ABSTRACT
These questions form the focal point of this essay. To address them we must first define what we mean by rights and citizenship, and discuss their roles in a civilized society. To do so, I employ the methodological tools of public choice and constitutional political economy. Namely, I analyse the properties of rights and citizenship for a society of rational self-interested individuals who define a set of rights and criteria for citizenship as part of a constitution written to advance their collective interests (Sections 2 and 3). Sections 3 and 4 examine the implications of
the rise of terrorism for the choice of definitions of rights and citizenship. We argue that global terrorism could and indeed should lead to significant rethinking of the proper declinations of rights and criteria for citizenship in a democratic society.1
In Section 7, I take up the issue of whether 11 September signals a ‘clash of civilizations’. I argue that it does, but not simply one between Islam and the West, as it has sometimes been characterized, but a more fundamental clash between those individuals who think that society should be organized along principles of rational behavior, and those who reject these principles. Having identified what I believe to be the most fundamental implications of 11 September I close the essay with some speculations about the future of democratic societies, and indeed of democracy itself, in a world of global terrorism.
