Liberal vs Republican Citizenship - Essay Example

Liberal and Republican Citizenship A citizen is somebody who belongs to a certain political party and enjoys being part of it and assumes the role and duties he has for the party. The issue of the difference between a subject and a citizen was controversial for a while, but it was not put to thought until the 1990s when theorists decided to review the concept again. The issues at hand were the idea of internal diversity of the liberal democracies. Another issue was globalization on the territorial states (Macedo 98). Citizenship is composed of three main elements; the first is the one where the citizen is protected by the law and his citizenship is a legal status. The second, the citizen is considered a political agent; he actively is involved in political activities. The third states that the citizens are a member of a political organization with distinct characteristics. Thus, to enhance cohesion in the society one has to display a tremendous sense of belonging to a political community. , The citizen enjoys rights depending on the political they belong in and this gives individual some respect too. The two models of citizenship include the liberal and the republican. The republican sources are found in the writings of authors like Machiavelli, Aristotle, and Cicero. The main principle of the model of citizenship is the aspect of civic self rule (Dworkin 76). Aristotle characterized it as the ability to be in charge and to be ruled. The fact that they co authored through general will, the writing of the laws this makes them freer and legitimate of the law. In the real sense, being a republican one is a political agent. On the other hand, the liberal model traces its roots back in the Roman Empire. Liberal citizenship meant being protected by the law instead of being in the process. Being liberal was just a legal status than a fact in daily living like the republican. It may mean that the membership is in a community that shares law or has common law. It is still common. This is a distinctive characteristic of the liberal citizenship. Other factors that make liberal citizenship are that it is a legal status and that people are free from interference by other authorities or even other individuals. The liberal tradition majorly started back in the 17th century. Citizens with it exercise the freedoms they have mainly in private associations other that a political community. The liberal citizen is in charge of contemporary constitutional freedoms. The civic virtues are evident in many theories; they can be categorized in various ways. This includes community citizen virtues, self governance citizen virtues and of course the one in discussion, in this paper liberal citizen virtues (Macedo 100). These virtues are autonomy, cooperation, obedience to law, participation, respect for rights, deliberative excellence, responsibility, restraint, allegiance to liberal democratic community and vigilance. A dutiful citizen accomplishes tasks successfully by coordinating with others, and he also helps back in return to the good deeds he receives from others too. Cooperation is extremely healthy in a community as it helps the community grow socially. Although there is the aspect of conditioned cooperation where someone expects the same in return if they help, but also this is usually in the effort to obey laws (Macedo 108). Participation as a virtue is portrayed by the active involvement of the citizen to politics and being well informed and interested in the same. Part of the participatory actions is making justice claims, registering voters, running for presidency, being part of the neighborhood associations and voting. The excellent participation depends highly on the initiative of individuals and their interest in participating. The purpose of being participative is that it is an excellent way to help the community effortlessly (Dworkin 103). Vigilance is another virtue; the virtuous citizen should be able to decide they want in power and refuse to be harassed by those in power. The citizen should evaluate those in the office of power and demand for accountability, transparency and performance by the various leaders. A upstanding citizen should be assertive in her political views and demand respect of their opinions due to the democracy of the state. The political self reliance is beneficial because it enables the citizen to assist the community to get it deals. The citizen voice acts as the self governance as it opposes being manipulated and misused by those in power. It is essential to driving incompetent leadership away. A dutiful citizen is always on the lookout for corruption and inefficiency. He also demands competence and high superiority. Deliberative excellence is a virtue that is portrayed by a citizen who listens to other people’s opinions respectfully and can also give her opinions willingly and discreetly. This virtue is noteworthy as it may defend fundamental ideas by citizens. The issue that is controversial about it though is that every thinker has different ideas and it may be taken as a healthy thing or ability but there are people who argue that this is characterized with disposition. The purpose of this is to enable everyone air their views on certain issues, it is wrong to just listening to others opinions, an excellent citizen should also participate in the conversation by offering their opinions too and also tolerate the other parties views if they are not in your best interest. Obedience of the law is a good virtue for a citizen. An excellent citizen is one who is law abiding he should listen carefully to instructions and always be keen not to disobey any. A dutiful citizen knows that the laws are truly legit and binding therefore they abide by them. This citizen will view the community a targets as his own goals. He will then pursue them as his own goals. Obeying laws in a way, is similar to cooperation also restraint. Citizens respect and obey law this will help the community to achieve its goals. It should also be a sense of duty to the citizen. One should not obey law just because they fear the authorities. Allegiance to the liberal democratic community is also a upstanding citizen virtue that plays an pivotal role in promoting healthy governance (Harris 103). Liberal citizen virtues are crucial as they help them in maintaining stability. They are essential in maintaining stability. They promote and protect the liberal democratic aims. When the government stability is maintained then, citizen may use this to pursue their goals as this would act as a platform. An excellent citizen obeys the law, cooperates and participates in the political activities actively, he also does not allow people in power to harass or bully him, he is willing to take chances and air his views. He evaluates the character and performances of those seeking office in power in order to ensure that the people in power perform their roles without corruption. The citizen is particularly vigilant in all the processes. The virtues of liberal citizenship restrain the pursuit of self centered and or self interest. It is gender biased; women are not very accommodated in this type of citizenship. They are viewed as though they do not exist in the tent of citizenship and may not enjoy the privileges that come with it that much. The other challenge is on the cosmopolitan citizenship. According to both liberal and civic republic citizenship it is difficult to be cosmopolitan citizen, as the activities of both liberal and civic republic are based on the status. The opinions of the latter may not be considered at all. The ecological challenge is also another restraint in the liberal citizenship. The political ecology cannot be explained in a rather obvious manner because both the republic and liberal have made an effort to keep the definition of citizenship in the sphere of the public, so they argue that the feminist citizenship may in fact be n citizenship because citizenship by definition is a space of the, public community space. This also applies to cosmopolitan citizenship, as it is too by definition, not political. Restraint is mostly brought about by the fact that one has to obey the law and they are fearful of the repercussions of not doing so. This way most people have to follow protocol (Macedo 111). The republican is more of a political agent compared to the liberal one. He has been mandated with the responsibility of being part of all the political process. One who is a republican citizen is more of a political agent. A liberal citizen is a better citizen than a republican citizen. Liberal citizens have virtues that come with being it. The virtues are what make them better citizens than the republican. These virtues include cooperating in tackling civic tasks, participating in democratic processes like voting and registering voters. The deliberative excellence and vigilance is also good. The liberal citizen virtues are a significant contributor to the change in as the citizens make decisions and they are implemented in the government (Nagel 304). The liberal democratic principles give the citizen the freedom to evaluate the people who are about to enter the office in power. The citizen then has the freedom to offer a view or opinion on in him. This has contributed to success in the regime. The citizen can develop am immoderate enthusiasm in order for the guiding principle to work. The liberal citizen is a better citizen than the civic republican. The republican is a bit totalitarian. The leaders dictate what is to be done and the citizen has no voice to say anything. The civic republican is a political agent and has no voice. The civic republican is not freer and has been restrained more than the liberal citizen. Work cited Dworkin, G. (1989) The Concept of Autonomy, in: J. Christman (ed.), The Inner Citadel (New York, Oxford University Press), pp. 54–62. Harris, Paul. (1989) Civil Disobedience. Lanham, MD: University of America, pp 103. Klein, Arnold (2004). Nagel. San Francisco: Brown trout, pp 304- 76 Macedo, Stephen. (1992) Liberal Virtues: Citizenship, Virtue, and Community in Liberal Constitutionalism. Oxford: Clarendon, pp.96 – 111. Read More