Citizenship is a legal status granted to a person by a state who, in turn, shares in the responsibilities and rights of the political community of the nation to which they belong. It is often a key concept in the study of democratic theory and practice, of human rights and of globalisation and diversity. The notion of citizenship is often contested, however, and there are many different ideas about its nature.
The main theoretical models of citizenship relate to its role as the foundation and framework for political action. The liberal’republican’ model understands the citizen as a legal person whose freedoms are guaranteed by law. The universalist model, in contrast, argues that the existence of laws and their application to certain groups of people is a prerequisite for the moral and cultural pluralism of contemporary societies. A third view, based on Aristotle’s civitas model, considers citizens as political a
All these theories share the assumption that the law serves the public interest by establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties. This understanding is sometimes called the ‘rule of law’ and it is an important part of the ethos of contemporary democracies. However, a number of problems have arisen in the context of a growing skepticism about the link between law and social cohesion.