Citizenship

The idea of citizenship is rapidly emerging as a central concept both in contemporary political theory and in programmes for political action. This reader makes available source material and presents it in a way that will serve to inform, enlighten and enlarge the current debate on citizenship. The editor presents examples of the many uses to which the concept of citizenship has been applied by philosophers and political theorists from Ancient Greece to the modern day. They illustrate where the use of the concept is an appropriate one for the nature of a particular state and society and where the concept may be considered alien. An introduction is followed by approximately 40 extracts from philosophers and theorists from all Western traditions of thought including: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Machiavelli, More, Erasmus, Bacon, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Paine, Tocqueville, Sidgwick, Dahrendorf, Almond, Raphael, Rawls, Balibar, Ignatieff and Hare. This reader will act as the basis or source book for courses in citizenship, political theory, sociology, political philosophy and human rights law.

Author Biography

Paul A. B. Clarke is Lecturer in political thought and political philosophy at the University of Essex. His other books include The Anatomy of Politics and Political Theory and Animal Rights (Pluto Press).