Does citizenship demand or threaten rights ?

Résumé du document

All human beings are born with rights, and the chief function of the government is to secure those rights. The rights of the individuals come first, before their corresponding duties. The proponents of the concept of active citizenship claim, however, that citizenship essentially demands obligations. "Citizenship as obligations" stems from civic republican thought, for which active political participation is the duty of all adult citizens, as members of a society. Citizens' rights are correlative with, and conditional on, obligations. The adult citizens receive their rights from the community in return for fulfilling their obligations. The community's sanity comes first...

Extraits

[...] Citizenship generates political obligations, that is the duty to obey the law of the land. “There are neither “natural” rights, nor foundational rights, which could ground the rights which people ought to enjoy as citizens” (Norman p36)[7]. Political communities are organic societies, in which there exists a natural necessity for the recognition of mutual obligations and rights between the adult responsible citizens and the state. Without holding such an organic view of the society, one may assume, in one hand, that individuals who benefit from the goods the state provides owe a duty to fulfil their political obligations, and even giving their lives for securing the state in case of war. [...]

[...] Responsible citizens take part in the policy making through all the means that are available in a democracy. Taking part in the activity of pressure groups, voting, and also exercising civil disobedience when the government does not respect the individual rights and the value shared by the community are citizens' means to protect individual rights. SOURCES: Arblaster, Democracy Constant, “Principles of Politics”, in Political Writings, Goldwin, “Right, Citizenship, and Civility”, in Civility and Citizenship in Liberal Democratic Societies, Banfield (ed.) Held, Models of Democracy, ch1- Heywood, Political Theory, ch7- Hohfeld, Fundamental Legal Conceptions Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals Locke, Second Treatise of civil government Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class Norman, “Citizenship, Politics and Autonomy”, in Liberalism, Citizenship and Autonomy, Miller (ed.) Rawls, A Theory of Justice in Justice as Fairness”, in Social Justice, Clayton and Williams Rousseau, Du Contrat Social, Singer, Practical Ethics, ch11 Wolff, In Defence of Anarchism For the purpose of the argumentation, I shall focus on the legal rights, which are the enforceable rights or the “positive” rights, valid regardless their moral content[2] as opposed to the moral rights. [...]

[...] Does citizenship demand or threaten rights? What lies at the heart of the language of citizenship are the concepts of rights and obligations. Citizenship a concept derived from the word “citizen” (literally in Greek, free “member of the state”) embodies the link between the individual and their democratic state, which values the equality and the freedom of the individuals. (In a non-democratic political structure, we do not speak about citizens but about subjects). The citizens and the state are bound together by reciprocal rights and obligations. [...]

[...] The obligation to obey the state is absolute. For Locke, Second Treatise of the civil government, however, the state was built for securing the natural rights of the individual. If the state violates the natural rights of the individual, the contract is broken, and the individual ought to rebel. See Rousseau, Du Contrat Social, Wolff, In Defence of Anarchism and Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals See Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals Wolff, opcit, p18-19 Rousseau, opcit. [...]

[...] In the civic republican thought, citizenship demands obligations. In both theories, the necessary fulfilment of duties, especially the duty to obey the law, may threaten individual rights and the community's shared values. I shall argue that to preserve both individual's autonomy and freedom and the community life, the society should promote a responsive citizenship, that values the civic virtues, the political participation, and acknowledges a right to rebellion when the values shared by the society are endangered by government's policies. [...]