The Concept of Citizenship

The Concept of Citizenship

Citizens are members of a certain state and are formally recognised by

that state. The concept of citizenship is therefore legalistic.

Citizens are individuals who have a legal status within the state.

They are granted certain rights and in return must perform certain

duties. The range and balance between the rights granted and duties

they are supposed to perform, vary from state to state and time to

time. For example, in war time the rights and obligations of a citizen

would be different that of a citizen in peace time.

Natural Rights

Natural rights are rights that political philosophers argue are

universally applicable to all societies. The origins of these rights

is said to be found in the essential nature of human beings or in laws

given by God. John Locke argued that before there were political

societies, human beings existed in a state of nature in which

god-given natural laws and rights existed. These laws and rights were

to be the basis of societies that were created in the future. Locke

claimed that life, liberty and property were natural rights. Problems

with these rights are that it is hard to prove that a state of nature

ever existed

Positive Rights

Some political philosophers believe that the only rights that exist

are rights given to citizens by the state. Positive rights require

actions on the part of others. For example the right to healthcare

demands that someone acts as a doctor.

Human Rights in the UK

Citizens in the UK are guaranteed a certain set of rights that define

there existence as part of the state. Unlike in the USA and many other

places, UK human right...

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...is on the view that citizens have

responsibilities. For example when the Welfare to Work legislation was

proposed, ministers stressed that people had the responsibility to

work since, by working, they would be able to make a valuable

contribution to society. Labour devised the idea that awareness of

citizenship should be incorporated into education. However the

practice of this has been highly criticised by several groups.

Labour has designed the compulsory citizenship programme for 110000

immigrants who apply each year to become naturalised Britains.

Immigrants can apply for citizenship after living legally in the UK

for 5 years. The intention is that these classes will teach immigrants

about citizenship and about dealing with life in the UK. Trials for

this scheme began in eight areas around the UK in January 2004.