ABSTRACT
Guardian, 14 September 1990 Actions give rise to reactions. The exit from politics has met resistance and obstruction from those unwilling to abandon democratic territory to the combined forces of state and market and their pincer movement of non-accountable decision making. The resistance has found common ground in the idea of citizenship, which established a ubiquitous presence in the language of British politics at the end of the 1980s. This was a remarkable and revealing development, reflecting a widespread sense that it was a period of exceptional political significance when the entire character of the polity was at issue. It was appropriate, therefore, that a contemporary resonance should be sought for an ancient word which defined the nature of a political community.
