Why do states give anyone citizenship at birth?
As in all forms of human association, states are composed of individual members. In theory, states could delay the conferral of citizenship until individuals reach adulthood and the fully formed identity that comes with it. In...
Why did states once abhor dual nationality?
Dual nationality was once considered a threat to morality and to the international order. As the American diplomat George Bancroft remarked in 1849, states should “as soon tolerate a man with two wives as a man with...
What were the rights and obligations of citizenship in the ancient world?
Rights and obligations were deeply inscribed in the citizenship of Greece and Rome. Military service was usually core to one’s identity as a citizen. In Sparta, all male citizens gave over the...
Is citizenship inclusive or exclusive?
In the modern era citizenship has been held out as a foundational element of constitutional democracy. It has been valorized as a marker of inclusion and equality. Citizenship is widely considered an unalloyed good, the kind of thing that...
Why do countries grant anyone citizenship after birth?
Naturalization implicates the allocation of citizenship after birth. In the conventional template of the modern period, a national of one country who thereafter permanently resettles in another country is able to naturalize in the adopted country....
Citizenship is a like the air we breathe; it’s all around us but often goes unnoticed. That is not a historically ordinary situation. Citizenship was once an exceptional status, a kind of aristocracy of the ancient world in which freedom and political voice were not...
What terms are used to describe loss of citizenship?
“Expatriation” was the common term used historically to describe loss of citizenship, both when the loss was compelled by a state and when it was voluntary. Expatriation should not be confused with the noun “expatriate,”...
