ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the extent to which citizenship — as active and responsible membership of a society — is relevant for thinking about how to combat social exclusion. It argues that exclusion is not an incidental, undesirable and avoidable feature of the collective life of associations, but an essential and defining characteristic. The chapter analyzes the respective roles of inclusive principles and collectivization in combatting social exclusion. Citizenship theory reasserts the claims of the collective life of communities in the face of economic individualism, political apathy, privatism, passivity and welfare dependency. Human rights therefore provide a template for an ideal inclusive community, and a standpoint from which we can criticize particular aspects of social relations in any particular society. Citizenship has become an important topic in political theory and social policy because it seems to integrate the demands of justice and community membership, and thus to clarify the issues at stake in the debate between liberalism and communitarianism.
