Postmodern Citizenship: Logic and Praxis in State and Identity

The contemporary world may be witnessing a silent revolution in how we perceive and articulate the ideal of citizenship. While there have been important structural or systemic limitations on the role of citizens in the governance of contemporary states, social class also serves as a limiting factor that restricts the extent to which one can broadly interpret issues of citizenship, entitlement, and obligation. The priming effect of social status introduces arbitrariness and subjectivism into any analysis of citizenship rights as well as the state’s role in providing the needed public goods that address the common welfare of all. The diversification and fragmentation of public tastes, lifestyles, cultural history, philosophical dispositions, and idiosyncrasies stand at odds with any assumed political consensus on the rights and privileges of citizenship.