ABSTRACT

Citizenship expands with the boundaries which contain society so that the more limited the nature of society the more limited the nature of citizenship rights. In premodern societies citizenship was restricted to a small group of men who were typically property owners and who controlled the political process by virtue of their wealth. Citizenship gave expression to the new forces of bourgeois individualism, political administration via bureaucracy and the emergence of nationalism as the key to political identity. The development of citizenship has been bought at a certain social cost. Although citizenship developed before capitalism, the expansion of capitalism gave rise to an expansion of citizenship through an extension of exchange relationships within the market place. However, as Marx and Engels noted, colonialism had contradictory consequences in liquidating hierarchy, tradition, religious culture and premodern institutions through the impact of private property and market relationships. Citizenship supports capitalism in the sense of providing some form of abatement of direct conflict between groups.