Lea Ypi - The fate of citizenship

Lea Ypi, Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics, discusses how the concept of citizenship has evolved.

About Lea Ypi 

"I am Professor in Political Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

I am interested in the history of political thought, justice, democratic theory, critiques of capitalism and the intellectual history of the Balkans. My latest book, Free, a coming of age story is set in the transition from socialism to liberalism."

A vehicle for enfranchisement

In thinking about how citizenship has historically been a vehicle of enfranchisement, it’s worth reflecting on the fact that the fate of citizenship has been bound up with the emergence and consolidation of the modern state. More specifically, it has been connected to the modern state as an institution that, in the history of political thought, has often been analysed as an entity that is distinguished from both the governors and the governed, and which is responsible for conferring rights upon subjects and putting them under particular obligations. What is distinctive about the modern state is that, unlike the previous institutions that have claimed political legitimacy in the past, like the monarchy or the Church, it is supposed to be an inclusive institution. It is also supposed to be a universal institution, one that is based upon the recognition of ideals of freedom and equality, and that grants membership on the basis of these premises which recognise that all subjects are equal: they all have the same rights, and they have the same obligations.

Key Points

• The fate of citizenship has been bound up with the emergence and consolidation of the modern state.
• The idea of citizenship has, at least at the beginning of its democratic history, and the ideal of enfranchisement – of recognition of rights and obligations – has acted as a vehicle of inclusion.
• It’s the current overlap between citizenship and nationality that has led to the tendency to turn citizenship from a vehicle of inclusion, as it was historically, at least in particular periods, to one of disenfranchisement and exclusion.
• Famously, the republican constitution granted citizenship to anyone who pledged loyalty to the ideals that motivated the French Republic. It would be important to recover this understanding of citizenship as participation in the political process.
• Migration is not a problem in its own right. The revised way of thinking about citizenship when it comes to borders, would be to no longer think of borders as a problem; to think of mobility as a fact of life and as something that people do.