What are the Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship?
The term citizenship can be understood or used in a broader range of platforms. For example, in schools for citizenship education to aid in developing programs for good governance. Also, citizenship can be used in the arenas of public statements concerning collective/corporate citizenship. The citizenship concept elicits various virtues such as citizenry respect, equity, and equality of rights, citizen participation in government institutions and programs, voting rights, among others. Notably, the most principle sense of citizenship is the political belonging, thus an argument that citizenship refers to the way people live with others in a particular political community. On the other hand, citizen can be viewed in either a broader or narrow dimension. In the thin aspect, it refers to the residents’ privilege to enjoy residing in a city. Broadly, citizen refers to a person living within the territorial limits of a given state or nation.
According to Bergholm (256), the concept of “rights” has of late become very familiar and summed up with the aspect of democracy. Nowadays, political discourse uses a lot of the two words; thus, it may not be a surprise that new definitions of the concepts may arise that’s different from the ancient descriptions of the 17th and 18th centuries. Even though democracy is assumed universally to necessitate the existence of rights, in other nations, it functions without regarding the rights and freedom concepts. Depending on the nature of rights as either legal, civil, natural/human, or welfare rights, different people in the society are segmented to qualify to enjoy any of the rights. Therefore, one can be a citizen of a given state but fails to enjoy some of the rights
. Regarding the political arena, citizen refers to a person bearing the state membership and enjoys political, social, and economic rights. Most nations worldwide define adulthood from the age of 18 and hence can experience a sense of fairness with no regard for their color, education prosperity, creed, and residence. The nation’s founders navigated deeply in the concept of liberty but neglected the aspect of quality. Alexander (499) stated Thomas Jefferson’s famous phrase in the independence declaration, “all men are created equal” regarding both men and women. The notion gained momentum in the 19th century with rights revolutions across the world. In the early United States of America, civil rights like property ownership and voting were duly preserved for white men, and the African Americans were considered slaves.
Due to various constitutional amendments over the years and slavery elimination, most of the civil rights and equal protection by the laws have taken effect. Zalta (250) describes a citizen as one with the power to participate in the contemplative or judicial administration of a nation or state. The description entitles a citizen to be a member state, possessing political and social rights, and have a sense of state devotion. Because of the revolutions as a result of the rise of societal groups and movements in America over time advocating for Latinos, the disabled, homosexuals, and the elderly, the matter of rights has become more complex. To bring the nation closer to the achievement of ideal equality and equity of rights for all, both the active interest groups and individuals of concern.
The concept of ‘rights’ is nowadays so familiar, and so intertwined with that of
‘democracy,’ so much part of everyday usage and severe political discourse
that it is surprising to discover that ‘rights’ in the modern sense are very much
creation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The concept of ‘rights’ is nowadays so familiar, and so intertwined with that of
‘democracy,’ so much part of everyday usage and serious political discourse
that it is surprising to discover that ‘rights’ in the modern sense are very much
creation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The concept of ‘rights’ is nowadays so familiar, and so intertwined with that of
‘democracy,’ so much part of everyday usage and serious political discourse
that it is surprising to discover that ‘rights’ in the modern sense are very much
creation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The concept of ‘rights’ is nowadays so familiar, and so intertwined with that of
‘democracy,’ so much part of everyday usage and serious political discourse
that it is surprising to discover that ‘rights’ in the modern sense are very much
creation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The implied presumption is that there is a need for the balance between rights and duties or responsibilities of citizens. In history, rights have been anxiously stressed, unlike the liberal and modern society where duties and responsibilities have been the focus. The consequences of civil society development, family networks, informal and voluntary associations, and activities have fortified a modern society. The norms were mainly driven by the reaction against the pandemic of individualism of the earlier years. In the so-called descent/ modern society, “man” is expected to behave in a reconstructed manner. The dos and the don’ts are clearly outlined in the constitution and consequences therein. The expected behaviors are for the good of all and help promote social welfare. These are the obligations of each citizen alongside the rights.
Works Cited
Alexander, Mark C. “Citizens United and equality forgotten.” NYU Rev. L. & Soc. Change 35 (2011): 499.
Bergholm, Bea Ida Maaria. “The City That Didn’t Matter.” (2019): 256.
Zalta, Edward N. “The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Winter 2013 edition.” The URL for Horn’s article=< http://plato. Stanfordedu/archives/win2010/ entries/ contradiction (2013): 250.