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Citizenship, The Civil, Political, And Social Values

Satisfactory Essays

citizenship, in Marshall’s view, is composed of three aspects, namely, the civil, political, and social. The demarcation and definition of each element are elaborated as follows:
The civil element is composed of the rights necessary for individual freedom – liberty of the person, freedom of speech, thought and faith, the right to own property and to conclude valid contracts, and the right to justice … By the political element I mean the right to participate in the exercise of political power, as a member of a body invested with political authority or as an elector of the members of such a body … By the social element I mean the whole range from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to right to share the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in the society. (Marshall, 1992, p. 8)

Marshall argued that these three components of citizenship evolved in chronological order, though with some overlap: civil rights emerged in the eighteenth century, political rights in the nineteenth century, and social rights in the twentieth century. Civil rights or liberties are reckoned as what citizens enjoy against intervention or repression by the state and its representatives. The emergence of political rights was a result of working-class struggle for greater access to political institutions to pursue political equality. Political rights were institutionalized in the parliamentary political system of

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