The Encyclopedia of Democracy

Authors: Lipset
Summary: In a quiet long entry the concept of citizenship is defined, described through an historical overview, explained in its implications on rights and ideological visions of it, discussed through the recognition of differences and contemporary problems affecting this concept and its meanings.
Citizenship is "the condition of being a citizen and the responsibilities and rights this status entails. Citizenship is a key notion in democratic thought and practice" and the existence of a state and of mutual duties, rights and obligations between the former and the citizens are constitutive parts of the definition.
From the ancient Greco-Roman concept of citizenship (implying "equality in rights and obligations before the law and active political participation" even if variously limited to some categories of people) to the Middle Ages obscurantism and the Renaissance rebirth of the idea of a citizen potential acting only in a free and self governing political community, the idea of citizenship passed to the New World influencing the American and Latin America revolutions. But it is through the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Men and the Citizen that "the ideal of citizenship found its culmination".
In the 19th century, as the ideal of direct democracy (together with those of public virtue and common good) was replaced by that of representative democracy, also the concept of citizenship was 'renewed': it took an universal acception so that "all individuals are born formally free and equal".
This regard brings the precedent reflections on the mutual role of state and citizens back in and in this perspective the notable, even if criticized, Marshall's rights evolution model can be placed.
What kind of democracy best allows the exercise of citizenship is another controversial point. From a communitarian point a view, western liberal democratic regimes eroded all cohesion and community values exactly by eliminating the idea of common good, which in spite exists "prior and indipendent of individual ... interests". In contrast to this approach, liberals (i.e. Rawls, Skinner) argue that communitarianism "is incompatible with the pluralism of modern democracy" and that it implies elements of authoritarianism.
Anyway the author stresses the centrality in modern democracies of individual preferences, not forcely forming a unique common good, and the liberal separation between public and private, as their unavoidable components. He also points out the need of a recognition of citizenship regarding to female participation and role, but warning on the difficulties of encompassing all differences in a single overarching political community.
The entry is concluded with reflections on the growing problem of distinction between nationality and citizenship: the increasingly multiethnic and multicultural feature of contemporary society and the phenomenon of globalization challenge the nation states and their notion of "democratic citizenship".