.
 John Rawls- Theory of Justice
Veil of ignorance helps to make a rational choice on two principles:

• Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with similar liberty to
others.
• Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both:
• to the greatest benefit t of the least advantaged, and
• attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality and opportunity.

Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with
similar liberty to others.

Ex: Indian context-constitution-affirmative actions

Criticism / Limitations of Rawls Theory of Justice

• The concept of justice is context and

community dependent.
• Individuals cannot make choices is abstract but
Communitarian need social, economic and cultural context
critique • The idea of “good” is decided by the
community
• Evaluation of justice is only possible with the
social context
Criticism / Limitations of Rawls Theory of Justice

• Rawls idea of justice consider family as private

which goes against the idea of justice as the family
governs rights such as property, inheritance,
Feminist divorce etc. This means that the “public” has a
direct bearing on the “private”.
• Rawls idea of justice did not pay any attention to
Critique the injustices within the family.
• The model of self-interested, rational and
individualistic person are essentially masculine
conceptions.
Criticism / Limitations of Rawls Theory of Justice

• C. B. Macpherson in his book Democratic

Theory: Essays in Retrieval argues :

Socialist • Rawls idea of justice is an extension of liberal-

democratic capitalist welfare state
• Rawls accepts the inevitability of class
Critique divisions based on income and wealth
• Rawls idea of justice is culture specific and
fits only for liberal-democratic societies