Bibliographies on Citizenship
Tuesday, 24 November 2009 15:42
I. Ancient Thoughts on Citizenship
Aristotle. Politics. Trans. C. D.C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.
t;p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Classical Greek Philosopher Aristotle’s Politics was written in the 4th century B.C. Aristotle’s writing is a handbook for legislators in his time, based on the assumption that the members of a state are a community pursuing common good. His concept of “citizen” is limited to mean only “men of leisure” who have the time to rationally think, although this excludes many of the people whose work makes the state possible.
Ober, J. The Athenian Revolution: Essays on Ancient Greek Democracy and Political Theory Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
The Roman Citizenship. Sherwin-White, A.N. 1973. READ ONLINE.
Written in 1939, “The Roman Citizenship” is considered a classic in modern writing on Ancient Rome. Sherwin-White gives detailed legal analysis of the development of Roman citizenship through the collapse of the empire in the 4th century A.D.
II. 17th - 19th Century Thoughts on Citizenship
1788
Rossiter, Clinton, Ed. The Federalist Papers. New York: North American Library, 1961.
The Federalist Papers were a series of 85 articles published in the late 1700s in the United States. The papers argued for the adoption of the United States Constitution and have since been used as a primary source for interpreting its text.
1651
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Ed. Edwin Curley. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994. READ ONLINE at Project Gutenberg.
r="ltr">A classic of political philosophy, Hobbes’s book on the structure of society and the characteristics of legitimate government is one of the earliest examples of the social contract theory.
1662
Locke, John. Second Treatise on Government. READ ONLINE at Project Gutenberg.
John Locke was a Classical Republican and prominent Englishtenment figure, and his writings especially on social contract theory and property rights have heavily influenced political philosophy.
III. Modern Thoughts on Citizenship
1913
Promoting Good Citizenship. Bryce, James (Viscount). Hougton Mifflin Company. READ ONLINE.
Viscount James Bryce was a British jurist, historian, and politician. The bulk of this book is devoted to a section on “how to overcome the obstacles to good citizenship,” which the author identifies in the first section as indolence, selfish personal interest, and (political) party spirit.
1984
Barber, Benjamin. Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
Barber defines his concept of “Strong Democracy” as all citizens being actively involved in self-governance, at least in some way, at all times. He argues that an “excess in liberalism” – a decrease in positive political engagement by citizens - is the cause of most problems facing democratic governments today and offers a critical review of the past twenty years to make his case.
1997
Smith, Rogers M. Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. Link to Page on Publisher’s Site.
The author provides a review of the history of the ideas various American authors, philosophers, and politicians have espoused on the concept of citizenship in their country since its founding.
2003
Patrick, John J. "The Concept of Citizenship in Education for Democracy". ERICDigests.org. READ ONLINE.
A short article on the title topic, originally produced as part of the The Education Resources Information Center, a discontinued an international educationsal darabase project which was sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education.
IV. Citizenship in the Modern Middle East
1992
Religion and Citizenship in Europe and the Arab World. Nielsen, Jørgen S., Ed. Grey Seal Books, May 1992.
An academic study of the legal and social aspects of citizenship in both Europe and the Arab world today.
2000
Butenschøn, Nils August and Uri Davis and Manuel Sarkis Hassassian and Universitetet i Oslo. Institutt for statsvitenskap. Citizenship and the state in the Middle East: approaches and applications. Syracuse U P: 2000. READ ONLINE.
Through case studies and theoretical writing, the authors of this book analyze Middle East politics, including but not limited to a section on Israel and Palestine, from “a citizenship perspective.”
Joseph, Suad. Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East. Syracuse U P, 2000.
A companion volument to “Citizenship and the State in the Middle East: Approaches and Applications” (see above), the essays in this book provide a unique method of understanding Middle Eastern issues from “a citizenship perspective,” focused on the disenfranchisement of women as citizens in different parts of the region.
2007
Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development. Eds. M ukhopadhyay, Maitrayee and Mavsharan Singh. Ottawa: IRDC, 2007. READ ONLINE.
This collection of essays offers a feminist perspective on the major contemporary debates about development and citizenship: . It was commissioned by the International DevelopmentResearch Center, an organizations devoted to “empowerment through knowledge.” Chapter 6 (“Unequal Citizenship,” pages 233-262) focuses on Issues of Gender Justice in the MENA Region.
2009
Parolin, Gianluca. Citizenship in the Arab World. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2009. Link to Publisher’s Website.
The author augments five years of research with both Arabic-language as well as Western references in this contemporary legal analysis of nationality and citizenship throughout the Arab world.
