ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates on the notion of violence as an entry point to citizenship in the Arab worlds in four large historical moments, which serve as a way to discuss different routes to Arab citizenship. First, in an abstract discussion of pre-modern social bonds, the focus will be put on Islam, the dominant religion in Arab countries, as a possible basis for citizenship. Second, at the peak of colonialism, one can observe the emergence of a new, modern form of citizenship, one of positive law, private property and new secular regulations. Third, after the independence, an incomplete state-citizen relation emerged, whose origins also relate to a different political economy of violence favouring the surge of autocratic systems giving only nominal support to citizens' demands. Fourth, the chapter assesses why a revolutionary moment instilled new life into Arab citizenship, but also why the subsequent specific form of violence has turned against the citizen revolutions of 2011.
