ABSTRACT
This chapter maps the coordinates of meaning within which contemporary notions of the citizen are situated. It briefly traces the development of thinking about citizenship in liberal democracies since World War II. The chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the three varieties of citizenship theory that predominated during that period—liberal, communitarian, and republican. It develops an alternative idea that promises to provide a better orientation for citizens in our time: neorepublican citizenship. The new political and social realities have made the older theories of citizenship obsolete, because the kind of social order that they presuppose no longer obtains. Political and social realities have outgrown the framework within which these three theories of citizenship were embedded. The viability of democracies, it is said, depends upon such matters as civic-mindedness, religion, education in democratic rules, or the development of a public morality. The neorepublican conception of citizenship includes elements of communitarian, republican, and liberal-individualist thinking.
