ABSTRACT

Marshall's emphasis on the dynamic or evolutionary character of citizenship is particularly significant because it allows people to recognize that the development of citizenship has been open-ended. Citizenship, whether in the form articulated by T. H. Marshall or in relationship to its expansion through new generation of rights, has almost always been associated with membership in the modern nation-state. However, the centrality of national sovereignty can no longer be taken for granted. There is evidence that the recognition of the need for this democratic confrontation of risk has led to the appearance of new and powerful actors on the international scene. Just as previous stages of modern citizenship required the civil, political and social, the concept of global ecological citizenship implies the need to formulate new ecological or environmental rights at both national and international levels. To refer to a definitive form that environmental or ecological rights must take would be both premature and undesirable.