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Home , Civic virtue, Classical republicanism, General will, Republicanism

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2002 Republican Richard Dagger University of Richmond, [email protected]

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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 , 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 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 and the are far only for purposes of historical understand­ older than any and far richer ing but also as a way of thinking about than any 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 , by the people, and for the people. Publicity and self- 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 or in which the theories do so because they draw upon the rulers regard everything, including the legacy of . 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 (1997) be the essential elements of republicanism. maintain that gives too much But what exactly do publicity and self­ attention to privacy and individual government entail? What is 'the public', and and too little to fostering the public 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 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 - 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 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 , for example, the men who republican and a liberal, on this view, and drafted the US 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 .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 - the government of , not family and friends'. One need not go as far of men, in what was the standard formula. 5 in this regard as - or as Aristotle as But it is also important to note that self­ read by (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 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 . Self-government is, of life of unfettered nor one course, a form of freedom. For republicans, devoted exclusively to family and friends it is the most important form, for other 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, . The citizens may be independent of the arbitrary public business must be conducted in public will of others. In Pettit's tenns, republicans not only for reasons of convenience - liter­ are less concerned with freedom from inter­ ally, of coming together - but also in order ference than with freedom from domination to guard against corruption. As members of (1997). 6 It is not interference as such that is the public, people must be prepared to over­ objectionable but its arbitrariness. A slave come their personal inclinations and and a citizen may both suffer interference aside their private interests when necessary when the former must bow to the will of the to do what is best for the public as a whole. master and the latter must bow to the law, but The public-spirited citizens who act in this their conditions are hardly equivalent. The way display public or civic virtue. If they master need not consider the slave's desires are to manifest this virtue, furthermore, the or interests, but the law, at least in the ideal, public must be bound by the rule of law. must attend to the interests of the citizen even Because it is the public's business, politics when it interferes with his or her actions. requires public debate and decisions, which Because it protects the citizen against arbi­ in tum require regular, established proce­ trary, unaccountable power, the law is 'the dures - that is, rules about who may speak, non-mastering interferer' that ensures the when they may speak, and how decisions citizen's freedom (Pettit, 1997: 41 ). are to be reached. Decisions must then take The law only ensures the citizen's freedom, the form of promulgated rules or decrees however, when it is responsive to the citizenry that guide the conduct of the members of the and when the republic itself is secure and public. From the insistence on publicity, the stable enough for its laws to be effective. rule of law quickly follows. 4 Sustaining freedom under the rule of law thus The connection of self-government to the requires not only active and public-spirited rule oflaw is at least as strong and immediate. participation in public affairs - the civic 148 Part Three: Approaches

virtue of the republican citizen - but also the one, the public good is better felt, better proper form of government. This will be known, lies nearer to each citizen; abuses some version of mixed or balanced govern­ are less extensive and consequently less ment, so called because it mixes and protected'. So widespread was this view in balances elements of rule by one, rule by the the late eighteenth century, and so fierce the few, and rule by the many. As Pocock (1975) insistence that only a small polity can sus­ and others have noted, writers from tain a republic, that the American authors of and to Machiavelli and the American the found it necessary to point out founders celebrated the mixed constitution that had also allowed for the for its ability to stave off corruption and possibility of a 'federal' - or 'coNFEDERJ\ TE', tyranny. , , and rule by according to Federalist 9 - republic. Even the people are prone, according to these writ­ then, the debate over the proposed constitu­ ers, to degenerate into tyranny, , and tion often turned on the question of whether , respectively; but a government that the United States would become a 'federal' disperses power among the three elements or a 'compound' republic - a republic com­ could prevent either the one, the few, or the prising thirteen or more smaller - many from pursuing its own interest at the or whether it would become a 'consolidated' expense of the . With each republic that could not long preserve its element holding enough power to check the republican character. others, the result should be a free, stable, and A small republic or a large (con)federal long-lasting government. republic: these seem to be the only alter­ If the mixed constitution is the character­ natives that the republican tradition allows. istic form of the republic, civic virtue is its The concern for size and civic virtue that desired substance. Without citizens who are these alternatives reflect testifies to the willing to defend the republic against republican that citizens must have a foreign threats and to take an active part in strong attachment to their polity that grows its government, even the mixed constitution out of a connection to their fellow citizens. will fail. Republics must thus engage in This connection must work almost immedi­ what Sandel (1996: 6) calls 'a formative ately, as in the -republic, or in building­ politics . . . that cultivates in citizens the block , with the higher and more qualities of character that self-government remote layers of government resting on the requires'. Constitutional safeguards may be local ones, as in the . Without necessary to resist corruption in the forms of some connection of this sort, civic virtue will avarice, ambition, luxury, and idleness, but not flourish and self-government will not they will not suffice to sustain freedom survive. Neither will the form of citizenship under the rule of law in the absence of a sig­ that some have regarded as its only true form. nificant degree of virtue among the citizens. Seeing to the continuing supply of civic virtue through education and other means THE VALUE OF REPUBLICAN will be, accordingly, one of the principal CITIZENSHIP concerns of a prudent republic. A prudent republic will also be a small one. That, at least, has been the conclusion - 'We have physicists, geometricians, chemists, or presumption - of many republicans astronomers, poets, musicians, and painters throughout the centuries. 'In a large repub­ in plenty; but we have no longer a citizen lic', as Montesquieu explained in 1748 in among us'. So wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau The Spirit ofthe Laws (Book VIII, Chap. 16), in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences 'the common good is sacrificed to a thousand (Rousseau, [ 1750] 1950: 169). His lament considerations; it is subordinated to excep­ echoes today in the writings of those who tions; it depends upon accidents. In a small deplore the decline or loss of 'real' or 'true' Republican Citizenship 149

citizenship - especially in the United States child, slave, or resident alien - was subject to and other countries where worries about the laws, and might even enjoy some rights declining electoral participation and eroding under them, but only the citizen had the right '' abound (e.g. Putnam, 2000). to take part in the government of the Consciously or not, these laments bespeak a community. Not only was the citizen entitled desire for a revival of republican citizenship. to engage in civic affairs, he was expected to From the republican point of view, do so. In ancient , this could mean citizenship has an ethical as well as a legal that a citizen would have to devote the better dimension. If it did not, Rousseau's lament part of his time and energy to public would make no sense in a world where more concerns, such as serving on a jury for a full and more people hold the legal title of citi­ year. Such devotion was necessary if he zen. If the lament does make sense, it is was to achieve the ideal of citizenship: to be because we continue to regard citizenship, a self-governing member of a self-governing in republican fashion, as an ethos - a way of community. Those who preferred a more life. Citizenship may be a matter of legal private or less arduous life than the citizen's status that confers various privileges and could find themselves mocked, as they immunities on the citizen, in other words, were in Pericles' Funeral Oration, as 'good but it must be more than that. 'Real' or for nothing' (, [431--41 lBCE] 'true' citizenship requires commitment to 1993: 42). Indeed, the Greeks drew a contrast the common good and active participation in between the polites, the citizen expected to public affairs. It requires civic virtue. play a part in public affairs, and the idiotes, That is not to say that republicans deni­ the private person who could not or would not grate the legal aspect of citizenship. On meet this expectation. the contrary, the citizen of a community That we no longer regard 'citizen' and governed by the rule of law must be some­ 'idiot' as opposites may be a measure of one who holds the legal rights and duties of how far we have departed from the classical membership. To say that Joan Smith or Juan ideal of citizenship. Even so, there is plenty Sosa is a citizen of a republic is to say that of evidence to suggest that the ethical Smith or Sosa not only enjoys the protection dimension of citizenship persists. There is, of its laws but is also subject to them. It is for instance, the fact that we sometimes also to say that, as a citizen, Smith or Sosa characterize people as good or bad citizens. is supposed to be on an equal footing with If citizenship were only a matter of legal other citizens. If Smith or Sosa is not treated status, we would not be able to distinguish equally under the law, then she or he may 'good' citizens from 'bad', or 'true' citizens rightly complain of being a 'second-class from those who are citizens 'in name only'. citizen'. In these respects, legal status is as This point is brought home by those who necessary to the republican conception of insist that 'every citizen holds office' citizenship as to any other. (Kennedy, 1961; Zwiebach, 1975: 87; van Necessary but not sufficient, for it Gunsteren, 1998: 25). That is, citizens hold requires the supplement of the ethical a position of public responsibility, just as dimension. This ethical aspect of citizenship mayors, senators, city councillors, and is evident in the theory and practice of the members of parliament do. The citizen who Greeks and Romans who bequeathed us the does not act responsibly may thus be said to concepts of citizenship and republic. betray a public trust, while the citizen who 'Citizen', of course, derives from the Latin faithfully does his or her duty displays civic civis, or member of the (city-state); virtue. Citizenship has an ethical dimension, the Latin tenns parallel the Greek polites in short, because there arc standards built and . In and the into the concept of citizenship, just as there citizen was a full member of the community. are standards built into the concepts of Every other member - whether woman, mayor, teacher, plumber, and physician. In 150 Part Three: Approaches the case of citizenship, moreover, these are altogether. Tocqueville articulated this republican standards, for they stress the position when he praised the doctrine of public nature of citizenship. 'self-interest properly understood'. Paying This public nature manifests itself in two taxes, serving on juries, obeying the law, ways. The first is that the good citizen is a and attending to public affairs require the public-spirited person who places the inter­ sacrifice of time, attention, and treasure, but ests of the community ahead of personal such sacrifices are necessary if we are to pre­ interests. Such a person will recognize that serve republican government and continue to citizenship is a matter of responsibilities as enjoy the rights of the citizen.7 The doctrine much as rights, and the good citizen of 'self-interest properly understood' may will discharge these responsibilities when not inspire extraordinary deeds or heroic sac­ called upon to do so - from the day-to-day rifices, Tocqueville admitted, 'but every day demands of obeying traffic laws and respect­ it prompts some small ones; by itself it can­ ing the rights of others to the more onerous not make a man virtuous, but its discipline burdens of paying taxes and providing mili­ shapes a lot of orderly, temperate, moderate, tary (or some alternative) service. The careful, and self-controlled citizens. If it does second way in which this commitment to the not lead the will directly to virtue, it estab­ public good manifests itself is in civic lishes habits which unconsciously tum it that involvement. Good citizens will undertake way' ([1835-40] 1969: 526-7). public responsibilities when called upon, as As Tocqueville's remarks suggest, the with jury duty, but they will not always wait person who acquires the habits of the public­ for others to issue the call. Instead, they will spirited citizen is also likely to become a take an active part in public affairs. They better, more virtuous person in other need not be 'political junkies' who have respects. To appreciate how this can happen, little interest in any other area of life; they we need to examine two further dimensions may even share Oscar Wilde's concern that of republican citizenship: the integrative ' [or any political cause] takes too and the educative. many evenings'. But the good citizen will Republicans believe that citizenship pro­ not think that an occasional evening devoted vides 'an integrative experience which to public affairs is one too many, nor that brings together the multiple role activities of politics is a nuisance to be avoided or a spec­ the contemporary person and demands that tacle to be witnessed. Politics is the public's the separate roles be surveyed from a more business, and the good citizen, according to general point of view' (Wolin, 1960: 434). the republican view, will try to play a well­ When we act as (republican) citizens, we informed and public-spirited part in the con­ cannot simply speak or vote as parents or duct of this business. workers or consumers or members of this The republican standards embedded in group or that sect. A policy that will work to the ethical dimension of citizenship thus one's benefit as a consumer may work to provide an ideal of what a citizen should be. one's detriment as a worker or parent, for Like other ideals, however, republican citi­ instance, so the search for a more synoptic zenship can take more or less stringent understanding of one's interests becomes forms. At its most stringent, the republican necessary. According to Rousseau, one conception seems to demand unquestioning should simply set aside personal interests to loyalty and total sacrifice from the citizen. follow the one has as a citizen - The Spartan mother who supposedly told that is, as one who has no interests except as a her son to come back a hero from the or member of the public ([ 1762] 1950, Book II, to come back on his shield gave voice to this Chs. 1-4). But we cannot truly act as view. In its less stringent forms, the republi­ members of the public unless we have some can conception acknowledges that even understanding of the personal interests of good citizens should not forsake self-interest the people involved. The activity of Republican Citizenship 151 citizenship - the exchange of views, the Perhaps the best way to make this point is give-and-take of debate - helps to provide in terms of a distinction Dennis Thompson this understanding. Indeed, the activity of draws between Rousseau's 'patriotic' and citizenship performs an integrative function 's 'enlightened' conception in two respects: it enables the individual of citizenship (Thompson, 1976: 43-50). to integrate the various roles he or she For Rousseau's austere republicanism, the plays, and it integrates individuals into the true citizen puts the good of the community community. above all other considerations. Citizenship Assuming that citizenship does in fact demands simplicity- a whole-hearted devo­ provide this integrative experience, one may tion to duty - rather than sophistication. For still wonder how this helps someone to Mill's liberal republicanism, however, good become a better person. The answer is that it citizens are people who develop their facul­ instills a more secure sense of self, of one's ties through active engagement in public identity and integrity as a person. One of the life. As Mill argues in Representative most common complaints about modem Government, the individual stands to gain society is that life tends to be divided into a from the intellectual growth, the practical series of almost discrete compartments. We discipline, and leave home to go to work, where the divi­ the moral part of the instruction sion of labor often confines us to a narrow afforded by the participation of the pri­ and repetitive task; we leave work to go vate citizen, if even rarely, in public shopping, where we encounter people we functions. He is called upon, while so know only as clerks and customers; we engaged, to weigh interests not his own; leave the store to drive or ride home, seldom to be guided, in case of conflicting seeing a familiar face along the way. Modem, claims, by another rule than his private urban society presents a far greater range of partialities; to apply, at every tum, prin­ opportunities than earlier forms of society, ciples and maxims which have for their but it also separates people from one another reason of existence the common good: and splits their lives into fragments (Wirth, and he usually finds associated with him 1938). To the extent that active citizenship in the same work minds more familiar­ requires people to see themselves as more ized than his own with these ideas and than the sum of the various roles they play, operations, whose study it will be to it will work to establish a secure sense of supply reasons to his own understand­ self. Anyone who finds this desirable will ing, and stimulation to his feelings for thus have good reason to believe that the the general interest. He is made to feel integrative aspects of citizenship will be, at himself one of the public, and whatever least in the long term, of personal benefit. is for their benefit to be for his benefit. Of course, there are other ways to deal (Mill, [1861] 1975: 196-7) with the multiplicity of roles and the frag­ mentation of identity characteristic of On Mill's account, then, active citizen­ modem life. One way is to withdraw into a ship educates people by drawing out abili­ cave; another is to join an all-embracing ties that might otherwise remain untapped or community of like-minded people. Yet unfulfilled, Because these abilities will another is to concentrate, so far as the insis­ prove valuable in other aspects of the tent demands of modem life will allow, on a citizens' lives as well, the educative dimen­ single role - parent, perhaps, or soldier or sion of citizenship clearly promises to work scholar - to the virtual exclusion of all to their benefit. others. From the republican standpoint. Two other features of this educative however, citizenship offers a better alterna­ dimension are noteworthy. Both pertain to tive because it promises an educative as well 'the moral part of the instruction' afforded as an integrative experience. by pmiicipation in public affairs. The first 152 Part Three: Approaches

is that this part1c1pation leads individuals recent revival of interest in both citizenship to Tocqueville's doctrine of 'self-interest and republicanism. The complaint is not so properly understood'. For reasons Mill set much that civic life in the advanced democ­ out, active citizenship widens individuals' racies has declined dramatically from some horizons and deepens their sense of how their golden age as that it has failed to realize the lives are involved with others', including the promise of republican citizenship. This lives of people who are unknown to them. In complaint, for instance, animated the work this way participation works to overcome of Hannah Arendt in the middle of the individualism as Tocqueville understood it: twentieth century. Technology has eased the 'a calm and considered feeling which dis­ burdens of labor and freed people to act as poses each citizen to isolate himself from the citizens in the public realm, she argued in mass of his fellows and withdraw into the The Human Condition (1958), yet we tum circle of family and friends; with this little away from public life and toward private society formed to his taste, he gladly leaves consumption. We want to pro­ the greater society to look after itself vide for the welfare of the citizenry, she ([1835--40] 1969: 506). Republican citizen­ declared in On , but we 'deny the ship works to overcome this pernicious form very existence of public happiness and of individualism by fostering the individual's public freedom' as we 'insist that politics is sense of himself or herself as a part of, rather a burden .. .' (1965: 273). We are, in short, than apart from, the public. squandering an opportunity to achieve what It is also important to notice how partici­ the republicans of ancient Greece and Rome pation encourages public-spirited citizen­ thought impossible - a polity in which the ship. The legal dimension of citizenship freedom of republican self-government is inclines us to think of citizenship in categor­ available not only to the well-to-do few but ical terms: either one is a citizen of a certain to almost the entire people. polity or one is not. From the ethical per­ Similar concerns lie behind the republi­ spective, however, one can be more or less can revival of the last quarter-century or so. of a citizen - a 'real' citizen, a citizen 'in In this case, neo-republicans tend to place name only', or something in between. Mill's the blame on one, or both, of two theories insight is that real citizenship can be culti­ they regard as pernicious. One of these is vated by encouraging those who are citizens liberalism; the other is the tendency to in name only to join in public life. From reduce politics to the market place. modest beginnings in occasional activities According to such critics as Sandel ( 1982, that require one to 'weigh interests not 1996), Sullivan ( 1986), Pettit ( 1997), and his own' and to look beyond 'his private Barber (1984 ), the liberal emphasis on indi­ partialities', political participation can trans­ vidual rights and has worked to form the nominal citizen into one who, loosen civic bonds and undermine self­ 'made to feel himself one of the public', is govemment. As Sandel puts it, 'the civic or moved to act by the desire to promote the formative aspect of our [American] politics common good. Participation in public life has largely given way to the liberalism that thus seems to be a pathway to, as well as a conceives persons as free and independent defining feature of, republican citizenship. selves, unencumbered by moral or civic ties they have not chosen' (1996: 6). This 'vol­ untarist' or 'procedural' liberalism, as found REVIVING REPUBLICAN CITIZENSHIP in the works of liberal philosophers such as (1971, 1993) and the legal deci­ sions of liberal jurists, has fostered a society The belief that participation in public life is in which individuals fail to understand how neither as extensive nor as intensive as it much they owe to the community. The chief ought to be is largely responsible for the purpose of the state, accordingly, is to Republican Citizenship 153

arbitrate the conflicting claims of these trivial: a reductio ad absurdum' (Selbourne, individuals as they pursue their disparate 1994: 14). 9 conceptions of the good life. Such a society Republican critics also point to other will be self-subverting, Sandel insists, for it problems with the market model of politics, 'fails to capture those loyalties and respon­ notably the problem of generating obedi­ sibilities whose moral force consists partly ence and allegiance. If citizens arc merely in the fact that living by them is inseparable consumers and the political order, like the from understanding ourselves as the particu­ market, is merely a mechanism for coordi­ lar persons we are - as members of this nating and aggregating the citizens' prefer­ family or city or or people, as bearers ences, there is no satisfactory answer to the of that history, as citizens of this republic' question, 'What reason has anyone to accept (1996: 14). Where such loyalties and the decision that emerges from the process responsibilities cannot be sustained, self­ of interest-aggregation?' (Miller, 1989: government cannot survive. Hence the need 257). Appeals to solidarity or civic virtue for a republican revival. are not available to the advocates of the Others have reached this conclusion in market model, of course. In such a 'resolu­ reaction to the tendency of many political tely individualistic' conception of politics, scientists and economists to think of politics people 'are essentially competitors - rivals as a form of economic activity. In politics for space, for resources, for power . . . The and public affairs, according to this view only bonds between citizens arc contractual (e.g. Schumpeter, 1962; Downs, 1957), the in nature, formed by agreements based on citizen is essentially a consumer. Political the self-interest of the parties involved' parties offer candidates and platforms in (Spragens, 1990: 139-40). Where self­ an attempt to win votes, and sensible interest does not dictate allegiance, there is consumer-citizens vote so as to strike the simply no reason to obey the law or remain best bargain for themselves. If they decide loyal. that the political market place offers nothing To be sure, self-interest does dictate that appealing, or that their resources are better people obey the law when they are likely to invested elsewhere, consumer-citizens will be punished if they do not. The proponents stay away from the ballot box and quite of the market model may thus argue that wisely forsake political activity. They may allegiance and cooperation are secured by even find that it is rational for them to the coercive force of the government. When remain largely ignorant of public affairs. obedience seems burdensome, however, the There is little that one vote can accomplish, law and those who enforce it will be after all, so why waste time studying the resented as obstacles, or even opponents, issues and assessing the candidates in order that block the satisfaction of the consumer­ to cast a meaningless vote?8 citizen's desires. Government and law soon This way of thinking about citizen­ appear to be alien forces imposed on one - ship and politics is far removed from the not forms of self-rule but forces to be republican ideal of civic virtue. Conceiving circumvented whenever possible. As law­ of the citizen as a consumer may capture the breaking increases, and their own interests legal dimension of citizenship, but there is suffer, consumer-citizens have no recourse no room in this conception for the ethical, but to call for more police, more jails, and integrative, or educative aspects of citizen­ more coercion. This reliance on coercion ship. Indeed, one republican response is to reveals a most embarrassing problem for the say that the consumer-citizen is a citizen in market model of politics: its inefficiency. name only: 'Market theories of political As Diego Gambetta observes, '[S]ocieties exchange which reduce the citizen to a which rely heavily on the use of force are "consumer" or "customer" are not so much likely to be less efficient, more costly, and amoral - although they are that too - as more unpleasant than those where trust is 154 Part Three: Approaches maintained by other means. In the former, the independent citizen who would rather resources tend to be diverted away from live frugally on land he and his family economic undertakings and spent in coer­ worked than succumb to the luxury and cion, surveillance, and information gather­ corruption of urban life (Jefferson, 1999: ing, and less incentive is found to engage in 549-50, 28). Such praise, however, seems cooperative activities' (1988: 220-1). Such little more than nostalgia in today's world of inefficiency demonstrates how the market global agribusiness and 'e-commerce'. model undermines itself. Citizens who think What may be said, then, for the relevance of of themselves as consumers will surely prize republican citizenship today? What may be efficiency. Yet the more citizens think of said for it, moreover, in light of the biases themselves as consumers, the more likely implicit in the republican ideal of the they are to rely on the inefficient means of property-owning, arms-bearing citizen? coercion to secure compliance with the We thus have two criticisms to consider laws. On its own grounds, then, the concep­ by way of concluding the case for republi­ tion of the citizen as consumer is inferior to can citizenship in this chapter. The first is a conception of citizenship that generates that the republican conception of citizenship cooperation on the basis of solidarity and is no longer realistic, if ever it was; the civic duty. Such a conception will be, at second is that the conception poses a threat least to some extent, republican. to an open, egalitarian, and pluralistic As with other revivals, in sum, the revival society. This second criticism is put force­ of interest in republicanism and in citizen­ fully by Iris Marion Young, who detects a ship grows out of the sense that something denial of 'difference' in republican attempts valuable is in danger of being lost. That loss, to establish a 'civic public': in this case, will have grievous conse­ This ideal of the civic public ... quences for political stability and individual excludes women and other groups freedom, for one cannot be a free person, in defined as different, because its ratio­ the republican view, unless one is a citizen nal and universal status derives only of a free, self-governing political commu­ from its to affectivity, par­ nity (Miller, 1991: 3). And such a commu­ ticularity, and the body .... [I]n so far as nity cannot be sustained unless a substantial he is a citizen every man leaves behind number of citizens (in the legal sense) his particularity and difference, to undertakes the active life of the public­ adopt a universal standpoint identical spirited citizen. for all citizens, the standpoint of the common good or general will. In prac­ tice republican politicians enforced THE RELEVANCE OF REPUBLICAN homogeneity by excluding from citizen­ CITIZENSHIP ship all those defined as different. .. (1990: 117). There is a sense in which all revivals are Space does not permit a full consideration backward-looking, and one may wonder of this criticism, but three points may be whether the attempt to revive the republican made here. 10 One is that there is a strong ideal of citizenship looks so far back - to the republican strain in the writings not only Greek polis, the Roman civitas, and the of pioneering feminists, such as Mary Italian city-republics of the - Wollstonecraft (1794), but also of some as to be irrelevant to life in the twenty-first recent feminists (e.g. Dietz, 1985, 1990). A century. 's agrarian second point is that politics will be a tricky republicanism is a case in point. Jefferson business indeed if concern for difference may have been right two hundred years ago rules out attempts to find a common good. to praise the small farmer as the model of Young wants 'claimants to justify their Republican Citizenship 155

demands before others who explicitly stand nostalgic ideal in this age of globalization. in different social locations' (1990: 190). In this case the republican response is to But how is a decision to emerge from the point out that fear of dependence and hatred conflicting claims of people in these 'differ­ of corruption are still very much with us, ent social locations' if no appeal to a and one need not be the yeoman farmer of common good or to the standpoint of the Jefferson's vision to enjoy the kind of inde­ citizen is allowed? To be sure, Young's pendence necessary to republican citizen­ point is that the search for common ground ship. The challenge is to find ways to adapt serves to justify the dominance of a particu­ these enduring republican concerns to the lar - and typically affluent, white, male - circumstances of vast polities that are them­ group. But if there is no common good or selves entangled in a 'global economy common ground, then it is difficult to see whose frenzied flow of money and goods, how public decisions, including those of the information and images, pays little heed to 'heterogeneous public' she recommends , much less neighborhoods' (Sandel, ( 1990: 190), can be justified. 1996: 317). To those who would take up this The third point concerns the claim that challenge, republicanism offers guidance of citizenship involves a false ideal of impar­ both a general and a particular kind. tiality. Here the republican response is to In general, the republican advice is to build deny that the ideal is false. We should community. Among other things, this means indeed strive to think and act, when estab­ that a republican cannot be a wholehearted lishing laws and policies, as members of the cosmopolitan (Miller, 1999; Dagger, 2001). public rather than self-interested indivi­ To be a citizen, in the republican view, is to duals. But this does not mean that we cannot be a partner in a common enterprise, and take account of the particular needs and people will be likely to put the common interests of the people - even people who interest ahead of their own - to act as true 'stand in different social locations' - who citizens - only when they feel themselves to compose the polity. Republican citizenship, be part of such an enterprise. The Internet and again, is integrative. It requires us to bring satellite television are unlikely to inspire this together the facets of our individual lives as sense of community on a global basis. best we can. In working toward policies and The republican, however, will also note laws that we can agree to despite our differ­ that genuine communities come in many ences, citizenship also helps us to find unity different forms, not all of which are in the midst of diversity. But it does not hospitable to the republican ideal of self­ require that we surrender our particular government. Republicanism thus points identities or deny the value of diversity. toward particular characteristics to be culti­ That is not to say that 'difference' and vated in political communities. Indeed, we cultural pluralism do not present difficulties may say that the republican model of the for a 'civic public', for they do. But differ­ good community exhibits the following five ence and pluralism present difficulties for characteristics: fair treatment under the rule all kinds of polities, and republican citizen­ of law prevails; economic arrangements and ship at least has the virtue of confronting the distribution of wealth promote citizen­ them head on by encouraging people to look ship rather than consumerism; preparing for the common ground on which they children for a life of responsible citizenship stand, despite their differences, as citizens. is a leading aim of education; civic design In that respect, there is surely something to strengthens neighborhoods and public spirit; be said for the relevance of republican and opportunities for participation in public citizenship. affairs, including programs of civic service, There is also something to be said in are abundant. response to the first criticism - that Much more needs to be said on each of republican citizenship is an irredeemably these five points, of course, to clarify and 156 Part Three: Approaches

bolster the case for republican citizenship. are now beginning to say it, is perhaps the That so much may be said, however, and best testimony to the continuing relevance that neo-republicans and republican liberals of the republican ideal of citizenship.

NOTES REFERENCES

1 Cicero made this point in his Republic when he asked Arendt, Hannah (1958) The Human Condition. Chicago: (Book III, 43), 'So who would call that a republic, i.e., the University of Chicago Press. property of the public, when everyone was oppressed by Arendt, Hannah (1965) On Revolution. New York: Viking the cruelty of a single man ... ?' As the subsequent discus­ Press. sion, in his dialogue indicates, Cicero believed that rule by Ball, Terence (1988) Transforming Political Discourse: the few and rule by the many could also be tyrannical - Political Theory and Critical Conceptual History. and therefore not republican. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 2 As I argue in Dagger ( 1997). For criticism of Barber, Benjamin (1984) Strong Democracy: Participa­ Sandel's and Pettit's attempts to distinguish republicanism tory Politics for a New Age. Berkeley: University of from liberalism, see Dagger (1999 and 2000, respec­ California Press. tively). Others who believe it is a mistake to divorce Cicero (1998) The Republic and The Laws tr. N. Rudd. republicanism from liberalism include Terchek (1997) and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spragens (1999). Dagger, Richard (1997) Civic Virtues: Rights, Citizenship, 3 On this point note Spragens's (1999: 186-7) remarks and Republican Liberalism. New York: Oxford Univer­ on 'civic friendship': sity Press. Dagger, Richard (1999) 'The Sandelian Republic and the 'It is not only close friends who may share the Encumbered Self', Review ofPolitics, 61 (2): 181-217. common interests, common attachments, common Dagger, Richard (2000) 'Republicanism Refashioned: purposes, and common values that generate the Comments on Pettit's Theory of Freedom and Govern­ behavioral cohesion of amicable and cooperative ment', The Good Society, 9 (3): 50-53. association. Quite large groups of people may share Dagger, Richard (2001) 'Republicanism and the Politics these goods in common, and on the basis of pursuing of Place', Philosophical Exp/orations, 4 (3): 157-73. them together they may form the quasi-erotic bonds (Autumn 2001). of social concord Aristotle referred to as homonoia: Dietz, Mary ( 1985) 'Citizenship with a Feminist Face: 'friendship between the citizens of a state, its The Problem with Maternal Thinking', Political province being the interests and concerns of life'. Theory, 13 (1): 19-37. [Nichomachean Ethics, Book IX, Chap. 6] Dietz, Mary (1990) 'Hobbes's Subject as Citizen', in 4 This connection is manifest in Cicero's famous defini­ Mary Dietz (ed.), and Political Theory. tion (Republic, Book I, 39) of the republic as 'a numerous Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. gathering brought together by legal [ iuris consensu] Downs, Anthony (1957) An Economic Theory of"Democ­ and community of interest'. See also Book III, 45 - 'there racy. New York: Harper and Row. is no public except when it is held together by a legal agree­ Gambetta, Diego (1988) 'Can We Trust Trust?', in Diego ment' - and, for analysis and assessment, Schofield ( 1995). Gambetta (ed.), Trust: Making and Breaking Coopera­ 5 Historians (Wirszubski, I 960: 9; Skinner, 1998: 45) tive Relations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. trace this formula to the Roman writers , , and Jefferson, Thomas ( 1999) Political Writings. Joyce Cicero. Applely and Terence Ball (eds). Cambridge: Cambridge 6 On Pettit's account (1997: 80), 'freedom as University Press. non-domination' is the 'supreme political value' of the Kennedy John F. (1961) 'Every citizen holds office', NEA republican tradition. Journal 50 (October): 18-20. 7 (1991) makes a similar point with Mill, John Stuart ((1861] 1975) Three Essays: 'On regard to Machiavelli and other republicans. ', 'Representative Government', and 'The Sub­ 8 So, at least, went the argument before the closely jection of Women'. R. Wollheim. (ed) Oxford: Oxford contested US presidential election of 2000. University Press. 9 See also Ball (1988: Ch. 6) on the distinction Miller, David (1989) Market. State, and Community. between 'economic' and 'educative' democracy. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 10 For more detailed discussion, see Miller ( 1995) and Miller, David (1991) 'Introduction', in David Miller (ed.), Dagger (1997: 176-81). Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. I am grateful to Terence Ball and Engin !sin for Miller, David ( 1995) 'Citizenship and Pluralism', Politi­ helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. cal Studies, 43 (3): 432-50. Republican Citizenship 157

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