Editing Citizenship (section)

==Different senses==
Many theorists suggest that there are two opposing conceptions of citizenship: an economic one, and a political one. For further information, see [[History of citizenship#Competing senses of citizenship|History of citizenship]]. Citizenship status, under [[social contract]] theory, carries with it both [[Social rights (social contract theory)|rights]] and [[duties]]. In this sense, citizenship was described as "a bundle of rights -- primarily, political participation in the life of the community, the right to vote, and the right to receive certain protection from the community, as well as obligations."<ref name=twsJun16>{{cite book|first=Virginia|last=Leary|editor-first1=Alan C. |editor-last1=Cairns |editor-first2=John C. |editor-last2=Courtney |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=MacKinnon |editor-first4=Hans J. |editor-last4=Michelmann |editor-first5=David E.|editor-last5=Smith|title=Citizenship, Diversity, and Pluralism: Canadian and Comparative Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIKz0oJxGSgC|year=2000|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-1893-3|pages=247–264|chapter=Citizenship. Human rights, and Diversity|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIKz0oJxGSgC&pg=PA247|quote=The concept of 'citizenship' has long acquired the connotation of a bundle of rights...}}</ref> Citizenship is seen by most scholars as culture-specific, in the sense that the meaning of the term varies considerably from culture to culture, and over time.<ref name=tws2Y17>{{Cite book
  |editor-last = Isin
  |editor-first = Engin F.
 |editor-first2=Bryan S.
  |editor-last2=Turner
  | title = Handbook of Citizenship Studies
  | publisher = Sage
  | series = Chapter 5 -- David Burchell -- Ancient Citizenship and its Inheritors; Chapter 6 -- Rogers M. Smith -- Modern Citizenship
  | year = 2002
  | location = London
  | pages = 89–104, 105
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gtiZqLcJYZEC&q=%22history+of+citizenship%22&pg=PA89
  | isbn = 978-0-7619-6858-0 }}</ref> In [[China]], for example, there is a cultural politics of citizenship which could be called "peopleship", argued by an academic article.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Xiao|first=Y|date=2013|title=China's peopleship education: Conceptual issues and policy analysis|journal=Citizenship Teaching and Learning |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=21–39 |doi=10.1386/ctl.8.1.21_1}}</ref>

How citizenship is understood depends on the person making the determination. The relation of citizenship has never been fixed or static, but constantly changes within each society. While citizenship has varied considerably throughout history, and within societies over time, there are some common elements but they vary considerably as well. As a bond, citizenship extends beyond basic kinship ties to unite people of different genetic backgrounds. It usually signifies membership in a political body. It is often based on or was a result of, some form of military service or expectation of future service. It usually involves some form of political participation, but this can vary from token acts to active service in government.

It generally describes a person with legal rights within a given political order. It almost always has an element of exclusion, meaning that some people are not citizens and that this distinction can sometimes be very important, or not important, depending on a particular society. Citizenship as a concept is generally hard to isolate intellectually and compare with related political notions since it relates to many other aspects of society such as the [[family]], [[military service]], the individual, [[political freedom|freedom]], [[religion]], ideas of [[ethics|right, and wrong]], [[ethnicity]], and patterns for how a person should behave in society.<ref name=tws2Y14/> When there are many different groups within a nation, citizenship may be the only real bond that unites everybody as equals without discrimination—it is a "broad bond" linking "a person with the state" and gives people a universal identity as a legal member of a specific nation.<ref name=tws2Y15>{{Cite book
  | last = Gross
  | first = Feliks 
  | title = Citizenship, and ethnicity: the growth and development of a democratic multiethnic institution
  | publisher = Greenwood Press
  | year = 1999
  | location = Westport, Connecticut
  | pages = xi, xii, xiii,4
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=I6wM4X9UQ8QC&q=%22history+of+citizenship%22&pg=PR8
  | isbn = 978-0-313-30932-8
  }}</ref>

Modern citizenship has often been looked at as two competing underlying ideas:<ref name=tws2Y18>{{Cite book
  | editor-last = Beiner
  | editor-first = Ronald
  | title = Theorizing Citizenship
  | publisher = State University of New York, Albany
  | series = J. G. A. Pocock, Michael Ignatieff
  | year = 1995
  | location = US
  | pages = 29, 54
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N8kI2WCUML0C&q=%22history+of+citizenship%22&pg=PA54
  | isbn = 978-0-7914-2335-6 }}</ref>

* The liberal-individualist or sometimes liberal conception of citizenship suggests that citizens should have entitlements necessary for [[human dignity]].<ref name=tws2Y14qwea>{{Cite book
  | last = Oldfield
  | first = Adrian
|editor-first=Bryan |editor-last=Turner |editor-first2=Peter
  |editor-last2=Hamilton
  | title = Citizenship: Critical Concepts
  | publisher = Routledge
  | year = 1994
  | location = United States and Canada
  | pages = 476 pages total; source: ''The Political Quarterly'', 1990 vol.61, pp. 177–187; in the book, pages 188+
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hX-mbqrZeHsC&q=%22history+of+citizenship%22&pg=PA137
  | isbn =9780415102452}}</ref> It assumes people act for the purpose of [[enlightened self-interest]]. According to this viewpoint, citizens are sovereign, morally autonomous beings with duties to pay taxes, obey the law, engage in business transactions, and defend the nation if it comes under attack,<ref name=tws2Y14qwea/> but are essentially passive politically,<ref name=tws2Y18/> and their primary focus is on economic betterment. This idea began to appear around the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and became stronger over time, according to one view.<ref name=tws2Y12/> According to this formulation, the state exists for the benefit of citizens and has an obligation to respect and protect the rights of citizens, including civil rights and political rights.<ref name=tws2Y12/> It was later that so-called social rights became part of the obligation for the state.<ref name=tws2Y12/>

* The civic-republican or sometimes classical or civic humanist conception of citizenship emphasizes man's political nature and sees citizenship as an active process, not a passive state or legal marker.<ref name=tws2Y18/> It is relatively more concerned that government will interfere with popular places to practice citizenship in the [[public sphere]]. Citizenship means being active in government affairs.<ref name=tws2Y14qwea/> According to one view, most people today live as citizens according to the liberal-individualist conception but wished they lived more according to the civic-republican ideal.<ref name=tws2Y18/> An ideal citizen is one who exhibits "good civic behavior".<ref name=tws2Y12/> Free citizens and a republic government are "mutually interrelated."<ref name=tws2Y12/> Citizenship suggested a commitment to "duty and civic virtue".<ref name=tws2Y12/>
{{Further|Civic engagement}}

'''Responsibilities of citizens'''

Responsibility is an action that individuals of a [[State (polity)|state]] or [[country]] must take note of in the interest of a common good. These responsibilities can be categorised into personal and [[civic responsibilities]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Role of Civic Education |url=https://civiced.org/papers/articles_role.html |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=civiced.org}}</ref>

Scholars suggest that the concept of citizenship contains many unresolved issues, sometimes called tensions, existing within the relation, that continue to reflect uncertainty about what citizenship is supposed to mean.<ref name="tws2Y12" /> Some unresolved issues regarding citizenship include questions about what is the proper balance between [[duties]] and [[rights]].<ref name="tws2Y12" /> Another is a question about what is the proper balance between political citizenship versus social citizenship.<ref name="tws2Y12" /> Some thinkers see benefits with people being absent from public affairs, since too much participation such as revolution can be destructive, yet too little participation such as total apathy can be problematic as well.<ref name="tws2Y12" /> Citizenship can be seen as a special elite status, and it can also be seen as a democratizing force and something that everybody has; the concept can include both senses.<ref name="tws2Y12" /> According to [[sociology|sociologist]] [[Arthur Stinchcombe]], citizenship is based on the extent that a person can control one's own destiny within the group in the sense of being able to influence the government of the group.<ref name="tws2Y14">{{Cite book
  | last = Taylor
  | first = David
 |editor-first=Bryan |editor-last=Turner |editor-first2=Peter
  |editor-last2=Hamilton
  | title = Citizenship: Critical Concepts
  | publisher = Routledge
  | year = 1994
  | location = United States and Canada
  | pages = 476 pages total 
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hX-mbqrZeHsC&q=%22history+of+citizenship%22&pg=PA137
  | isbn = 978-0-415-07036-2}}</ref>{{rp|p.150}} One last distinction within citizenship is the so-called consent descent distinction, and this issue addresses whether citizenship is a fundamental matter determined by a person choosing to belong to a particular nation––by their consent––or is citizenship a matter of where a person was born––that is, by their descent.<ref name="tws2Y16">{{Cite book
  | editor-last = Hebert
  | editor-first = Yvonne M.
  | title = Citizenship in transformation in Canada
  | publisher = University of Toronto Press
  | series = chapters by Veronica Strong-Boag, Yvonne Hebert, Lori Wilkinson
  | year = 2002
  | location = Toronto
  | pages = 3, 4, 5
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wHN4POIB1IIC&q=%22history+of+citizenship%22&pg=PA38
  | isbn =978-0-8020-0850-3}}</ref>