Theorizing Citizenship

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in the theme of citizenship among political philosophers. Any attempt to reflect theoretically on this topic must address a host of vital questions: how to distinguish between "insiders" and "outsiders" in a normatively defensible way; how to secure for all individuals within a political society a sense of full membership in the social and political life of that society; and how to keep allegiance to the political community durable in the face of mounting pressures, domestic and international. The need to rethink the issue of citizenship has been given special urgency by incisive theoretical challenges to liberalism within the academy as well as practical challenges associated with continuing flare-ups of modern nationalism and ethnic strife, implying challenges, both localist and globalist, to the integrity of the modern state. Therefore, political theorists must once again explore the basic problem of what binds citizens together into a shared political community. Theoretical essays by such well- known scholars as Habermas, Walzer, Flathman, Iris Marion Young, MacIntyre, Ignatieff, and George Armstrong Kelly offer a sampling of some of the best articles on this crucial topic.