Citizenship and Community

Citizenship and Community argues that participation in political affairs is not so much the 'right' as the 'duty' of citizens. It is, in fact, the activity that transforms the individual into a citizen and if this is recognized then much will be done to revive a 'sense of community', the lack of which has been remarked upon so much of late. This conception of citizenship and community is rooted in the civic-republican tradition of western thinking, which has its origins in Aristotle, and is here traced through the examples of Machiavelli, Rousseau, Hegel and de Toqueville. Two crucial and interconnected elements emerge. The first is the criterion of citizenship: what is it that transforms the individual into the citizen? Secondly, civic republicanism is concerned with the institutional supports that individuals need to motivate them to perform these duties, and thus become citizens. The freedom of citizens consists in self-government, not in being left alone and undisturbed by the political realm, but they must be brought to recognise this. Finally, the book argues that if current democratic theory is concerned with the nature of citizenship in the modern world, and with the possibility of reviving a 'sense of community', then its neglect or dismissal of the civic-republican tradition as anachronistic is mistaken. The argument is addressed as much to students of political thought as it is to those, whether academics or politicians and their advisers, who are seeking to revitalize the practice of citizenship in a political community.