Citizen Power Olof Petersson Anders Westholm Göran Blomberg Draft translation Medborgarnas makt (Carlssons, Stockholm 1989) Translated by Victor Kayfetz 1 1. The Meaning of Citizenship...................................... 2 2. Influencing One's Own Situation................................ 37 3. The Covariation of Citizenship Roles........................... 83 4. Influencing the Situation of the Country...................... 102 5. Dimensions of Citizenship..................................... 167 6. Sex, Generation and Social Position........................... 184 7. On the Importance of Groups................................... 271 8. Legitimacy and Self-Perception................................ 336 9. The Family and Citizenship.................................... 387 10. Citizens in Transition....................................... 429 11. The Multiple Meanings of Citizenship......................... 511 2 1. The Meaning of Citizenship From subject to citizen What the concept of citizenship has meant to political life can only be compared with the significance of the industrial revolution to economic life and the Age of Enlightenment to the life of the mind. The idea of citizenship marked a revolutionary innovation in the relationship between the individual and society. All societies had previously been based on the principle of inequality. People were born unequal and lived unequally. Rights and obligations were determined by class membership, privileges and kinship. Some were condemned to remain slaves or subjects. Changing one's position in society not only involved practical difficulties, but was often theoretically impossible. The life chances of an individual were constrained by barriers of hopelessness. In contrast, citizenship is based on the principle that people are of equal value and enjoy equal rights. Every citizen is ensured the same opportunities to share in social change. All individuals are full-fledged members of society.1 ____________________ 1. The historical progression "from subject to citizen" employed here makes no claim to originality. At least two books written in Swedish bear this title: Anders Björnsson, ed., Från undersåte till medborgare: Om svenska folkets demokratiska traditioner (From Subject to Citizen: On the Democratic Traditions of the Swedish People), Ordfront, Stockholm, 1981, and Walter Korpi, Från undersåte till medborgare: Om fonder och ekonomisk demokrati (From Subject to Citizen: On Employee Investment Funds and Economic Democracy), Tiden, Stockholm, 1982. 3 It has frequently taken a long time to move from general ideas to actual realities. The evolution from a society based on privilege to one based on civil equality has often been slow, gradual and replete with conflicts. In a famous essay, British sociologist T.H. Marshall described the meaning of citizenship.2 Marshall had a dual purpose. He systemized various aspects of citizenship but also sketched a historical process. The concept of citizenship has three elements, Marshall wrote: civil, political and social. The civil part consists of those rights that are necessary in order to protect personal freedom. The main ones are protection of life and property, freedom of speech, freedom of thought and religion, the right to make agreements freely plus legal rights. The most important of all principles included in the civil part of citizenship is equality before the law. This means that the way the court system functions is crucial. No one should enjoy special treatment based on origin, social position or sex. Justice wears a blindfold. The political aspect of citizenship means equal rights to participate in the exercise of political power. No one should be excluded from the opportunity to hold political office. The right to choose representatives should rest with all citizens. The fundamental principle of political citizenship is one man -- one vote. This requires a democratization of political institutions. Step by step, the lower class gained access to the political ____________________ 2. T.H. Marshall, "Citizenship and Social Class" in Class, Citizenship, and Social Development, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 71-74. The text was originally a lecture held in 1949. For an interpretation and further refinement of Marshall's concept, see Sverker Gustafsson, "Medborgarskapets innehåll" ("The Contents of Citizenship"), lecture at the annual meeting of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala, October 8, 1983. 4 decision-making process. This historical process included freedom of association, universal suffrage and the secret ballot.3 The social aspect of citizenship means that the individual is assured of a social welfare safety net. All citizens should be entitled to live a civilized life in keeping with the standards prevailing in their society. The individual is entitled to share the cultural heritage of this society. The principle is well-being for everyone. Specialized institutions are established in order to provide citizens with education and social benefits. It is a historical fact that these various aspects of citizenship did not become a reality at the same time. In fact -- and this is Marshall's main point -- the three elements took shape in a definite chronological order. Although Marshall himself admitted that the three stages overlapped to some extent, in devising his historical timetable he still went so far as to assign each of the three aspects of citizenship its own century. Civil rights were the 18th century's contribution. During the 19th century there was a democratization of political institutions through parliamentarism and universal suffrage. The third stage, the 20th century, is characterized by the huge expansion of the welfare state.4 ____________________ 3. See the chapter entitled "The Extension of Citizenship to the Lower Classes" in Reinhard Bendix, Nation-Building and Citizenship, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1977, pp. 89-126. This chapter was written in collaboration with Norwegian sociologist Stein Rokkan. Rokkan has also dealt with nation-building and the democratization process in a number of other works, for example Citizens, Elections, Parties, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 1970, and Stat, nasjon, klasse (State, Nation, Class), Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 1987. 4. Marshall, pp. 81 ff. 5 As a rough stylization, this timetable captures the main features of historical change. The model nevertheless fits some countries better than others. Both Marshall himself and his commentators have pointed out that his quick historical outline was inspired mainly by Britain.5 A country like Germany shows special features that do not fit the timetable. The principle of equality before the law did not make its full breakthrough until well into the 20th century. The German legal system lacked the liberal, democratic features characteristic of Britain. German social welfare reforms were an expression of Bismarck's state socialism rather than of the principle of civil rights. It has been argued that the very fact that German modernization did not follow the same slow, gradual, comparatively harmonious evolution as in Britain is an important explanation for the problems experienced by German society during the 20th century.6 The image of three successive stages is suggestive. It is therefore hardly surprising that others present ideas about the evolution of citizenship very similar to Marshall's. A slightly different version can be found in Swedish Social Democratic writings, for instance. Here, history begins not with civil but with political rights. The second stage consists of social democracy, the third of economic democracy. What the two models have in common is that the third stage take place in the present day. To be in a pact with history and simultaneously be able to employ such a magical trinity are effective elements of a political ideology. ____________________ 5. Marshall, p. 91. Seymour Martin Lipset, "Introduction" in Marshall, 1964, p. ix. 6. Ralf Dahrendorf, Gesellschaft und Demokratie in Deutschland, 5th edition, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1977, pp. 74 ff. 6 + + + The question of whether this three-stage timetable provides a historically correct description of actual developments is not crucial in this context, however. The important point is that defining the various dimensions of the citizenship concept focuses attention on one important common denominator, the principle of equality. Citizenship is synonymous with the position enjoyed by a full-fledged member of a community. Everyone is equal with regard to the rights and duties associated with membership. There is no universal principle that determines exactly what these rights and duties should be, but the idea of citizenship creates an image of an ideal citizenship. This ideal can serve as a yardstick to determine how far the idea of citizenship has been realized in a given society.7 The Concept of Citizenship Like most central terms in the social sciences, "citizenship" also has a somewhat variable meaning. There are three main definitions. For the sale of clarity, it is important to specify the differences between these usages. Citizenship as a concept of international law Being a Swedish citizen has an exact meaning in jurisprudence and international law. As in most other European countries, the right to citizenship in Sweden is based on the principle of origin. The citizenship of the parents determines the citizenship of the child. In other countries, such as the United States, the territorial