POG 100: Introduction to Politics and

Governance, Section 1/2/3/7

Fall 2007

October 30 2007
 October 30 2007
• Citizenship and representation
• New Politics, social movements and
resistance
• Political systems and political
Participation
 Citizens and Citizenship
• The concept of citizenship has a long history. Nation states assume a loyal
citizenship or subjects as the basis for their viability.
• Greek citizenship is often identified as the earliest form of citizenship but it
was accorded to a fraction of those who lived in Athens and had property,
were male and white – only 20% of the population
• The modern concept is based on universal recognition of common equality of
humanity but still assumes exclusions along territorial boundaries, etc
• It is embedded in the Lockean idea that the relationships between the people
and their government should be consensual and contractual
• This modern concept of citizenship also has its roots in the French revolution
and the peoples’ demands for liberty, equality, and fraternity
• Citizenship rights and responsibilities derive from such considerations as
birth, naturalizations, etc
• Who is a citizen? Who should be a citizen? Should that change in a
multicultural environment with increased migration?
• What is the value of citizenship: for individuals (passport?), for community?
 Citizen and Citizenship
• To be a citizen presupposes being part of a
specific political community, participation in
its economic and social life and the
enjoyment of its support in case of need.
• Modern dimension of citizenship denotes a
form of social citizenship, which, along with
the concept of equality helps define the
contours or boundaries of social
inclusion/exclusion (Byrne, 1999)
 Citizenship
• Citizenship, is understood as a:
– relationship between the individual and the state as well as
among individuals,
– It is the concrete expression of the fundamental principle of
equality among members of the political community

(Jenson & Papillon, 2001).

• Citizenship represents the:

– “concrete expression of the principle of equality among
members of the political community”
Jenson and Papillon (2000)
 Citizenship as a contested
concept
• Citizenship transcends the legal definitions
that are the basis for determining who votes,
who holds what passport and who is
protected when in danger abroad

• Three key axes for the debate:

– Rights versus responsibilities
– Universality versus difference
– National versus global
 Dimensions of Citizenship
• Rights and responsibilities.
• Equal access
• Belonging or identity.

– These processes are dynamic so neither equal access nor belonging are
automatically achieved.
– Societies require agency to foster equality and improve access in the same
way they need strategies to ensure meaningful participation in the
democratic process and the full exercise of citizenship rights, all which
vary over time and place.
– Given the nature of power relations and unequal social relations in
societies, various social forces engage in struggles to gain better access
for certain categories of citizenship on the one hand, and to the transform
oppressive structures, institutional practices and change the boundaries of
access on the other.
 Rights and responsibilities
• Rights and responsibilities are founded in liberal
conceptions of citizenship as guaranteeing
political and civil rights in exchange for certain
responsibilities such as paying taxes, informed
participation and defending the polity when called
upon.
• T.H. Marshall (1964) has enumerated a set of
rights and responsibilities that have come to define
this dimension including Civil rights, Political
rights, Social rights
 Rights
• The right to protection of life and property
• The right to protection against disease
• The right to free speech
• The right to freedom of worship
• The right to freedom from false
imprisonment
• The right to trial by jury
• The right to healthful surroundings
• The right to a good education
 Responsibilities
• The duty of obedience to law
• The duty of paying taxes
• The duty of military service
• The duty of voting
• The duty of office-holding
• The duty of jury service
• The duty of keeping healthy
 Equal Access
• The second dimension of citizenship, which corresponds to equal
access to the resources of society, is important because it is
fundamental to any claims of equality.
• It is built on the civic recognition that basic levels of material well
being are essential to sustaining meaningful access to full citizenship
and to fostering participation.
• The degree of access varies within and across political communities,
depending on institutional design, and according to the support given
by the state and the community to the groups excluded by the social,
economic or cultural structures within the society.
• This notion of citizenship invokes the state as guarantor of the
principles of equality among members and dignity for the individual or
group
• It assumes a modern conception of the state as a positive actor in
society
 Belonging and Identity
• Citizenship defines the boundaries of belonging,
giving specific recognition and status to members to
participate and benefit from the political community.
• Citizenship is also a source of, as well as a
determinant of identity
• Concepts such as shared history, shared experience,
culture and common bond, are central to creating a
sense of belonging
• State action to ensure harmony and multicultural
expression can also be key to creating a complex,
diverse citizenship
 Universality and difference
• Universality denotes: equality in the eyes of the state
• However, formal citizenship rights do not translate into
substantive equality
• Universality masks differences that have social
significance in the daily lives of citizens: social class,
gender, race, disability, immigrant status, and even
regional
• Where these obtain, the separation gives rise to inequality,
discrimination, and racism.
• Citizenship is seen as incomplete (Castles, 1994)
• Structures of inclusion and exclusion undermine full
citizenship
 Global citizenship
• Globalization has challenged the conventional wisdom that the
state is the basis for citizenship because it provides the
infrastructure for citizenship rights
• Global economic and political institutions (such as IFIs, TNCs)
can be said to represent ‘unaccountable power’.
• It blurs the boundaries of citizenship and obscures the:
– “lines of responsibility and accountability of national states”
(Held, 1989)
• Is citizenship increasingly detached from the nation state?
– Global citizenship and global civil society
– Regional citizenship e.g. European Union and European
social citizenship
– NAFTA and closer economic relations
– the emergence of epistemic communities
 Citizenship as a fluid concept
• Citizenship and nationalism (ethnicity and
religions as basis for citizenship)
• Mono-cultural and multicultural citizenship
• Shared citizenship
• Thick and Thin citizenship
• Open citizenship
• Social inclusion and social exclusion
Social Inclusion and exclusion
• Social inclusion implies the fulfillment of the ideals of citizenship, while
social exclusion suggests the failure to achieve full citizenship by some
members of society.
• Social exclusion involves exclusion from civil society through legal sanction
or other institutional mechanisms. A broader conception of this aspect would
include substantive disconnection from civil society because of systemic or
institutional forms of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender,
disability, sexual orientation, and religion.
• Secondly, social exclusion refers to the denial of social goods to particular
groups or society’s failure to provide for the needs of particular groups - such
as accommodation for persons with disability, housing for the homeless,
language services for immigrants, or sanctions to deter forms of
discrimination.
• Third, there is social exclusion from social production, a denial of opportunity
to contribute to or participate actively in society
• And fourth, is economic exclusion from social consumption – involving
unequal or lack of access to normal forms of livelihood.
 New Politics, social movements
and resistance
• Culture
• Civil Society
• Social Movements
• Gender
• Race
• Environmental politics
 New politics
• The various forms of exclusion have motivated new forms
of politics aimed at addressing the material and social
disadvantages and oppression of identifiable groups and
reconstituting citizenship as an inclusive sphere
• New discourses representing new ways of looking at old
political questions have emerged as have new forms of
organizing and political mobilization
• Feminism, post-colonialism, post-modernism,
environmentalism, to name but a few
• These represent new forms of politics, new identities and
claims on the state and society’s resources
• They also suggest new ways of social and political
organization
 Cultural identity
• Helps describe differences between states but also among groups in
society
• Understood as a shared way of life and common experience
• Cultural identity implies a collective experience relating to language,
system of beliefs, customs, norms, dress, conventions, religion etc.
• They are transferable from generations to generation
• Cultural identities are organic but socially constructed
• Cultural roots as a basis for political socialization and mobilization
• Cultural studies focus on stratification in society and the unequal
relations of power, experiences of oppression and structures of
domination that derive from them
• According to Gramsci (1891-1937), culture is key to understanding
the possibility of change, resistance and emancipation as well as the
maintenance of hegemony through cultural/knowledge production
 Civil Society
• Gramsci suggested that it is in the arena of civil society that the struggles
between the dominant cultures and the subordinate cultures are waged
• Civil society is a contested, complex concept used to describe the arena,
activities, relationships, practices and mobilizations outside the formal
boundaries of the state, but that influence what goes on within the state
• The sphere of citizen organized political and associational activity between the
family and the state and involving struggles against the state
• Civil society organizations or community based organizations are some of the
associations that emerge in civil society - many local, national and some
global
• What is the relationship between civil society and the market in a time when
market institutions are as dominant as the state?
• Popular movements, local and transnational social movements emerge in
civil society to mobilize and organize political protests
• Women’s movement, anti-war, environmental, race based, disability
and gay and lesbian movements are key social movements in modern
politics
 Social Movements
• Debates about social movements involve the very nature of social movements:

- Political: they are ‘political’ and only involve collective

political action or can embrace silent resistances – foot dragging, acts of disobedience,
etc for instance,
- Continuous or discontinuous: whether contemporary social
movements are ‘New’ and whether they are materially based…bread and butter
concerns or social.
- violent or non-violent: Are they non-violent or can they
involve armed struggle? Chiapas in Mexico …the Zapatistas.
- Institutional or non-institutional - informal or formal. Non-
governmental organizations increasingly bureaucratized and institutionalized
- Scale: Local or global - Are they strictly local and rooted in local struggles or
can they be organized on a global scale, using modern technologies like the
internet. The Anti-war rallies that brought millions to the streets in February
were largely coordinated via the internet and signal the emergence of a global
civil society and perhaps the potential for a global counter-movement.
 Gender
• While biology determines a person’s sex, social, political and cultural forces
determine their place in society
• Biological determinism is the belief that woman’s nature and possibilities are
determined by her biology. Gender is the social construction of masculinity
and femininity translating into patriarchy - rule by men or men’s control over
the society’s dominant ideas and institutions.
• Gender is a key dimension of the stratification in society and because
patriarchy implies systemic gender inequality gender has become an important
basis for political socialization and mobilization to address the condition of
oppression women experience
• Women’s oppression - a system of interrelated barriers and forces which
reduce, immobilize or mould people belonging to certain identifiable groups
leading to their subordination
• Oppression is manifested in women’s under-representation in arenas of
political, economic and cultural power, as well as disproportionate
responsibility in social reproduction
• Feminism has emerged as the ideology of analysis of women’s oppression and
action against it. Feminist movements are key social movements.
• Feminist political action seeks women’s liberty and control over their bodies
and lives
Women’s subordinate position
in Politics
• Women constitute 70% of the world’s poor
• 2/3 of the world’s illiterate
• Occupy only 14% of the world’s management and
administrative jobs
• 10% of legislative seats
• 6% of national cabinet positions
• Work longer hours, many unpaid and most
undervalued
• Limited reproductive rights and sexually exploited
• Remain vulnerable to all forms of violence, including
sexual, physical, emotional, and use of rape as war
 Gendered division of time
Nepal Time Input into Village and Domestic work
Activity Men Women
• Cooking and Serving 10 90
• Cleaning 5 95
• Maintenance 7 93
• Laundry 10 90
• Shopping 54 46
• Child Care 16 84
• Animal Husbandry 55 45
• Gathering and Hunting 60 40
• Water Collection 8 92
• Food processing 13 87
 Race
• Race and racialization are bases of oppression and resistance
• Race is a difficult concept to define because it is more a social construction
than an essential biological concept.
• Race is used to denote arbitrary physical and social traits as a basis for
difference among peoples
• The process of racialization involves the construction of racial categories as
real, different but giving them social value as unequal leading to economic,
social, and political inequalities in society along racial lines.
• Racialized peoples are historical victims of colonization and oppression. They
are more likely to be poor and face discrimination in education, employment,
business and political institutions, among others.
• They have responded to this condition by organizing anti-colonial and anti-
racism movements
• Indigenous movements have arisen around the world to make territorial claim
to their ancestral lands
• Anti-racist action is about emancipation from subordination and exploitaiton
 Aboriginal movements
• In Canada, Aboriginal peoples - Indians, Metis, Inuit -have been the victims of
cultural genocide and socio-economic and political marginalization
• Aboriginal peoples did not get the vote until 1960. While over 4% of Canada’s
population, Aboriginal people are the poorest and most disadvantaged
• In the 1960s and 1970s, Aboriginal peoples movements sprung up demanding
their treaty rights be honoured by the Canadian state and Canadian society
• The confrontations escalated from legal contests to some of the most dramatic
confrontations with the Canadian state
• While there have been confrontation in Burnt-Church, Ipperwash, perhaps the
armed stand off at the Quebec town of Oka in 1990 stands out.
• The Oka crisis began with plans by the Town Council of Oka’s plans to
expand a golf course into what the Mohawk of Kenastake claimed to be their
ancestral burial grounds.
• It escalated into an armed stand off in which a police officer was killed and the
Canadian armed forces deployed
Key themes in Canada-Aboriginal
relations
• Socio-economic problems such as the persistence of
poverty, high rates of infant mortality, suicides, disease,
unemployment, discrimination, woefully inadequate
education, inadequate housing on reserves etc.
• Settlement of Native land claims
• Aboriginal self government and sovereignty
• The paternalistic Indian Act and the Dept. of Indian and
Northern Development Act
• These have periodically led to confrontations between
Aboriginal communities and the Canadian state
 Oka crisis of 1990
• This crisis represented the most dramatic challenge to politics in Canada.
• At issue in the village of Oka (40 kilometers from Montreal) was a struggle
over the ownership of land on which a municipal golf course was to be
extended. The Mohawks claimed the land as theirs and argued that it was a
sacred burials ground and that the town had no right to extend the gold course
on their land. In March 1990, the Mohawks of nearby Kanestake reserve block
the road leading to the disputed lands. On July 11, 1990 The Surete du Quebec
raided the blockade and in the raid one S.Q. officer was killed.
• The Mohawks from Kahnawake reserve blockaded the Mercier Bridge linking
Montreal to the suburbs, in sympathy with their kith and kin at Oka. The
blockade generated a considerable backlash and racism directed at the
protestors. The federal government decided to send Canadian troops to Oka to
confront the Mohawk warriors.
• In effect, the troops were deployed against Canadians and acted as an internal
occupying force. The confrontation between the troops and the warriors lasted
78 days and on September 26, after facing constant harassment and
intimidation the warriors agreed to a mediated settlement and surrendered
 Environmentalism
• Key environmental concerns have become a basis for new discourses
and political mobilization
– Increased emissions of greenhouse gases leading to global climate
changes
– Depletion of non-renewable natural resources
– Devastation of rain forests
– Pollution of various forms leading to health hazards
• The ideology of environmentalism emerged to address these concerns.
It seeks to transform the relationship between human being and nature
to ensure a better balance and sustainability
• Environmentalism argues that there are limits to the growth of
production and consumption and the size of the world’s population
• Sustainability means maintaining the integrity of the eco-systems to
ensure that depletion does not exceed regeneration
• Sustainable development: Meeting the needs of the present generation
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs