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Republican Citizenship Richard Dagger University of Richmond, Rdagger@Richmond.Edu University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Political Science Faculty Publications Political Science 2002 Republican Citizenship Richard Dagger University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/polisci-faculty-publications Part of the American Politics Commons, and the Political Theory Commons Recommended Citation Dagger, Richard. "Republican Citizenship." In Handbook of Citizenship Studies, edited by Engin F. Isin and Bryan S. Turner, 145-57. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2002. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Political Science at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 9 Republican Citizenship RICHARD DAGGER To speak of republican citizenship is to risk There might also be no need for this confusion, at least in the United States, chapter if it were not for the revival of where it is often necessary to explain that scholarly interest in republicanism in recent one is referring to 'small-r' republicanism years. Such a revival has definitely rather than a position taken by the Republi­ occurred, though, and occurred simultane­ can Party. But just as one may be a democrat ously with a renewed interest in citizenship. without being a Democrat, so one may be a This coincidence suggests that republican republican without being a Republican. The citizenship is well worth our attention, not ideas of democracy and the republic are far only for purposes of historical understand­ older than any political party and far richer ing but also as a way of thinking about than any partisan label can convey - rich citizenship in the twenty-first century. Why enough to make the use of 'republican' here this revival has occurred and whether repub­ worth the risk of some initial confusion. lican citizenship truly offers anything of 'Republican' and 'citizen', in fact, are old relevance or value today are thus the subjects and intertwined words - so old that some of this chapter. may wonder at their relevance in the brave The first subject, however, must be new world of the twenty-first century, and republicanism itself. Rather than attempt to so intertwined that the phrase 'republican survey the long, varied, and often contested citizenship' seems almost redundant to history of republicanism - a task undertaken others. There is no republic without citizens, recently by Oldfield (1990), Rahe (1992), after all; and, according to the classical Sellers (1998) and others - I begin by trying republican thinkers, there is no citizenship, to distill something of the spirit and forms of in the full sense of the word, except among republicanism into a brief but historically those who are fortunate enough to inhabit a sensitive account. The second part of the republic. But this view of citizenship's con­ chapter then shifts the emphasis to citizen­ nection to republicanism no longer seems to ship by explaining, from the republican prevail. If it did, there would be no need for standpoint, its value. Part three takes up the a chapter on republican citizenship in this revival of interest in republicanism and volume of essays on citizenship, for the citizenship in the last quarter century or so, authors would simply assume that citizen­ and the fourth section concludes the chapter ship entails republicanism and go on to with a defense of the continuing relevance other matters. of the republican conception of citizenship. 146 Part Three: Approaches REPUBLICANISM people, by the people, and for the people. Publicity and self-government may be the essential elements of republicanism, but 'Republic' derives from the Latin res they are not peculiar to it. To the extent that publica, the public thing, matter, business, or they stress the importance of publicity and property, with the implication that a republic self-government, however, modem political differs from a state or society in which the theories do so because they draw upon the rulers regard everything, including the legacy of classical republicanism. To the people who inhabit it, as their property. 1 In a extent that they differ from one another - republic, that is, the government of the state and from republicanism - it is because they or society is a public matter, and the people pursue the implications of publicity and self­ rule themselves. Publicity - the condition of govemment in different ways. Thus writers being open and public rather than private or such as William Sullivan (1986), Michael personal - and self-government thus seem to Sandel ( 1996), and Philip Pettit (1997) be the essential elements of republicanism. maintain that liberalism gives too much But what exactly do publicity and self­ attention to privacy and individual rights government entail? What is 'the public', and and too little to fostering the public virtues how are its members to govern themselves? that lead people to do their duties as citizens. There is no single republican answer to Liberals and republicans both want to pro­ these questions. In ancient times, and long mote self-government, according to Pettit, beyond, republicans typically assumed that but liberals make the mistake of thinking the public comprised the citizenry, and only that all forms of restraint deprive people of property-owning, arms-bearing men could freedom - even, as we shall see, the be citizens. Contemporary republicans restraints imposed by a legal system that define the public and citizenship more prevent some people from ruling or dominat­ expansively, however, to include women ing others. There is, then, a neo-republican and people without property, and nothing in school of thought that sees liberalism as a the idea of republicanism prevents them misguided rival of republicanism. To others from doing so. Similar shifts have occurred with republican sympathies, these differ­ with regard to self-government. When they ences are more a matter of emphasis than of designed representative institutions for the fundamental commitments. One may be a new republic, for example, the men who republican and a liberal, on this view, and drafted the US Constitution knew that they there are reasons to think that republican were departing from the classical conception liberalism is an especially attractive politi­ of self-government as direct participation in cal philosophy.2 Still, to speak of republican rule; yet they saw this as an improvement liberalism is to acknowledge, first, that within, not an abandonment of, republican republicanism and liberalism are not one and practice. Whether they were right to think so, the same, and, second, that there are more or whether they sacrificed too much partici­ and less republican forms of liberalism. pation and relied too heavily on representa­ To understand what is distinctive about tion, remains a point of contention. But it republicanism, then, we must look more is the commitment to publicity and self­ closely at the implications republicans draw government that generates this and other from publicity and self-government. intramural disputes among republicans. For In the case of publicity, the implications republicans, the question is not whether pub­ are twofold. The first is that politics, as the licity and self-government are good things; it public's business, must be conducted is how best to achieve them. openly, in public. The second is that 'the One could say the same, of course, about public' is not only a group of people but an liberals, conservatives, socialists, and others aspect or sphere of life with its own claims who claim to promote government of the and considerations, even if it is not easily Republican Citizenship 147 distinguished from the private. What makes If citizens are to be self-governing, they something public is that it involves people cannot be subject to absolute or arbitrary as members of a community or polity - as rule. If the citizen is to be self-governing, people joined by common concerns that take then he or she must be free from the them out of their private lives and beyond, absolute or arbitrary rule of others. To avoid as Tocqueville put it in Democracy in this arbitrariness, citizens must be subject to America ([1835] 1969: 506), 'the circle of the rule of law - the government of laws, not family and friends'. One need not go as far of men, in what was the standard formula. 5 in this regard as Aristotle - or as Aristotle as But it is also important to note that self­ read by Hannah Arendt (1958: esp. Part 11)­ govemment requires self-governing. The but all republicans believe that there is republican citizen is not someone who acts something enriching about public life, arbitrarily, impulsively, or recklessly, but regardless of how wearisome it sometimes according to laws he or she has a voice in may be. Public life draws people out, and it making. Again, the need for the rule of law draws them together. It draws out their is evident. talents and capacities, and it draws them As with publicity, the republican commit­ together into community - into connection ment to self-government leads to charac­ and solidarity, and occasionally conflict, with teristic republican themes, such as the other members of the public.3 No matter how republican conception of freedom and, again, desirable they may seem to others, neither a of civic virtue. Self-government is, of life of unfettered individualism nor one course, a form of freedom. For republicans, devoted exclusively to family and friends it is the most important form, for other will appeal to a republican. forms of individual freedom are secure only From these aspects of publicity follow the in a free state, under law. Freedom thus republican emphasis on the rule of law and, requires dependence upon the law so that perhaps most distinctively, civic virtue.
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