Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Citizenship refers to membership in political community organized as a territorial or national state. The nature and content of citizenship varies with the form of state. Citizenship in the classic Greek polis , for instance, provided membership to a political elite, whereas modern liberal democratic citizenship provides opportunity to vote once every 3 or 4 years in a political election cycle. Sociological theories, however, recognize that citizenship has more than a mere political dimension. Types of citizenship can be characterized in terms of two distinct axes or dimensions, one being access to citizenship status and the other being the quality of the rights and duties that attach to citizenship. Rules of access to citizenship separate citizens from non-citizens. Two alternative legal possibilities include jus sanguinis or citizenship by descent and jus soli or citizenship by birthplace. Which of these operates can have large consequences for persons who have moved across national boundaries either through the internationalization of economic activity and labor markets or the transformation of political units, both of which have relocated significant numbers of people transnationally over the last century. Under conditions of jus sanguinis it is not sufficient to be born in a country to have access to its citizenship. To be a German or a Japanese citizen, for instance, ... log in or subscribe to read full text