CIVICS GROUP ASSIGNMENT CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER 4
 4.1 Chapter Introduction
This chapter deals with basic features of state, the role of state
and the state structure , government types and system and
citizenship. It starts by defining the term and then proceeds to the
dimensions and theories of on these areas.
4.2 Chapter objectives
*Define the terms of state, government, citizens, nationality and
citizenship.Understand the contending theories of state,
government and citizenship.
*Discern the rights and duties of citizens
*List and explain the differences and similarities of these
state, government and citizenship theories.
*Comprehend the weaknesses and strengthens of the
various state structures and government system.
Enumerate and understand the ways of acquiring and
losing Ethiopian citizenship.
4.3 Understanding state
4.3.1 Defining state;
• state has been understood in four quite different ways.
1. Idealist perspective
▪ Hegel identified three moments of social existence
➢ Family own interests for the good of their children or elderly
relativeos
➢ Civil society
✓ Seen as a sphere of ‘universal egoism’ in which individuals
place their own interests before those of others
➢ State
✓ ethical community underpinned by mutual sympathy ‘universal
altruism’
▪ drawback of idealism
▪ it fosters an uncritical reverence for the state
▪ by defining the state in ethical terms, fails to distinguish clearly
between institutions that are part of the state and those that are
outside the state
2. Functionalist approach/perspective
▪ focus on the role or purpose of state institutions
▪ central function of the state is invariably seen as the
maintenance of social order
▪ state - set of institutions that uphold order and deliver social
stability.
▪ weakness of the functionalisto tends to associate any
institution that maintains order (such as the family, mass
media, trade unions achurch) with the state itself
3. Organizational view/perspective
▪ State - set of institutions that are recognizably ‘public’, in
that they are responsible for the collective organization of
social existence and are funded at the public’s expense.
▪ It distinguishes clearly between the state and civil society
▪ The organizational approach allows us to talk about
‘rolling forward’ or ‘rolling back’ the state, in the sense of
expanding or contracting he responsibilities of the
4. International approach/perspective
▪ State - primarily actor on the world stage; indeed, as the
basic ‘unit’ of international politics ▪dualistic structure of the
state, its two faces:
➢ state’s inward-looking face
✓ its relations with the individuals and groups that live
within its borders, and its ability to maintain domestic order
state’s outward-looking face
✓ its relations with other states and, therefore, its ability to
provide protection against external attack
▪ Classic definition of the state in international law is found
in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of
the State (1933)
▪ According to Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention, the
state has four features
A. Population
✓without population there can be no state
✓ states of the world vary in terms of demographic strength
✓ population of greater than 1 billion - China and India
✓ constituency of few thousand people - Vatican and San
Marino
❖No exact number can be given to how much people
constitute state Homogeneity - commonness of religion, or
blood, or language or culture and the like
✓ it makes the task of national integration easy
✓ Homogeneity is not must
B. Defined Territory
✓ territory of a state includes land, water, and airspce
✓territorial authority ofc a state also extends to:
 ✓ships on high seas under its flag
✓ its embassies
✓ legations/diplomat’s residence in foreign lands
✓ size of a state’s territory cannot be fixed
✓ boundary lines of a state must be well marked out
▪ geographical make up - division by the seas, rivers,
mountains, thick forests, deserts, etc
▪ artificial divisions - digging trenches or fixing pointed
wire fencing
C. Government
✓ It the soul of the state
✓ It implements the will of the community
✓ protects the people against conditions of insecurity
✓ maintain law and order and makes ‘good life’ possible
o the machinery that terminates the condition of anarchy
✓ if there is no government, there is anarchy and the state
is at an end form of government may be
✓ monarchical, oligarchic, democratic, dictatorial, etc
D. Sovereignty
✓ It is the highest power of the state that distinguishes
it from all other associations of human beings
✓ Sovereignty is the principle of absolute and unlimited
power ✓It has two aspects
➢ Internal Sovereignty
▪ inside the state there can be no other authority that may
claim equality with it
▪ state is the final source of all laws internally
➢ External sovereignty
 ▪ state should be free from foreign control of any kind
▪ state may willingly accepts some international obligations
▪ existence of sovereign authority appears in the form of law
✓ sovereign state is legally competent to issue any command that
is binding on all citizens and their associations recognition
✓ the contemporary political theorists and the UN considered
recognition as the fifth essential attribute of the state
✓ state should be recognized as such by a significant portion of
the international community actors must recognize it as a state
4.4. Rival Theories of State
4.4.1. The Pluralist State
 It has a very clear liberal lineage
• It stems from the belief that the state acts as an ‘umpire’ or
‘referee’ in society
• The origins of this view of the state can be traced back to the
social-contract theories of thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes and
John Locke
✓ state had arisen out of a voluntary agreement, or social
contract, made by individuals who recognized that only the
establishment of a sovereign power could safeguard them from the
insecurity, disorder and brutality of the state of nature
• In liberal theory
o state - a neutral arbiter amongst the competing groups and
individuals in society - protecting each citizen from the
encroachments of fellow citizens
• Hobbes’ view stability and order could be secured only through
the establishment of an absolute and unlimited state, with power
that could be neither challenged, nor questioned
• Locke, on the other hand developed a more typically liberal
defense of the limited state
✓ In his view, the purpose of the state is very specific: it is
restricted to the defense of a set of ‘natural’ or God-given
individual rights; namely, life, liberty and property
✓ since the state may threaten natural rights as easily as it may
uphold them, citizens must enjoy some form of protection against
the state, which Locke believed could be delivered only through
the mechanisms of constitutional and representative government
• pluralism holds that the state is neutral
✓ state is not biased
✓ It does not have an interest of its own that is separate from
those of society
✓ state is ‘the servant of society and not its master’
• Two key assumptions underlie this view
➢ state is effectively subordinate to government
✓ Non-elected state bodies (civil service, judiciary, police) are
strictly impartial and are subject to the authority of their political
masters
➢ the democratic process is meaningful and effective
✓ party competition and interest-group
✓ state is only a weather vane that is blown in whichever direction
the public-at-large dictates
• Modern pluralists/ neo-pluralist theory of the state
✓ By theorists such as Robert Dahl and Charles Lindblom
✓modern industrialized states are both more complex and less
responsive to popular pressure than classical pluralism suggested
✓ for instance business enjoys a ‘privileged position’ in relation to
government that other groups clearly cannot rival
✓ business is bound to exercise considerable sway over any
government.
✓ state can, and does, forge its own sectional interests
✓ state elite pursue either the bureaucratic interests of their sector
of the state, or the interests of client groups
4.4.2. The Capitalist State
• Marxist notion of a capitalist state offers a clear alternative to the
pluralist image of the state as a neutral arbiter or umpire
• The state cannot be understood separately from the economic
structure of Society
o state is nothing but an instrument of class oppression: the state
emerges out of, and in a sense reflects, the class system
• In a general sense, he believed that the state is part of a
‘superstructure’ that is determined or conditioned by the economic
‘base’
• Two theories of the state can be identified in Marx’s writings
➢ The executive of the modern state is but a committee for
managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie
✓ state as an instrument for the oppression of the exploited class
➢ The state could enjoy what has come to be seen as ‘relative
autonomy’ from the class system
✓ the autonomy of the state is only relative, in that the state
appears to mediate between conflicting classes, and so maintains
the class system itself in existence
❖ Both these theories emphasize that the state cannot be
understood except in a context of unequal class power
✓ state arises out of, and reflects, capitalist society
❖Marx’s attitude towards the state was not entirely negative
✓ He argued that - the state could be used constructively during
the transition from capitalism to communism in the form of the
‘revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat’
❖In describing the state as a proletarian ‘dictatorship
✓ Marx see the state as an instrument through which the
economically dominant class (by then, the proletariat) could
repress and subdue other classes
✓ ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ was seen as a means of
safeguarding the gains of the revolution by preventing counter-
revolution mounted by the dispossessed bourgeoisie
❖Marx did not see the state as a necessary or enduring social
formation
o He predicted that, as class antagonisms faded, the state would
‘wither away’, meaning that a fully communist society would also
be stateless
❖modern Marxists, or neo-Marxists
✓ emphasized the degree to which the domination of the ruling
class is achieved by ideological manipulation, rather than just open
coercion
✓ bourgeois domination is maintained largely through ‘hegemony’:
that is, intellectual leadership or cultural control, with the state
playing an important role in the process
✓ Rather than being an ‘instrument’ wielded by a dominant group
or ruling class, the state is thus a dynamic entity that reflects the
balance of power within society at any given time, and the ongoing
struggle for hegemony
❖Therefore state cannot but act to perpetuate the social system in
which it operates
4.4.3. The Leviathan State
• The image of the state as a ‘leviathan’ is one associated in
modern politics with the New Right.
❖New Right, or at least its neoliberal wing, is distinguished by a
strong antipathy towards state intervention in economic and social
life, born out of the belief that - the state is parasitic growth that
threatens both individual liberty and economic security
✓ the state, instead of being, as pluralists suggest, an impartial
umpire or arbiter, is an overbearing ‘nanny’, desperate to interfere
✓ the state pursues interests that are separate from those of
society
• New Right theorists explain the expansionist dynamics of state
power by reference to both demand-side and supply-side
pressures
➢ Demand-side pressures emanate from society itself through the
mechanism of electoral democracy
electoral competition encourages politicians to ‘outbid’ one another
by making promises of increased spending and more generous
government programs, regardless of the long-term damage
➢ Supply-side pressures
✓ those that are internal to the state - the institutions and
personnel of the state apparatus
✓ public decisions are made on the assumption that the individuals
involved act in a rationally self-interested fashion
❖While Marxists argue that the state reflects broader class and
other social interests, the New Right portrays the state as an
independent or autonomous entity that pursues its own interests
✓ bureaucratic self-interest invariably supports ‘big’ government
and state intervention
4.4.4. The Patriarchal State
• It is implications of feminist theory
❖ Radical feminists
• more critical and negative view of the state
• argue that state power reflects a deeper structure of oppression
in the form of patriarchy
• There are a number of similarities between Marxist and radical
feminist views of state power
o Whereas Marxists place the state in an economic context,
radical feminists place it in a context of gender inequality, and
insist that it is essentially an institution of male power
• In common with Marxism, distinctive instrumentalist and
structuralist versions of this feminist position have been developed
➢ Instrumentalist
✓ State as little more than an agent or ‘tool’ used by men to
defend their own interests and uphold the structures of patriarchy
✓ patriarchy - men dominating public while women are confined to
private’ spheres of life
✓ in this view, the state is run by men, and for men
➢ structuralist
✓ Emphasize the degree to which state institutions are embedded
in a wider patriarchal system
✓ Modern radical feminists have paid particular attention to the
emergence of the welfare state
▪ Welfare - a transition from private dependence (in which
women as ‘home makers’ are dependent on men as
‘breadwinners’) to a system of public dependence in which
women are increasingly controlled by the institutions of the
extended state
▪ For instance, women have become increasingly dependent on
the state as clients or customers of state services (such as
childcare institutions, nursery education and social work) and as
employees, particularly in the so-called ‘caring’ professions (such
as nursing, social work and education)
4.5. The Role of the State
4.5.1. Minimal States
• is the ideal of classical liberals
• It is rooted in social-contract theory, but it nevertheless advances
an essentially ‘negative’ view of the state
✓ the value of the state is to prevent individuals encroaching on
the rights and liberties of others
• state is merely a protective body, its core function being to
provide a framework of peace and social order
1. maintain domestic order
2. ensures that contracts or voluntary agreements made between
private citizens are enforced
3. provides protection against external attack
• institutional apparatus of a minimal state is thus limited to a
police force, a court system and a military of some kind
• Economic, social, cultural, moral and other responsibilities
belong to the individual and are therefore firmly part of civil society
👉 The best historical examples of minimal states were those in
countries such as the UK and the USA during the period of early
industrialization in the nineteenth century
4.5.2. Developmental States
• As a general rule the later a country industrializes, the more
extensive will be its state’s economic role
✓ for instance In Japan and Germany state assumed a more
active ‘developmental’ role from the outset
• A developmental state is one that intervenes in economic life with
the specific purpose of promoting industrial growth and economic
development
o This does not amount to an attempt to replace the market with a
‘socialist’ system of planning and control
o It is an attempt to construct a partnership between the state and
major economic interests
• The classic example of a developmental state is Japan
• A similar model of developmental intervention has existed in
France
• In countries such as Austria and, to some extent, Germany,
economic development has been achieved through the
construction of o ‘partnership state’ a close relationship between
the state and major economic interests, notably big business and
organized labor
• More recently, economic globalization has fostered the
emergence of o ‘competition states’, examples the tiger economies
of East Asia
✓ recognized the need to strengthen education and training as the
principal guaranteeing economic success in a context of
intensifying transnational competition
4.5.3. Social Democratic (Welfare) States
• Social-democratic states intervene with a view to bringing about
broader social restructuring, usually in accordance with principles
such as fairness, equality and social justice
• In countries such as Austria and Sweden, state intervention has
been guided by both developmental and social democratic
priorities
✓ Nevertheless, developmentalism and social democracy do not
always go hand-in-hand, Example UK failed to evolve into a
developmental state
✓ social-democratic state is that there is a shift from a ‘negative’
view of the state to a positive view of the state - as a means of
enlarging liberty and promoting justice
✓ social-democratic state is thus the ideal of both modern liberals
and democratic socialists
✓ the social-democratic state is an active participant; in particular,
helping to rectify the imbalances and injustices of a market
economy
✓ focus less upon the generation of wealth and more upon what is
seen as the equitable or just distribution of wealth
✓ It is an attempt to eradicate poverty and reduce social inequality
✓ twin features of a social democratic state are therefore
Keynesianism and social welfare
➢ Keynesian economic policies
✓ The aim is to ‘manage’ or ‘regulate’ capitalism with a view to
promoting growth and maintaining full employment
➢ welfare policies
✓ responsibilities have extended to the promotion of social well-
being amongst their citizens
✓ The social-democratic state is an ‘enabling state’, dedicated to
the principle of individual empowerment
4.5.4. Collectivized States
• Collectivized states bring the entirety of economic life under state
control
• Best examples were in orthodox communist countries such as the
USSR and throughout Eastern Europe
• It sought to abolish private enterprise altogether, and set up
centrally planned economies administered by a network of
economic ministries and planning committees
• The justification for state collectivization stems from a
fundamental socialist preference for common ownership over
private property
4.5.5. Totalitarian States
• It is The most extreme and extensive form of interventionism
• It is the construction of an all-embracing state, the influence of
which penetrates every aspect of human existence
✓ economy, education, culture, religion, family life and so on
✓ economy, education, culture, religion, family life and so on
✓ best examples - Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR, although
modern regimes such as Saddam Hussein’s Iraq
• central pillars of such regimes are a comprehensive process of
surveillance and terroristic policing, and a pervasive system of
ideological manipulation and control
✓ totalitarian states effectively extinguish civil society and abolish
the private sphere of life altogether.
✓ This is a goal that only fascists, who wish to dissolve individual
identity within the social whole, are prepared openly to endorse
4.5.6. Religious States
• countries such as Norway, Denmark and the UK, ‘established’ or
state religions have developed
❖Far from regarding political realm as inherently corrupt,
fundamentalist movements have typically looked to seize control of
the state and to use it as an instrument of moral and spiritual
regeneration
✓ for instance, in the process of ‘Islamization’ introduced in
Pakistan under General Zia-ul-Haq after 1978
✓ establishment of an ‘Islamic state’ in Iran as a result of the 1979
revolution
✓ Although, strictly speaking, religious states are founded on the
basis of religious principles, and, in the Iranian model, contain
explicitly theocratic features, in other cases religiously-orientated
governments operate in a context of constitutional secularism
4.6. Understanding Government
4.6.1. What is Government?
• Government refer to the formal and institutional processes that
operate at the national level to maintain public order and facilitate
collective action
✓ one of the most essential components and also an
administrative wing of the state
• government applies both to the governments of national states,
and to the governments of subdivisions of national states
❖government, to be stable and effective, must possess two
essential attributes
1. Authority
o It implies the ability to compel obedience, defined as ‘legitimate
power
✓ While power is the ability to influence the behavior of others,
authority is the right to do so
o It is based on an acknowledged duty to obey rather than on any
form of coercion or manipulation
It is the legitimacy, justification and right to exercise that power
2. Legitimacy
o Legitimacy, from Latin word legitimare - meaning ‘to declare
lawful’
o It broadly means rightfulness
o legitimacy is the popular acceptance of a governing regime or
law as an authorityo Legitimacy is considered as a basic condition
to rule; without at least a minimal amount of legitimacy, a
government will deadlock or collapse
o legitimacy is gained through the acquisition of power in
accordance with recognized or accepted standards or principles
o legitimate government will ‘do the right thing’ and therefore
deserves to be respected and obeyed
o legitimacy differs from legality in the sense that
▪ the term legality does not necessarily guarantee that a
government is respected or that its citizens acknowledge a duty of
obedience
4.6.2. Purposes and Functions of Government
• different governments may serve various purposes and functions
• the major purposes and functions of government include the
following
❖Self-Preservation
✓ as their first and primary purpose and function, governments are
responsible to Prevail order, predictability, internal security, and
external defense
❖Distribution and Regulation of Resources
✓ determine whether resources are going to be controlled by the
public or private sector
✓ socialist states - decide to be controlled by the public
✓ capitalist states - decide to be controlled by the private sector
✓ other states may place in between - controlled by both the
public and private
❖Management of Conflicts
✓ supervision and resolution of conflicts that may arise in society
❖Fulfillment of Social or Group Aspirations
✓ fulfill the goals and interests of the society
✓ These aspirations may include the promotion of human rights,
common good, and international peace
❖Protection of Rights of Citizens
❖Protection of Property
✓ police and the court systems that protect private and public
property
❖Implementations of Moral Conditions
✓ to shape citizens character in accordance with some standard
of morality
❖Provision of Goods and Services
✓ Some governments, especially those of the poor countries,
participate heavily in the provision of goods and services for the
public
4.7. Understanding Citizenship
4.7.1. Defining Citizenship
Citizen
• the person who is a legal member of a particular State and one
who owes allegiance to that State
• a person who is legally recognized as member of a particular,
officially sovereign political community, entitled to whatever
prerogatives and encumbered with responsibilities
citizenship
• The means by which we determine whether a person is legal
member of a particular State or otherwise
• refers to the rules regulating the legal/formal relations between
the State and the individual with respect to the acquisition and loss
of a given country’s nationality
• Several countries refer to the term citizenship in their national
language as expressing merely the judicial relationship between
the citizen and the State while others denote it with the social roles
of citizens in their society
i. Citizenship as a Status of Right
▪ mere fact of being a citizen makes the person a creditor of a
series of rights
▪ Hohfeld discovered four components of rights known as ‘the
Hohfeldian incidents
a. Liberty Right
✓ is a freedom given for the right-holder to do something
✓ The beholder got benefits from liberty rights without obliging
others
✓ no one including the State has any legitimate authority to
interfere with the citizen’s freedom except to prevent harm to
others
✓ Example: every citizen has the right to movement
b.Claim Rights
✓ Are the inverse of liberty rights since it entails responsibility
upon another person or body
✓ claim rights are rights enjoyed by individuals when others
discharge their obligations
✓ Example: unemployment and public service benefits
❖ Liberty and claim rights termed as primary rules, rules requiring
that people perform or refrain from doing particular action
❖The remaining two are secondary rules specify how
agents/beholders can introduce, change and alter the primary
rules (liberty and claim rights)
c. Powers Rights
✓ The holder of a power, be it a government or a citizen, can
change or cancel other people and his/her own entitlements
✓ Examples
o The right to renounce citizenship/nationality
d.Immunity Rights
✓ allow bearers escape from controls and thus they are the
opposite of power rights
✓ entail the absence of a power in other party to alter the
rightholder’s normative situation in some way
✓ Examples
✓ allow bearers escape from controls and thus they are the
opposite of power rights
✓ entail the absence of a power in other party to alter the
rightholder’s normative situation in some way
✓ Examples o civil servants have a right not to be dismissed from
their job after a new government comes to powero Witness in the
court has a right not to be ordered to incriminate himself/herself
ii. Membership and Identity
• Citizenship is associated with membership of a political
community
• implies integration into that community with a specific identity that
is common to all members who belongs to it
• However, nowadays, we often use citizenship to signify not just
membership in some group but certain standards of proper
conduct
✓ It obviously implies that only ‘good’ citizens are genuine citizens
in the full meaning of the term
iii. Participation
• individuals differ in what approaches they find important – some
people focus on their private affairs while others actively
participate in the life of the society, including politics
• There are two approaches
o A minimalist approach to citizenship - kind of basic passive
compliance with the rules of a particular community/State
• There are two approaches
o A minimalist approach to citizenship - kind of basic passive
compliance with the rules of a particular community/State
o maximalist approach - active, broad participation of citizens
engagement in the State
• Ferguson asserts, people cannot realize their rights if they fail to
exercise their democratic rights to participation in decision-making
that affect, directly or indirectly, their affairs
iv. Inclusion and Exclusion
✓ Ethiopian citizen has the right to get access to land, vote and to
be elected and get Ethiopian passport
• All individuals living in a particular state do not necessary mean
that all are citizens
• aliens, therefore, have rights just like the Ethiopian citizens such
as the right to life, movement, and protection of the law, and also
have shared responsibilities
• However, citizens are fundamentally different from aliens in
enjoying privileges and shouldering responsibilities
o There are some political and economic rights that are reserved
to and duties to be discharged by citizens only, example
✓ Citizenship status, however, is not only restricted to persons.
Organizations and [endemic] animals could also be considered as
citizens
✓ The term "corporate citizenship" (CC) has been used
increasingly by corporations
✓ Just like citizens, corporations and private organizations do
have the right, duty, and beyond the formal responsibilities, they
have also corporate social responsibility (CSR).
❖ In the era of globalization, it has become increasingly
customary to use ‘citizen’ in a different way to indicate
membership of a person beyond a particular political community,
the State
❖ In the era of globalization, it has become increasingly customary
to use ‘citizen’ in a different way to indicate membership of a
person beyond a particular political community, the State
✓ Terms like ‘global citizen’ or ‘cosmopolitan citizen’ are commonly
used
✓ Terms like ‘global citizen’ or ‘cosmopolitan citizen’ are commonly
used to refer to every human living in the earth planet
4.7.2. Theorizing Citizenship
• Citizenship is not an eternal essence rather a cultural artifact
mold by people through time
• there are different approaches to citizenship, the most
contemporary areto refer to every human living in the earth planet
4.7.2. Theorizing Citizenship
• Citizenship is not an eternal essence rather a cultural artifact
mold by people through time
• there are different approaches to citizenship, the most
contemporary are
• Citizenship is not an eternal essence rather a cultural artifact
mold by people through time
• there are different approaches to citizenship, the most
contemporary areto refer to every human living in the earth planet
4.7.2. Theorizing Citizenship
• Citizenship is not an eternal essence rather a cultural artifact
mold by people through time
• there are different approaches to citizenship, the most
contemporary are following four approaches
4.7.2.1. Citizenship in Liberal Thought
• In liberalism the primary political unit as well as the initial focus of
all fundamental political inquiry is the individual person
• Liberals insist that individuals should be free to decide on their
own conception of the good life, and applaud the liberation of
individuals from any ascribed or inherited status
• Locke argued that natural law and the reason to apprehend
compel individuals to consider their own and others interests, to
enter into civil and political society, act in
the community and thus to value social cooperation
and self-restraint
• the individual is morally prior to the community: the community
matters only because it contributes to the well-being of the
individuals who compose it
• citizenship and other political institutions in a given State are
means that are accepted only conditionally – i.e., as long as they,
in the individual’s calculations, foster the maximization of the
citizen’s preferences/benefits
• the role of the State is to protect and create convenient
environment to help citizens enjoy and exercise of their rights; the
State has an instrumental function
✓ According to Mill, individual liberty and State action tend to be
opposed to each other
✓ Increasing the power of the State means reducing individual
liberty
• individuals have the right to choose their level of participation in
the community in order to fulfill and maximize their own self-
interest. If they choose not to do so, their citizenship is not
jeopardized
• There are three fundamental principles which a liberal
government must provide and protect
➢ Equality - government has to treat individuals who are similarly
situated in the same way and afford them the same rights
➢ due process - government is required to treat individuals over
whom it exercises power fairly
➢ mutual consent - membership in the political community rests on
the consensual relationship between the individual and the state
❖By protecting these three values, the government ensures that it
provides protection for individuals' rights and liberties, so they can
effectively participate in the political sphere
• the bedrock principles of liberal theory of citizenship are
👉 individuals are free to form their own opinions, pursue their own
projects, and transact their own business untrammeled by the
State’s political agenda and coercive power, except in so far as
individual actions implicate the interests of other members of
society
• Citizenship cannot be defined based on shared identity or a
common culture; the individual chooses his own affections, and any
identification with other individuals is rather a product of their legal
status as citizens Critics of Liberal Theory of Citizenship
1)The most common problem related with advocating individualism
are freeraiders problem and the tragedy of the commons
➢ free raiders problem
✓ occurs when those who benefit from resource or service do not
pay for it, which results in an under provision of the
resource/service
✓ occurs when those who benefit from resource or service do not
pay for it, which results in an under provision of the
resource/service
✓ Particularly it occurs when property rights are not clearly defined
and imposed
➢ tragedy of the commons
✓ a dilemma arises when individuals act independently and
rationally consulting their own self-interest ultimately deplete
shared limited
environmental resources, Since no one owns the commons
2) liberalists affirmatively valorize the privatization of personality,
commitment, and activity, the problem has to do with is the ways in
which individuals and their ideas are framed
✓ The preferences and insights of autonomous individuals might
originate from impure process, the information they were provided
might be biased or meaningless, or their preferences might have
arisen from a fit of anger
3)individuals have absolute freedom either to actively engage in
politics or ignore at all, liberal societies tend to be less egalitarian
✓ if many citizens are not willing to devote time or give attention to
politics, power will become an instrument of the few rather than of
the many, therefore diminishes the social prestige
4)For several reasons, liberalism may actually increase economic
and other kinds of inequalities rather than reduce them
✓ The persistence of inequalities among liberal citizens and
between them and aliens are bound to engender much social and
political unrest and tensions
✓ More fundamentally, liberalism contrives to keep the State weak
and permeable to private interests
5)liberalism posits a State that maintains substantial normative
neutrality
✓ The issues of how liberal State’s role remains modest become a
matter of great controversy and of course history has proved
impossibility of the State to maintain neutral
4.7.2.2. Citizenship in Communitarian Thought
• Communitarianism is as an approach emphasizes on the
importance of society in articulating the good
• communitarian (also known as the nationalist) model argue that
the identity of citizens cannot be understood outside the territory in
which they live, their culture and traditions, arguing that the basis
of its rules and procedures and legal policy is the shared common
good
• rather than viewing group practices as the product of individual
choices, communitarians view individuals as the product of social
practices
• communitarians often deny that the interests of communities can
be reduced to the interests of their individual members
✓ Privileging individual autonomy is seen as destructive of
communities
✓ healthy community maintains a balance between individual
choice and protection of the communal way of life and seeks to
limit the extent to which the former can erode the latter
• Communitarianism claims that an individual’s sense of identity is
produced only through relations with others in the community that
nourish him/her
• All in all, the two defining features of communitarian perspective
are
➢ no individual is entirely self-created; instead the citizen and
his/her identity is deeply constructed by the society where he/she
is a member
✓ It is only when an individual successfully assimilates to the
society that the society achieve its common goals and become
effective
➢ as a consequence of assimilation, a meaningful bond is said to
occur between the individual person and his/her community
✓ individual understands that what is good for the community is
good for him as well Critics of Communitarian citizenship
• Communitarianism is hostile towards individual rights and
autonomy – even that it is authoritarian since it melts the self into
the society
• communities are dominated by power elites or that one group
within a community will force others to abide by its values
4.7.2.3. Citizenship in Republican Thought
• Republican citizenship theory put emphasis on both individual
and group rights
✓ It attempts to incorporate the liberal notion of the self-interested
individual within the communitarian framework of egalitarian and
community belonging
• Citizenship should be understood as a common civic identity,
shaped by a common public culture
• It requires citizens to bring together the facets of their individual
lives as best they can and helps them to find unity in the midst of
diversity
▪ However, republicans don’t pressurize individuals to surrender
their particular identities like the communitarian thought.It
encourages people to look for the common ground
• Just like liberal citizenship though, republican school advocate
selfgovernment. Yet, republican thought do not agree with the case
that all forms of restraints deprive people’s freedom
✓ In contrast to liberalism, individuals must overcome their
personal inclinations and set aside their private interests when
necessary to do what is best for the public
✓ Republicans, thus, acknowledge the value of public life
• there are two essential elements of the republican citizenship:
publicity and self-government
➢ Publicity
✓ refers to the condition of being open and public
✓ public affairs such as politics, as the common concern of the
public, must be conducted openly in the public for reasons of
convenience
➢ Self-government
o without citizens who are willing to take an active part in the
government, a republic State could not survive
o The rule of law thus requires not only active and public-spirited
participation in public affairs – the civic virtue of the republican
citizen – but also the proper form of government
Critics of republican citizenship
• republican conception of citizenship is no longer realistic
✓ Republican citizenship is an irredeemably nostalgic ideal in this
age of globalization
✓ The Internet and satellite television are unlikely to inspire this
sense of community on a global basis
• the conception poses a threat to an open, egalitarian, and
pluralistic society
✓ republican attempts because in practice republican politicians
enforced homogeneity by excluding from citizenship all those
defined as different
✓ the search for common ground serves to justify the dominance
of a particular – and typically male – group
• concerns the claim that citizenship involves a false ideal of
impartiality
4.7.2.4. Multicultural Citizenship
• the conception of citizenship in a modern State should be
expanded to include cultural rights and group rights within a
democratic framework
• multicultural citizenship appropriate to highly diverse societies
and contemporary economic trends
• Recognition of group difference implies departing from the idea of
all citizens as simply equal individuals and instead seeing them
simultaneously as having equal rights as individuals and different
needs and wants as members of
groups with specific characteristics and social situations
• focus of multicultural citizenship discuss four principles of
multicultural citizenship
1. Taking equality of citizenship rights as a starting point
✓ all members of society are formally included as citizens, and
enjoy equal rights and equality before the law
2. Recognizing that Formal equality of rights does not necessarily
lead to equality of respect, resources, opportunities or welfare
✓ Formal equality can mask and legitimize disadvantage and
discrimination
✓ multicultural school of thought envisage the need for additional
rights for vulnerable minority groups, in order for such groups to
sustain themselves amidst the dominant culture(s)
3. Establishing mechanisms for group representation and
participation
✓ Despite formal equality, disadvantaged groups are often
excluded from decision-making processes
✓ It is necessary to make arrangements to ensure the
participation of people directly affected, wherever important
decisions are made
4. Differential treatment for people with different characteristics,
✓ Treating people equally, despite the fact that past actions have
made them unequal, can perpetuate inequality
✓ Government should take measures to combat barriers based on
gender, sexual preference, age, disability, location, Aboriginality,
ethnicity, religion, area of origin and culture
✓ multicultural citizenship allows for marginalized voices to be
heard
❖Critics of differentiated citizenship worry that if groups are
encouraged by the very terms of citizenship to turn inward and
focus on their 'difference'
✓ Citizenship will cease to be a device to cultivate a sense of
community and a common sense of purpose. Nothing will bind the
various groups in society together and prevent the spread of
mutual mistrust or conflict
✓ Critics also worry that differentiated citizenship would create a
"politics of grievance."
4.7.3. Modes/Ways of Acquiring and Loosing Citizenship
• Citizenship right guaranteed to individuals by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, Article 15
4.7.3.1. Ways of Acquiring Citizenship
• the common ways of acquiring citizenship can be grouped in to
two: citizenship by birth and citizenship through naturalization/law
i. Citizenship from birth/of Origin
✓ or his/her mother and/or father are citizens of the State in
question
▪ there are two principles of citizenship from birth commonly known
as
➢ Jus Soli (law/right of the soil)
o citizenship acquired claiming one’s parents citizenship status
❖However, jus soli could not apply to children born from diplomats
and refugees live in a host State
❖jus soli could not apply to children born from diplomats because
of two special principles ( international diplomatic immunities )
✓ extraterritoriality and inviolability principles
ii. Citizenship by Naturalization/Law
▪ It is legal process by which foreigners become citizens of another
country
▪ common sub-principles
o Political case (secession, merger and subjugation)
a)particular territory is merged to or subjugated by another
country, people domiciled in that territory would acquire a new
citizenship
b)in cases of secession option may be given to individuals to
choose either country’s citizenship
o grant on application
o marriage
o legitimatization/adoption
o reintegration/restoration
4.7.3.2. The Modes of Acquiring Ethiopian Citizenship
• in 1930 Ethiopia adopted a legal document named as “Ethiopian
Nationality Law”
✓ replaced by another legal document called “Ethiopian
Nationality Proclamation NO. 378/2003” which was adopted in
2003 by the House of People’s Representatives
• It affirmed that a person can acquire Ethiopian citizenship either
by birth or naturalization
1. Acquisition by Descent
➢ Article 3 of the 2003 nationality proclamation ascribed two
principles
under the acquisition of Ethiopian citizenship by decent
➢ Any person shall be an Ethiopian national by descent where
both or either of his/her parent is Ethiopian
➢ An infant who is found abandoned in Ethiopia shall, unless
proved
to have a foreign nationality, shall acquire Ethiopian nationality
❖any person can’t acquire Ethiopian citizenship through the
principle of Jus Soli (law of soil)
2. Grant on Application (registration)
✓ aliens can get Ethiopian citizenship. Under naturalization, there
are
various ways of acquiring Ethiopian citizenship
a)Grant on Application (registration) | Article 5 of the 2003
• Ethiopia, do not simply grant citizenship status to those who
apply unless they fulfill certain requirements:
✓ reach the age of majority, 18 years
✓ lived in Ethiopia for a total of at least four years
✓ sufficient and lawful source of income
✓ able to communicate any of indigenous languages
✓ has a good character
✓ has not recorded criminal conviction
✓ has been released from his/her previous nationality or the
possibility of obtaining such a release
✓ takes the oath of allegiance indicated in Article 12
b)Cases of Marriage | Article 6
• alien who is married to an Ethiopian citizen have the possibility
of acquiring
• Preconditions:
✓ marriage shall be thru in accordance with the laws of
Ethiopia or the State where the marriage is contracted
✓ marriage shall lapse at least for two years
✓ the alien have to live in Ethiopian for at least one year
preceding the submission of the application
✓ alien have to reach the age of majority, morally good person &
lastly take the oath of allegiance
c) Cases of Adoption (Legitimating) | Article 7
• child adopted by and grown under the caretaker of Ethiopian
citizen has the right to acquire Ethiopian citizenship
✓ But adopted child has not attained the age of majority
✓ lives in Ethiopia together with his/her adopting parent
✓ has been released from his/her previous nationality, or
he/she is a stateless person
✓ If one of his/her adopting parents is a foreigner, in writing, such
a parent has to express his/her agreement that his/her adopted
child gain Ethiopian nationality
d)Citizenship by Special Cases | Article 8
• alien who has made an outstanding contribution in the interest of
Ethiopia may be conferred with Ethiopian nationality by law without
undergoing the pre-conditions stated in Article 5
e)Re-Admission to Ethiopian Nationality | Article 22
(Reintegration/Restoration)
• person who has lost Ethiopian citizenship status may get back
Ethiopian nationality
• Examining and Deciding upon an Application to acquire Ethiopian
Citizenship
▪ An application shall be submitted to the Security, Immigration and
Refugee Affairs Authority
▪ Then, the application shall be examined by the Nationality Affairs
Committee, which comprises five members
o representative of the Security, Immigration and Refugee Affairs
Authority (chairperson)
o representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (member)
▪ representative of the Ministry of Justice (member)
▪ representative of the Federal Police Commission (member)
▪ representative of the Authority (member and secretary)
▪ If the committee’s recommendation got approval of the Authority,
the applicant shall take the oath of allegiance
4.7.3.3. Dual Citizenship
▪ condition of being a citizen of two nations
▪ Duality/multiplicity arises because of the clash among the Jus
Soli, Jus Sanguini and naturalization
▪ Example: baby born to a French family visiting the United States
would acquire U.S. citizenship by Jus Soli and French citizenship
by Jus Sanguinis
✓ child born from a mother and father of two different countries
could
acquire dual citizenship through decent
▪ On the other hand
✓ State may allow its naturalized citizens to keep their original
citizenship
✓ State may refuse its citizen to revoke his/her citizenship for
various
reasons which are cause for dual/multiple citizenship
▪ Ethiopia prohibits its citizens to have dual citizenship, Article
20(1) of the 2003
4.7.4. Ways of Loosing Citizenship
▪ Citizenship can be lost when a State provides for lapse or
withdrawal of citizenship under certain conditions, or when a
citizen voluntary renounces it
▪ denationalization grounds into three categories
▪ allegiance - lack of allegiance, active disloyalty (for example,
treason)
▪ punishment - country may seek to deny such benefits to people it
believes are unworthy of enjoying them
▪ public order
▪ commonly discussed ways of losing citizenship are
1. Deprivation
✓ involuntary loss of citizenship which arises while government
authorities or court take a decision to nullify an individual’s
citizenship
✓ for reasons of uncovering national secrets, non-compliance with
citizenship duties (duty of loyalty), loss of genuine link with
his/her ,
becoming naturalized in another country etc
❖Article 17, the 2003 Ethiopian nationality proclamation
prohibits the possibility of losing Ethiopian nationality
2. Lapse/expiration
✓ Person loses his/her citizenship because of his/her permanent
residence or long term residence abroad beyond the number of
years permitted by the country in question
✓ Example: Indian, 7 years limit
✓ for reasons of uncovering national secrets, non-compliance with
citizenship duties (duty of loyalty), loss of genuine link with
his/her ,
becoming naturalized in another country etc
❖Article 17, the 2003 Ethiopian nationality proclamation
prohibits the possibility of losing Ethiopian nationality through
2. Lapse/expiration
✓ Person loses his/her citizenship because of his/her permanent
residence or long term residence abroad beyond the number of
years permitted by the country in question
✓ Example: Indian, 7 years limit
❖ is not applicable to Ethiopia
3. Renunciation
✓ voluntary way of losing citizenship
✓ An Ethiopian national has the full right to renounce his/her
Ethiopian nationality if he/she wishes
✓ indelible allegiance - the person who has renounced a country’s
nationality may not be actually released from that status until
he/she has discharged his/her obligations towards that particular
State or accused of a crime
4.7.4.1. Statelessness
▪ the condition of having citizenship of any country and with no
government from which to ask protection
▪ Statelessness almost always results when state failure leads
people to from their home country
▪ Individuals could also become stateless persons because of
deprivation and when renouncing their citizenship without gaining
nationality in another State
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