Citizenship and Civil Society
A Framework of Rights and Obligations in Liberal, Traditional, and Social Democratic Regimes

This book shows how legal, political, social, and participation rights are systematically related to liberties, claims and immunities.

Thomas Janoski (Author)

9780521571982, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 February 1998

332 pages, 12 b/w illus. 35 tables
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.9 cm, 0.64 kg

"There is much more of value in this book than can be outlined here. in particular, the discussion of limited and generalized exchange is excellent, as is the treament of the historical development of citizenship. This book is a valuable addition to the growing library of sociological accounts of citizenship." J.M. Barbalet, American Journal of Sociology

Rights and obligations are confusing. When people really want or need something they call it a right. Can they simply attach this word to anything they want? Can people disregard obligations with impunity? This book argues that they cannot. One must understand those relationships in specific ways to really know what can or can not be done with rights and obligations in public discourse and politics. They must create a web of interaction between citizens so that more long-term social investments may be made. Professor Janoski shows that individual rights protecting privacy, free speech, and legal access are more highly developed in social democratic countries than in liberal countries. On the other hand, obligations in those same social democratic countries are higher. On the whole, rights and obligations are in balance; or, you get what rights you pay for in terms of fulfilling obligations to the state and society.

1. Introduction to citizenship
2. The framing of citizens' rights: expansion, clarification, and meaning
3. Reconstructing obligations and patriotism: limitations, sanctions and exchange in a system of rights
4. Citizen-selves in restricted and generalized exchange
5. The balance of rights and obligations through nesting, civil society, and social culture
6. Incremental change in citizenship over decades: power resources, state structures, ideology, and external forces
7. Momentous change over centuries: from Wasps to Locomotives in the development and sequencing of rights
8. Conclusions and implications
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Civil rights & citizenship [JPVH1]