ABSTRACT
To the average person the meaning of the term ‘citizen’ is vague and the concept of citizenship even less in tune with everyday discourse. Images of the ‘citizenry’ taking over the government by force in the French Revolution and using the mode of address ‘citizen’ in place of monsieur and madame are just as likely to be conjured up as any clear concept of the relations of individuals to the State. Fundamental to the idea of citizenship is, as the Oxford Dictionary defines it, membership of a State. A citizen is ‘an enfranchised inhabitant of a country as opposed to an alien’, or as understood in the United States, ‘a person, native or naturalised, who has the privilege of voting for public offices and is entitled to full protection in the exercise of private rights’. Ideas of citizenship are instilled in the next generation through the education system, of which the national curriculum and youth work both play a part.
