Sandra Bruce
Student number: 216105
MSc Violence, Conflict and Development
Theory, Policy and Practice of Development
Course Code: 15PDSC001
Seminar Tutor: Nandini Nayak
Essay 2: To what extent, and how, may the “citizenship” agenda
empower poorer social groups and contribute towards the
transformation of existing power relations? – 2500-3000 words
Submission Date: 15th of March 2012
Word Count: 2817
Sandra Bruce
Student number: 216105
1
The word “citizenship” is a broad notion that each and every one of us would
define in different ways. Some would relate it to nationality, others the right to vote,
to have access to health care, or all types of care, while other would relate it to
protecting a community with the obligations that it entails as well. Or as Nira YuvalDavis defines it in short: ‘it addresses an overall concept encapsulating the
relationship between the individual, state and society’ (Yuval-Davis, 1997, p. 4). One
important scholarly definition is the one by T. H. Marshall, which actually entails all
of the above. He first divides citizenship into three parts: the civil, which is
‘composed of the rights necessary for individual freedom – liberty of the person,
freedom of speech, thought and faith, the right to own property and to conclude
valid contracts, and the right to justice’; the political, which he defines by ‘the right
to participate in the exercise of political power, as a member of a body invested with
political authority or as an elector of the members of such a body’; and by the social
element he means a whole range of social services such as the right to a certain
amount of economic welfare and security to the right to share and use all of the
social institutions and to live the life of ‘a civilized being according to the standards
prevailing in the society’ (Marshall, p. 30). This very broad definition encompasses
what a lot of people would think about citizenship. However one should question
the veracity of this definition since the right to things does not necessarily mean that
in reality this is put into place. Surely one can think of a number of examples where
these rights are not respected: one that pops into mind is the example of people
from Palestinian descent born in Lebanon or Iraq that do not have the right to own
property or vote and who are often the poorest, or one of the poorest, in the
communities present in these regions (Wilding, 2006, p. 120). In this work there will
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Student number: 216105
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be an attempt to identify how the “citizenship” agenda can help poorer social groups
and call into question the existing power relations. Since Brazil is currently going
through a number of big campaigns to promote the importance of registering your
child and therefore making them a Brazilian citizen, this work will focus on Brazil and
Latin America. Since gender discrimination against women usually makes this social
group part of the poorer social groups, this work will analyse how the “citizenship”
agenda has shaped the power relations.
In addition to Marshall’s definition of “citizenship” one should look at the
definition that Marion Iris Young puts forward, written almost 40 years later:
‘whatever the social or group differences among citizens, whatever their inequalities
of wealth, status, and power in the everyday activities of civil society, citizenship
gives everyone the same status as peers in the political public. With equality
conceived as sameness, the ideal of universal citizenship carries at least two
meanings in addition to the extension of citizenship to everyone: (a) universality
defined as general in opposition to particular; what citizens have in common as
opposed to how they differ, and (b) universality in the sense of laws and rules that
say the same for all and apply to all in the same way; laws and rules that are blind to
individual and group differences’ (Young, 1989, p. 250). While one can acknowledge
that this explanation is more “free from discrimination”, it is, according to what one
witnesses every day when surrounded by other social groups and by some portraits
the media gives, utopic to believe that in real life these criteria are implemented like
the ‘laws and rules that are blind to individual and group differences’, since one can
easily find examples of discrimination against African-Americans in the USA, for
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Student number: 216105
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examples, that are more likely to be incarcerated for a crime while a white person
will maybe only pay a fine (Roberts, 2004, p. 1272). This is of course a total other
work in itself to analyse this but it does show in a way that the law, or more its
actors, have a certain bias towards the African American community, who is also one
of the poorer social groups in the country.
The notion of citizenship often appears in the aftermath of political
instability, or lack of political liberty, and within a discourse and a will to democratise
a nation. Such is the case of Latin America, where the notion of citizenship has
become increasingly important in the political vocabulary in the last two decades,
particularly in the countries that have come out from authoritarian regimes, such as
Chile, Brazil and Argentina (Dagnino, 2005, p. 1). Dagnino argues in his paper
Meanings of citizenship in Latin America that the notion of citizenship became
prominent, in these past decades, since it was seen and used as a weapon in the
fight against economic and social exclusion and inequality but also in an attempt to
broaden the dominant conceptions of politics itself, such as questioning power
relations in it. The redefinition of citizenship and the call into question of the political
arena - such as its agenda, its institutions, its participants, its processes and its scope
- were mainly undertaken by social movements and other sectors of civil society in
the region (Dagnino, 2005, p. 1). One can witness this redefinition of the program
within the contemporary governments in the region that have as a challenge to
overcome social exclusion and most importantly to include marginalized groups in
decision-making processes (Barrientos, Gideon, & Molyneux, 2008, p. 770).
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Student number: 216105
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This appropriation of citizenship implied a redefinition of liberal versions of
citizenship, as defined by Marshall mentioned above, since in this context citizenship
and politics needed to acknowledge new subjects, new themes, new spaces and
institutions and new demands (Dagnino, 2005, p. 1). Marshall’s liberal version of
“citizenship” had been dominant until social movements began to appropriate and
reformulate it. Such redefinition and manipulation of the concept had ‘to begin by
asserting the historical character of the meanings and contents of citizenship and,
therefore, the need to adjust them to concrete realities and specific political projects
and intentions’ (Dagnino, 2005, p. 1). Due to this need to adapt the definition to this
region, citizenship is no longer a rigid notion but a ‘multi-layered concept, where
different dimensions and emphases combine in different configurations, according
to different national historical contexts’ (Dagnino, 2005, p. 1).
A number of different actors from social, political and academic background
have been active in this redefinition and it is important to stress that all these factors
have incorporated this task into their agenda. It is also important to note that a
‘substantial part of the attraction of citizenship to these actors – and of its core
category of rights – was the double role it has been able to play in the debate among
the different conceptions of democracy that characterise contemporary political
struggle in Latin American countries’ (Dagnino, 2005, p. 1). Hence the restructuring
of citizenship means a deepened and more concrete view and path towards a “real”
democracy. In this path towards democracy and a redefinition of citizenship to
accommodate the Latin American realities, the reference to citizenship has provided
a common ground in which a diversity of social movements have expressed their
claims and rights (such as housing, education, health etc.), and it has helped to unite
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them and avoid fragmentation and isolation (Dagnino, 2005, p. 2). In this frame of
mind it is obvious that the point of departure of the redefinition has been the
conception of ‘the right to have rights’, which supported ‘the emergence of new
political subjects, actively defining what they consider to be their rights and
struggling for their recognition’ (Dagnino, 2005, p. 5). Dagnino calls this
phenomenon the citizenship ‘from below’ meaning that this new emerging
conception is not like the previous notions of citizenship that were stratified by the
dominant classes ‘and the state for the gradual and limited political incorporation of
excluded sectors, where greater social integration was a legal and political condition
necessary to the implementation of capitalism, this new strategy is part of a political
project of the non-citizens, of the excluded’ (Dagnino, 2005, p. 5). Here one can
witness how this new agenda is more “pro-poor” and more beneficial for more
poorer and excluded social groups. These new groups can find in this redefined
concept certain recognition of their identity.
One can prove this shift in agendas when looking at the example of Brazil.
Dagnino quotes Santos’ work (1979) a number of times when analysing the concept
of citizenship in history in the country. Santos created the concept of ‘cidadania
regulada’ (regulated citizenship) to explain the recognition of social rights that was
formulated in the Labour Laws in 1943 (Dagnino, 2005, p. 6). These social rights were
far from being universal: they were reserved for workers only however not all of
them were entitled, only the ones in professions that were recognised and regulated
by the state, and the ones that were part of unions that were also recognised and
regulated, or one may say controlled, by the state. This version of apparent
“citizenship” meant that seemingly one had the recognition of both his social rights
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and his political existence as a worker in an organisation, when in real life it was
done in such a way that the state still maintained a political control over workers and
their unions. This vision of citizenship promoted an exclusionary view prevailed in
the populist structure until 1946, however Dagnino argues that it is still very much
present in Brazilian society (Dagnino, 2005, p. 6). One can understand that this
version of the agenda was very much secluded and that non-working individuals
were excluded from this explanation of citizenship.
The other side of the coin is cidadania concedida (citizenship as a
concession), which Sales (1994) describes as ‘having its roots in a more remote past’
(Dagnino, 2005, p. 6). He traces it to the end of the nineteenth century, at the
creation of the Brazilian Republic, when latifundiarios (large estate owners) saw their
private power within their rural territories convert into political power in this new
Brazilian state (Dagnino, 2005, p. 6). As one witnesses, in this case citizenship is a
‘conception of rights as mediated by power relations characterised by rule and
submission, transferred from the private to the public (civil) domain. In this version,
rights are conceived of as favours, as “gifts” from the powerful, in what Sales calls a
“culture of gifts” (“cultura da dàdiva”)’ (Dagnino, 2005, p. 6). Here, in contrary to the
redefinition agenda, “citizenship” is “from above” and not “from below”, hence the
need for a new agenda explained atop, or as Dagnino puts it: ‘the lack of distinction
between the private and public realms obstructs the emergence of a notion of rights
as inalienable claims and furthers a conception of rights as favours’ (Dagnino, 2005,
p. 6). He stresses out rights for all, and like in this case, for the poorer social groups
as well as for the “powerful”. Furthermore, he argues, rightly so, that this version of
citizenship should be seen more as an absence of citizenship as such since rights
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Student number: 216105
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should not be seen as a gift but as a fundamental ground for all individuals (Dagnino,
2005, p. 6).
As seen above a redefinition of the “citizenship” agenda is necessary since in
Brazil and in Latin America, social movements need to reaffirm that all individuals
have the “right to have rights” since extreme levels of poverty, exclusion and
extensive social authoritarianism feeds into an unequal and hierarchical organisation
of social relations, which very often undermines the claims of poorer and excluded
social groups (Dagnino, 2005, p. 7). One should acknowledge that in Brazil, in 1992, a
number of riots “exploded” where students were the actors demanding for a better
portray of the country’s diversity in its people through the social policies and
institutions, since before that during the dictatorship, there wasn’t a real space to
make such demands (Mische, 1995, p. 131). Furthermore, ‘class, race, ethnic and
gender differences constitute the main bases for a social classification which has
historically pervaded Latin American cultures, establishing hierarchical categories of
people with their respective “place” in society. As part of the authoritarian,
hierarchical social ordering of Latin American societies, to be poor means not only
economic, material deprivation, but also to be submitted to cultural rules that
convey a complete lack of recognition of poor people as subjects and bearers of
rights’(Dagnino, 2005, p. 7). In brief, in the region, according to Marshall’s definition,
being poor means that one is not a citizen, or as a Telles (1994) puts it: ‘poverty is a
sign of inferiority, a way of being in which individuals become unable to exercise
their rights’ (Dagnino, 2005, p. 7). In answer to this redefining the “citizenship”
agenda is crucial for people to participate in this concept: ‘the claim to access,
inclusion, membership, belonging to an already given political system’ (Dagnino,
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Student number: 216105
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2005, p. 8). Hence, as mentioned above this redefined concept is important since it
promotes an inclusion and consideration of all social and gender groups.
Since this redefined program in Latin America promotes gender inclusion,
one can identify a number of examples in history where gender discrimination was a
“normal” thing. Young in her article Polity and Group Difference distinguishes the
historical path of the struggle for rights within the “citizenship” agenda. She argues
that since the bourgeoisie challenged the aristocratic privileges, during the French
Revolution in eighteenth century, other citizens of “lesser respected” social groups
such as women, workers, Jews, blacks and others have pressed to be equally
represented in the citizenship status (Young, 1989, p. 250). Hence the need for a
more equal “citizenship” agenda, which is what the modern political theory attempts
by asserting ‘the equal moral worth of all persons, and social movements of the
oppressed took this seriously as implying the inclusion of all persons in full
citizenship status under the equal protection of the law’ (Young, 1989, p. 250).
However, one can question how far this has actually been implemented.
Furthermore Young argues that during the political struggles of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, many among the excluded and discriminated groups believed
that through getting full citizenship, namely equal and civil rights, would lead to their
freedom, recognition and would lead to equality in the eyes of the state, however,
nowadays, citizenship rights have been granted to all groups in liberal capitalist
societies but some groups still themselves treated as “second-class citizens” (Young,
1989, p. 250). That is why a number of social movements and organizations tackle
this issue in an attempt to “put everyone under the arch” of citizenship.
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Student number: 216105
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In the feminist discourse it is argued that men founded the modern state and
its public realm of citizenship, while the private sphere was a space reserved to
women (Young, 1989, p. 253). Feminists argue that the modern state and its values –
considered universal – were based on masculine traits such as militarist norms of
honour and camaraderie; competition and bargaining and discourse framed in
unemotional tones of dispassionate reason, where obviously women were not
included as active participants, a part from the private sphere where they would
have a certain role; following this idea Young argues that ‘the opposition between
the universality of the public realm of citizenship and the particularity of private
interest became conflated with oppositions between reason and passion, masculine
and feminine’ (Young, 1989, p. 253). Famous for his work, Rousseau, in his social
scheme, excluded women from the public sphere because they were carriers of
affectivity, desire and the caretakers of the body (Young, 1989, p. 254). However,
and should we add luckily, contemporary writers call for a renewed view on public
life since they are convinced that only ‘the inclusion and participation of all citizens
in political life will make for wise and fair decisions and a policy that enhances rather
than inhibits the capacities of its citizens and their relations with one another’
(Young, 1989, p. 255).
As one witnesses through the analyses above, citizenship has gone a long
way but its agenda is somewhat improving through the awareness that things need
to change, that people need to be seen and respected for what they are and not
being discriminated through what they are or through what they do not have.
However one should acknowledge that since all groups are different and have
different backgrounds they will all have different demands and needs hence there
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Student number: 216105
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will always be more needs to be expressed. The new and redefined “citizenship”
agenda through improvements and through new social policies and acceptance of
these different social groups’ needs is empowering these individuals and power
relations are questioned.
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Student number: 216105
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Bibliography
Barrientos, A., Gideon, J., & Molyneux, M. (2008). New Developments in Latin
America's Social Policy. Development and Change , 39 (5), 759-777.
Dagnino, E. (2005, November). IDS Working Paper 258: Meanings of citizenship in
Latin America. Retrieved March 09, 2012, from Development Research Centre:
Citizenship, Participation and Accountability: http://drccitizenship.org/system/assets/1052734448/original/1052734448dagnino.2005-meanings.pdf?1289486182
Marshall, T. H. (n.d.). Citizenship and Social Class. Retrieved March 8, 2012, from
http://academtext.narod.ru/MarshallCitizenship.pdf
Mische, A. (1995). Projecting Democracy: The Formation of Citizenship Across
Youth Networks in Brazil. International Review of Social History , 40, 131-158.
Roberts, D. E. (2004). The Social and Moral Cost Of Mass Incarceration in African
American Communities. Stanford Law Review , 56 (5), 1271-1305.
Wilding, J. (2006). Don't Shoot the Clowns: Taking a circus to the children of Iraq.
Oxford: New Internationalist.
Young, I. M. (1989). Polity and Group Difference: A Critique of the Ideal of
Universal Citizenship . Ethics , 99 (2), 250-274.
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997). Women, Citizenship and Difference. Feminist Review (57),
4-27.
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Student number: 216105
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