Authors: Bogdanor
Summary: In about 400 words the author presents the main characteristics of citizenship, refers to the historical and developmental approach to this concept commonly used in political science and closes the entry with a reflection on the question of multiple citizenship.
The concept is defined as the "full and responsible membership of an individual in a state". The presence of a state and of a territory upon which a state grants, gradually universal citizens' rights is indispensable to conceive citizenship in modern nation-states and during nation building processes.
Marshall's threefold and subsequent in time distinction of citizenship rights has become a classical one in political science.
In the 18th century civil citizenship was obtained (equality before the law, personal freedom, freedom of speech, thought, etc...); the 19th century brought the political citizenship (political rights such as vote right and the right to access to public offices); eventually, the with 20th century came also social rights ("the right to a certain standard of social and economic welfare") as a component of citizenship.
At the end of the entry, the author brings the relationship between citizen and state again in, stressing the arising phenomenon of multiple citizenship in contemporary life, due to mobility and work opportunities, or necessities, crossing national borders. An international citizenship is one possibility the author perceives as solution for the difficulties concerning mutual rights and duties between individual and state.