Liberal and Conservative Values

Citizenship as described in the section "Going Global" of An Introduction to Global Studies.

The first chapter in the book 'An Introduction to Global Studies' provides an overview of the concept of globalization in a number of ways. One, in particular, is the concept of citizenship. The historical concepts and models of citizenship are juxtaposed against the rising new concept of global citizenship. The authors dwell, define and compare the two basic model of citizenship -- republican and liberal. They also dwell with the concept of the fast developing notion of global citizen that tends to borrow elements and differ from the traditional notions of citizenship.

The transformations taking place in the society has made the idea of citizenship a topical issue. Globalization and its effects on migration and the political and the social change and the emphasis on issues related to collective identity based on aspects of nationalism, cultural or gender has made it necessary to review the concept of citizenship according to the authors. And in this respect, the authors deftly identify and define the concepts and propose the new concept of global citizenship (Sundberg, n.d.).

The authors first define citizenship as expressed in traditional models which refer to "membership in a political community and the attendant rights and responsibilities that this membership entails" (Campbell, MacKinnon & Stevens, 2010, p 23). This gives rise to the concepts of the republican and the liberal model of citizenship.

In the book, the authors say that the republican model of citizenship essential places the individual at the center of all the rules that a state formulates which indicates that the individual is apt to be rules and for a ruling. In this concept the authors say, the person as a political agent is the focus of citizenship in the republican model. The authors argue that the best for of state is always based on a virtuous citizenry and a constitutionally governed polity. This means that states are not a tyranny but a republic. The concept of republican citizenship entails the presumption that a free citizenry is never possibly impossible if the state is not democratic and on the other hand, active participation of the virtuous citizens as political agents is a precondition for the creation of a republic. The republic model of citizenship, according to the authors, is seen as a desirable activity that is also valuable and is enriching for the individual or the self as well as the community where the citizen belongs. Therefore, a republican concept of citizenship is based on a republic state, active participation of an individual and value addition by the individual through the activities of the community. Here the individual is the core and the rules and regulations to govern that individual is built around the individual.

On the other hand, the citizenship-as-status is the basis of the liberal citizenship concept. Thos model of citizenship focuses on the legal rights that are specifically concerned with the acting of an individual according to the law and also to claim the rights and protection guaranteed by law. This model stresses more on the concept of who you are and the role and the membership of an individual in the community rather than what that individual does as in the republican model.