Citizenship (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what citizenship is, how it manifests itself and what a good citizen is like. In addition, we tell you what digital citizenship is.

What is citizenship?

Citizenship It is the condition of legal, social and cultural belonging of an individual to an organized community such as a country or a city.

It is a term widely used in law and sociology, coming from the Latin word civiswith which in Ancient Rome free men were designated, endowed with rights and obligations towards the State, unlike foreigners (pilgrim) and the slaves (served). Thus, those who failed to comply with their fundamental obligations could lose their status as citizens as punishment.

Today the term is used citizenship to name both the condition of being a citizen of some country, that is, to be recognized as an active member of said nation, endowed with rights and duties before the law; as well as to the group of citizens that make up a city or a nation (“The law was repealed due to the protests of the citizenship“, For example).

Throughout history, the requirements to be considered a citizen have changed enormously from one town to another and from one era to another. Currently, the notion of citizenship is closely linked to that of nationality that is, to the legal and formal relationship of belonging that one has with respect to one country or another.

Thus, for example, when talking about “European citizenship”, reference is made to European nationality, that is, to the legal identity of those who were born in Europe or who, according to European laws, legally have the identity of said place.

However, there are other uses of the term citizenship that are less descriptive, that is, they refer to the bond that citizens exercise with respect to public affairs (res publica): how responsible they are, how obedient to the law, how concerned they are about the country's designs, among other aspects.

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According to this point of view, citizenship would be the degree of community integration and proactivity in the defense of common issues that exhibits a human collective. In this sense, we usually talk about “doing citizenship” (in the same sense as “doing homeland”, that is, contributing to the general well-being of the national community).

In summary, and as proposed by the British sociologist Thomas Marshall (1893-1981) in his book Citizenship and social classes (1950), citizenship manifests itself in three different dimensions:

In belonging to a community that gives the individual a feeling of collective identity.
In the capacity of said individual to take an active part in political decisions and be a decisive agent of the community's destiny.
In the legal status that this condition grants and which is reflected in the citizenship documents (such as the DNI or the passport).

Importance of citizenship

Citizenship is a fundamental concept for life in society, since is linked to the exercise of rights and responsibility for duties. The citizens of a nation enjoy the protection of the law, for example, but are also subject to it in matters of collective well-being.

This is due to the social contract, the tacit agreement that governs life in society, in which certain natural freedoms are sacrificed (the so-called “state of nature”) in exchange for security, belonging and order.

Therefore, citizenship is much more than a legal identification document: it is a way of belonging to an organized group. This is why, throughout history, many minorities fought to expand the current notion of citizenship, from which they were totally excluded, and to be able to have rights and freedoms themselves.

Examples of citizenship

Some ways to exercise citizenship are:

Participate in voting national or regional, to elect political authorities, decide in referendums and be part of the country's decision-making.
Identify yourself with national documents in which one's own citizenship appears, when traveling abroad.
Comply with tax laws of our country, that is, paying taxes to finance the State and help those most in need.
Go to assemblies and town halls to inform us about the debates that take place in our community.

Active and passive citizenship

good citizen citizenship — The distinction between active citizenship and passive citizenship lies in the degree of commitment.

The distinction between active citizenship and passive citizenship has to do with the degree of commitment that the individual, a group or an organization assumes towards the community and the resolution of the needs of collective well-being.

So, Active citizenship refers to enthusiastic, responsible and initiative participation in those matters that refer to the common good; while Passive citizenship is one that is content to exercise its individual rights and that is involved as little as possible in the management of society.

For example, a company can perfectly comply with the minimum required, pay its taxes and ignore the rest of the needs of the community in which it is part and thanks to which it produces money. This is a case of passive citizenship.

On the other hand, a company that recognizes its human and natural environment, and therefore invests dividends and effort not only in enriching shareholders, but also in improving the life of the community and being responsible for its needs, is promoting active, involved and responsible citizenship.

Digital citizenship

Digital citizenship is a sociological concept that emerged at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, thanks to new information and telecommunications technologies (ICT), especially the Internet. Digital citizenship, also called citizenship 2.0, consists of the use of these new technologies to make public information available to people facilitate their bureaucratic and legal procedures, and allow the exercise of their rights and duties through digital platforms.

A key aspect of digital citizenship It has to do with digital skills that is, with the technological management skills necessary in the population to take advantage of the citizen tools at their disposal, such as social networks and other digital channels of citizen service.

Characteristics of a good citizen

passive active citizenship — A good citizen is involved and informed in the collective matters that concern us.

The exact characteristics of a good citizen may vary depending on the context and culture, but in the face of the global community emerging at the beginning of the 21st century, we can say that it is summarized as:

Be law-abiding. This implies fulfilling our obligations proactively, attentively and on time, not only respecting basic prohibitions (not stealing, not killing, among others).
Be environmentally friendly. This means ensuring that our activities have the smallest possible environmental footprint, and applying the so-called “Three Rs” as much as possible: reduce, reuse and recycle.
Cultivate civic values. This means meeting the minimum requirements necessary to guarantee ourselves and others around us a good quality of life. Some of these values are respect, tolerance, equality before the law and consideration for those who suffer.
Actively participate in citizen consultations. This implies taking an active, involved and informed role in the collective issues that concern us, such as voting in elections, participating in referendums, attending town halls and assemblies, or simply being informed of the debates that take place at the national level.
Demand that the authorities do their fair work. This implies denouncing irregularities, exercising protest and ensuring that the authorities do their job and organizing collectively to make one's voice heard, since the social and political system must meet the needs of the population, but at the same time passive citizens They tolerate and enable bad government.

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