On the Idea of Citizenship

Abstract

This paper explores the contributions of J. S. Mill and T. H. Marshall to the definition of the profiles of contemporary citizenship. To this end, it analyzes the features that characterize the pairs republican citizenship / liberal citizenship and direct democracy / representative democracy. It then focuses on Mill’s Considerations on Representative Government and Marshall’s Citizenship and Social Class.

The starting point for examining the thought of both authors in relation to these works is the affinity that can be observed in their shared concern with articulating an idea of citizenship with representative forms of government. In the analysis of Considerations on Representative Government, special attention is given to the way in which Mill manages to transpose a conception of citizenship close to ancient citizenship into the context of representative government.

With regard to Marshall’s Citizenship and Social Class, the paper examines his construction of citizenship as a manifestation of equality in the face of the inequality derived from social class difference within modern capitalist societies.

The paper invites us to consider that Marshallian citizenship, even though it belongs to the tradition of liberal citizenship, with its emphasis on equality, acts as a basic substrate for the possibility of developing republican citizenship. This does not imply ignoring the fact that both models of citizenship respond to completely different principles, values, and traditions.