THEORIES OF CITIZENSHIP

 Citizenship has been defined as full and equal membership (legal

status) of a political community.

 Equality of rights and status is one of the basic rights of citizenship.

 They participate in the government process.

 Citizenship is rights to have rights.

 Subjective Identity.
 Rights of Citizens

 Political rights like the right to vote , right to contest elections

 Civil rights like the freedom of speech or belief, freedom of movement

 Socio-economic rights which could include the right to a minimum

wage, or the right to education.

Freedom of movement :- Labour tends to migrate in search of jobs when

opportunities are not available near their homes.

 I.T. workers may flock to towns like Bangalore.

 Nurses from Kerala may be found all over the country.

 The booming building industry in town attracts workers from different

parts of the country. So do infrastructure projects like road making.
 The right to protest is an aspect of the freedom of expression
guaranteed to citizens in our Constitution, provided protest
does not harm the life or property of other people or the State.

 Citizens are free to try and influence public opinion and

government policy by forming groups, holding demonstrations,
using the media, appealing to political parties, or by
approaching the courts.
 In South Africa, the black African
population had to undertake a long
struggle against the ruling white minority
for equal citizenship. This continued until
the early 1990s. Struggles to achieve full
membership and equal rights continue
even now in many parts of the world.

 Women’s movement and the dalit

movement in our country.

 Their purpose is to change public opinion

by drawing attention to their needs as well
as to influence government policy to
ensure them equal rights and opportunities
 Difference between Nationality and
Citizenship
Nationality Citizenship

Meaning It is the individual membership It is the political status, which

that shows a person's states that the person is
relationship with the state. recognized as a citizen of the
country.
Concept Ethnic or racial. Legal or juristic.
Ways Birth and Inheritance Birth, Inheritance, Marriage,
Naturalization, etc.
Can it be No, a person can be national of Yes, a person can become a
possible to only one country. citizen of more than one country.
have
nationality/
citizenship
of multiple
countries?
 Criteria for Citizenship

 The criteria for granting citizenship to new applicants varies from

country to country.

 In countries such as Israel, or Germany, factors like religion, or ethnic

origin, may be given priority when granting citizenship.

 In Germany there has been a persistent demand from Turkish workers,

who were at one time encouraged to come and work in Germany, that
their children who have been born and brought up in Germany should
automatically be granted citizenship. This is still being debated.
 This resolve was embodied in the Constitution.

 The Indian Constitution attempted to accommodate a very diverse society.

 To mention just a few of these diversities, it attempted to provide full and

equal citizenship to groups as different as the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, and many others.

 It also attempted to find a place for the different languages, religions and
practices found in different parts of the country.

 It had to provide equal rights to all without at the same time forcing people
to give up their personal beliefs, languages or cultural practices.
According to Article 5 of the Constitution of India, titled as 'Citizenship at the
Commencement of Constitution of India', provides a person is an Indian citizen if
he/she domiciled in India when the Constituent Assembly adopted the
Constitution on 26 November 1949 or if he/she had been in India for at least five
years until that date.

For those born after the adoption of Constitution, the Indian Citizenship Act 1955
grants citizenship based on the birth date:

(i) Anyone born between 26 January 1950 and 1 July 1987 is a citizen by birth;

(ii) A person born between 1 July 1987 and 3 December 2004 is a citizen by
birth if either of his parents is a citizen at that time;

(iii) Those born on or after 3 December 2004 is a citizen if both of the parents
are citizens of India at the time, or if one parent is a citizen and the other is
not an illegal migrant (a foreigner who entered India without valid
documents, or stayed beyond the allowed period).
 NRI Person of Indian OCI cardholder
Origin
Who? An Indian A person who or A person registered as Overseas
citizen who is whose any of Citizen of India (OCI) Cardholder
ordinarily ancestors was an under section 7A of the Citizenship
residing Indian national Act, 1955
outside India and who is
and holds an presently holding
Indian another country’s
Passport citizenship/
nationality i.e.
he/she is holding
foreign passport
What All benefits No specific Multiple entry lifelong visa for visiting
benefits as available benefits India for any purpose
one is to Indian Parity with Non-Resident Indians
entitled citizens (NRIs) in respect of all facilities
to? subject to available to them in economic,
notifications financial, and educational fields
issued by the except in matters relating to the
Government acquisition of agricultural or
from time to plantation properties.
time
 NRI Person of Indian OCI cardholder
Origin
Registered Overseas Citizen of India
Cardholder shall be treated at par
with Nonresident-Indians in the
matter of inter-country adoption of
Indian children.
Is he/she No Yes if the period No
required to of stay is for more
register with the than 180 days
local police
authorities in
India?
Summary of video

1. The Bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants
who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from
Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship.

2. The Bill provides that the registration of Overseas Citizen of India

(OCI) cardholders may be cancelled if they violate any law.

3. The Bill relaxes 11 year requirement to six years for persons

belonging to the same six religions and three countries. 

4. The Bill makes illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on the basis
of religion.  This may violate Article 14 of the Constitution which
guarantees right to equality. 
 Views of Political philosophers

 In Politics, Aristotle states that a citizen “is defined

to be one of whom both the parents are
citizens…” and who holds an office or is in some
other way participating in the deliberative or
judicial administration of the state: “Hence, as is
evident, there are different kinds of citizens; and
he is a citizen in the fullest sense who shares in
the honours of the state.”

 Aristotle points out that all those who live in a

particular territory are not citizens.
Aristotle was a
Greek philosopher 
 Citizenship is the special privilege of a few
in Ancient Greece
members in any state.
 Citizenship was not to be determined by residence since the resident
aliens and slaves also shared a common residence with citizens but
were not citizens.

 Aristotle insisted on that the young and the old could not be citizens, for
one was immature and the other infirm.

 He did not regard women as citizens, for they lacked the deliberative
faculty and the leisure to understand the working of politics.

 A cohesive citizen body, where everybody would know one another

intimately, would be able to settle disputes effectively and satisfactorily,
and distribute political offices according to the merit of the candidates.
A good citizen would possess virtue or moral goodness that would help in
realizing a selfless and cooperative civic life

Full citizenship carries 6 privileges:-

 Service in the army

 Voting in the assembly
 Eligibility to public office
 Legal right of action and appeal
 Rights of intermarriage
 Trade with other Roman citizens
 Theories of Citizenship

Liberal theory of citizenship emphasizes the equality of rights which each

citizen holds, and how these rights enable the individual to pursue their
aims and goals. Liberal citizenship, then, is primarily a formal, and in
principle universal, legal status protecting individuals.

Communitarianism or multicultural :- the individual does not exist prior to

the community. As such, it argues that the liberal theory fails to consider
duty or loyalty to the community, ignores the social nature of individuals
and, in emphasizing rights, ignores responsibilities and duties owed to the
community.

Republican tradition emphasizes participation in government as the

foundation for the promotion of the civic good.
Liberalism:-

 The liberal tradition conceives of the citizen as an individual who on the one
hand enjoys the protection of the state from violence enacted by other
persons and one the other hand is safeguarded against the powers of the
state by fundamental rights

 Citizenship is a universal, formal legal status, with certain rights and duties,
which surpasses the differences between individuals.

 In the liberal tradition, equality before the law and freedom to choose one’s
way of living are the most important aspects.

 One of the most important principles of liberal theory is that citizens should
be able to choose their way of living freely as long as they do not harm
others.
 Thomas H. Marshall
 Liberal social democrat

 His theory explains the relationship between citizenship and social class.

 According to him the development of institution of modern citizenship in

England coincide with the rise of capitalism

 He regards this as anomalous because while capitalism creates inequalities

between those subjects to it, citizenship involves distribution of sources
because of rights.
 “The Citizenship and Social Class”, 1950, Marshall, distinguished three
strands or bundles of rights that constitutes a citizenship.

 Civil:- It is composed of the rights necessary for individual freedom: liberty

of person, freedom of speech, thought and faith, the right to own property
and to conclude valid contracts, and the right to justice.

 Political element is the right to participate in the exercise of political power in

Parliament and councils of local government, right to vote or contest
elections.

 Social element includes fulfillment of basic needs the right to economic

welfare and security to the right to live the life of a civilized being according
to the standards prevailing in the society. Such as educational system and
the social services.
Marshall’s conceptualization of citizenship is about the two fundamental
premises.

 A horizontal equality as opposed hierarchical inequalities or vertical status of

individuals in the society that existed in the pre-modern feudal state or in the
monarchy or in the kingdom or dynasty among the members of the political
community.

 A gradual integration of various excluded and marginalized section of the

population into the fold of expanding circle of citizenship.

 The main achievement of the liberal citizenship is that it holds the promise of
including individuals, irrespective of their caste, class, gender, race, and the
ambit of citizenship.
Criticism

 It disregards the real differential situations of individuals in the societies

across the classes, which actually, determines their ability to exercise the
right or legal capacity confirmed on them by the virtue of their citizenship to
a particular nation-state.

 In India, for example, B.R Ambedkar, the life of contradiction, where legally
and politically, in the post independent India, every Indian is with ‘one vote
and one value’, but in the socio-economic life, it determines their political
rights or political participation, whether they will remain unequal or they will
be treated in equal, till how long that contradiction will emerge.
 Marx, argued, the claims of liberal citizenship about equality and freedom are
flawed claims as these are incompatible with the rise of capitalism.

 Citizenship should be about a life in the community or the participation in the

community life which leads to the restriction of the state and also, some kind
of collective action which defines the human species.
Republicanism

 The starting point for the republican tradition is not individual rights but
political community

 In the early modern period in Italian Renaissance city-states, and developing

in seventeenth century England, the Dutch Republic, and eighteenth century
Europe, republican theory was first articulated by political figures trying to
defend self-governing citizen polities under pressure from princes and
kings attempting to concentrate power in emerging European states. 

 Notable thinkers:- Niccolò Machiavelli, James Harrington, Jean Jacques

Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft and James Madison.

 The phrase res publica is most readily understood as “that which belongs to

the people,” where “the people” represent not just the masses but an
organized society founded on justice and a concern for the common good.
 To be a citizen of Athenian democracy and the Roman Republic it was
required not to be dependent on others, so it required property, although
excessive wealth was seen as undermining equality and commitment to the
common good.

 It thus excluded women and those who were not property holders.

 It required a citizenry who actively participated and displayed political and

military virtue to preserve the fragile republic from internal corruption and
external threats.

 In modern republicanism citizenship status is usually a birthright.

Communitarianism or multiculturalism

 They argue, that citizen as an individual is a member to a particular

community. Therefore, when we guarantee and give some rights to the
individual, we also, need to take into account the social, cultural, economic
and linguistic backgrounds of citizenship which actually, determines the
way the individual exercises his or her citizenship rights.

 This new debate about individual being the member to a political

community, but also, to a social, cultural, ethnic, or linguistic community
which determines and saves his values, or his behaviour and opinion about
politics.

 In order, to individuals from a minority to the marginal community or a

different cultural, ethnic community to participate in a free and equal
manner should not to be based on his forgoing or cultural specificities or
ethnic specificities.
 Irish Marion Young called as differentiated citizenship.

 This idea of differentiated citizenship is put forward by Irish Marion Young,

who believed that the different communities whether linguistic, cultural or
ethnic communities requires different kinds of recognition.

 Differentiated citizenship requires mechanism of group representation

 There are groups like poor, women, ethnic minorities who demands for
group rights for greater inclusion and participation in the mainstream
society. Their main goal is to bring the national integration in society.

 The other group that seeks differentiated citizenship rejects the goal of
national integration. They wish to be self governing, freely develop their
culture and are usually national minorities occupying their own territory with
a distinct language and history. They wanted the transfer of power from the
central government to their communities.
 Global Citizen
There was an outpouring of empathy and help for the victims of the tsunami
which affected a number of countries in South Asia in 2004. †

Global networks bond terrorists today. †

The United Nations is working with different states to try and prevent the
spread of bird flu and the possible emergence of a human viral epidemic.

“An ethic of care for the world." Hannah Arendt

For Oxfam, global citizenship is all about encouraging young people

to develop the knowledge, skills and values they need to engage with
the world. And it's about the belief that we can all make a difference.