Lineages of European citizenship. Rights, belonging and participation in eleven nation-states

Abstract:

Maastricht made Europeans of us all! Although Maastricht introduced the status of EU citizenship for all Member State nationals, being European and becoming a European citizen will require much more than the passing of a Treaty. This work explores the extent to which citizenship can be shared as a European value and how much EU citizenship draws on or departs from the national traditions of Member States.

The book is organised over ten chapters following an introduction. The work opens with three chapters on the best-known European traditions - the German, the French and the British. Chapter one explores the German tradition and its distinctive element of ethno-cultural definition of nationality. Chapter two addresses the French case, embracing as it does a liberal regard for human rights of the individual and communitarian emphasis on a clearly bounded, homogenous citizenry. Chapter three examines the British tradition where 'citizenship’ is a comparatively recent arrival, carrying with it responsibilities describing citizenship as distinct from rights. Southern Europe is the thread connecting the next three chapters which feature commentary on the traditions of Portugal, Italy and Spain. Many of these identify citizenship as being republican in nature in contrast to the 'subjects’ of a monarchy or more authoritarian right-wing bias. The Scandinavian experience is examined in chapter seven, which highlights the prominence given to female representation in politics that arose from the corporatist-pluralist channel of politics. A similar experience is recounted for the Netherlands in chapter eight. A view from 'across the pond’ is given in chapter nine which looks at the United States - a country with a tortured tradition of highly moralistic attitudes to citizenship that cut a bloody swathe through the civil rights of generations of black and ethnic minorities. The final chapter looks at the development of citizenship within the EU as compared to the experience in nation states and finds that it has followed a similar elitist route.

The work will interest scholars and students engaged in Political Studies, Sociology and European Union studies.

Richard Bellamy is Professor of Government at the University of Essex and Academic Director of the European Consortium for Political Research.