Practicing Decentered Radical Democratic Citizenship in a Decentered State

According to the Oxford dictionary the term citizenship can be defined as: “The state of being vested with the rights and privileges, and duties of a citizen.” In the short story ‘Borders’ by Thomas King the term citizenship is of main focus. Through the many borders that are presented within the story, King argues that citizenship overlooks culture and heritage, instead focusing on a single border: that being where the individual resides. The short story is narrated from the young boy’s perspective, as him and his mother struggle to cross the Canadian-American border to visit the young boy’s sister Latitia. The young boy and his mother are not able to cross the border

A democratic citizen is an individual that is part of a democratic political system and society which involves having responsibilities and rights like voting, freedom of speech, and to choose the type of government citizens want. In the book “Citizenship”, Bellamy discusses how past definitions of citizenship have molded today’s definition by elaborating on “who is a citizen, the kind of contribution the state and other citizens can expect of him or her”. For example, anticipated qualities in a citizen, in the past, were nationalism and identification with the rest of the community in regards to having the same morals, and principles. In a democracy, citizenship is truly valued when the democratic government fights for total equality and an

O'Sullivan, M., & Pashby, K. (2008). Citizenship Education in the Era of Globalization. Sense Publishers: Rotterdam.

In this chapter, Macduff starts off by saying that it is thanks to the actions of agitators in the past that governments have redirected towards more democratic societies. Here, she uses Martin Luther King as an example during the Civil Rights Movement. It was thanks to his civil disobedience tactics that the United States government was able to move forward and recognize its wrong doings. As the chapter continues, Macduff talks about how the Australian government limits and manipulates the meaning of active citizenship to its constituents. She makes the argument that the Australian government fails to support the principle of active citizenship value it promises. For example, the rituals and pledges the Australian government enforces to future

Citizenship includes not only legal definitions or documents (whether they have them or not), but also the vernacular elements of citizenship that we recognize in social setting, such as ordinary language phrases, which acknowledge levels of citizenship, such as first-class versus second-class citizenship. In a democratic nation like America, the goal is to minimize second-class citizenship and have to first-class citizenship be available for all. This idea reaffirms that citizenship happens both in the relationships between citizens and the state and in the relationship among fellow citizens, whether they be in neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, or workplaces. These questions of citizenship include a sense of belonging, and of having a voice and being able to use it.

Civic involvement and citizenship are common terms used interchangeably in order to describe individual responsibility in society. However, upon further evaluation, both words address different aspects of society itself. Citizenship can be understood as certain obligations, liberties, and privileges embodied by an individual; and civic involvement is the activities associated with those responsibilities. The following definition summarizes the broader scope of citizenship and civic involvement assumed in A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright. In this book, Wright describes the progress of citizenship, and the perception that mankind gradually improves over time.

Modern rights and duties of citizenship are relatively young and their relevance largely depends on whether the citizen is situated

The challenge, then, is to develop a model of civic solidarity that is “thick” enough to motivate support for justice and democracy while also “thin” enough to accommodate racial, ethnic, and religious diversity. We might look ½rst to Habermas’s idea of constitutional patriotism (Verfassungspatriotismus). The idea emerged from a particular national history, to denote attachment to the liberal democratic institutions of the postwar Federal Republic of Germany, but Habermas and others have taken it to be a generalizable vision for liberal democratic societies, as well as for supranational communities such as the European Union. On this view, what binds citizens together is their common allegiance to the ideals embodied in a shared political culture. The only “common denominator for a constitutional patriotism” is that “every citizen be socialized into a common political culture.” Habermas points to the United States as a leading example of a multicultural society where constitutional principles have taken root in a political culture without depending on “all citizens’ sharing the same language or the same ethnic and cultural origins.”The basis of American solidarity is not any particular racial or ethnic identity or religious beliefs, but universal moral ideals embodied in American political culture and set forth in such seminal texts as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, Abraham

Citizenship tends to give an individual a membership in a national community. In terms of liberal democracies, it makes them have the right to; take part freely in public activities, run for an office, and the right to vote; on the other hand the individual has the obligation of paying tax. Based on the larger international community, citizenship forms a powerful media of social closure in two ways: the boundary of citizenship paves way for rich states to draw a line separating its citizens from potential immigrants who are from poor countries. In another way, it provide a base that states use to create internal boundaries that is separating citizens from foreign residents, in terms of associating some given rights and privileges with national citizenship.

The author also insists saying that civic nationalism does not seem to be a native or fundamental liberal concept. Kane argues that the connection between liberalism and civic nationalism is not a theoretically accidental as it first seems. To support his view, he chose to return to the work of one of the most influential political theorist, Thomas Hobbes, in order to come to an understanding of the debated issue.

There is many meanings to citizenship and what it means to fulfil citizenship, the major components of citizenship are how you are involved in a community and how you treat the community. My definition of citizenship would be, citizenship is how a person is involved in a community and what people do towards the community. In order to fulfill citizenship you have to be willing to follow laws and regulations within your community. As well, to fulfill citizenship you should be involved in the community. Being involved may be things such as voting for a new mayor, or contributing in community meetings.

In Democracy, I would define citizenship as the status of being a member in the society who has rights and duties in a particular country. Before taking SW 195, I did not realize that there was a difference in having rights, such as voting, and having certain duties, such as supporting the constitution. Being a citizen of a country, there are many roles that need to be upheld in order to be a “true citizen”. As a citizen, there are multiple different responsibilities that I feel are necessary for being a part of the society. Along with supporting the constitution, other roles as a citizen would range anywhere from obeying laws, respecting the rights of others, staying informed within your community, and serving on a jury or for the country if needed. I feel that no matter what community you belong to, it is important to defend and respect the rights and duties that pair up with being a citizen.

This essay summarises the chapter "The development of social citizenship in Britain". The chapter begins by exploring Aflred Marshall 's idea that a right to a state funded education was essential to developing citizenship in the late 19th to mid 20th century. The chapter then takes an in depth look at how the changes to the welfare provided in the first two decades of the twentieth century paying close attention to Fiona Williams argument that social divisions such as class, race and gender shaped the way policies were made. Finally, the chapter discusses T.H. Marshall 's account of citizenship.

“Law and freedom must be indivisible partners. For without law, there can be no freedom, only chaos and disorder; and without freedom, law is but a cynical veneer for injustice and oppression” (Reagan, 1984). Former president Ronald Reagan accurately states how The United States should control the citizenship model that is practiced today. There have been many choices made and paths followed that have interrupted this right of being that expresses a competent structure; how our nation purposefully expands the population, while keeping in remain a unified, worthy, and patriotic body of people to hold that title of an American. As The United States of America runs on a dual policy track today, one being Civic-Assimilationist and the other being Multiculturalism, I stand on the belief to propose the U.S. to run singly on a Civic-Assimilationist citizenship policy.

At the beginning of 19th century is the history that we can talk about the concept of citizenship generally.18th century revolutions which comes up with under the influence of republican understanding,citizenship proceeded quite well in the terms of political rights.The concept of citizenship which is in the center of republican understanding caused to spread citizenship rapidly.Marshall defines that; individual rights and freedom in the 18th century,political rights in the 19th century started to become clear for people.Also social rights placed in the concept of citizenship in the 20th century.Increasing power of middle class,industrialization and urbanization process,the modernization of the state, growth of the bureaucracy,secularization of societies and decrease of the political effect of the church, with the capitalism in 19th and 20th century were affective on the development of citizenship.In the modern citizenship theory of Marshall ,we can see that citizenship correlated with the social classes."Citizenship is a status