What is Good Citizenship?

This chapter discusses the idea of citizenship in the broad sense of the ethical and behavioural expectations of a person as a member of society, as distinct from the narrow legal sense of a set of rights that distinguishes a person from non-citizens. Its focus is on how to explain what is meant by ‘good citizenship,’ which leads to an inquiry into what is meant by ‘good.’ In answering this, the chapter examines the concept of virtue as understood in ancient Greece and Rome which, in the context of public life and according to the theory of civic republicanism adopted by Cicero and others, required respect both for individual rights and for communitarian obligations. The idea of virtue was founded upon natural law as ordained by the gods and was therefore ultimately dependant on faith. This is unsuitable as the foundational value for modern societies which are—or should be—governed by reason. Renaissance and Enlightenment philosophers developed a secular value system founded on the idea that each person was entitled to human dignity, which in turn entitled them to respect for their autonomy. In the twentieth century, respect for human dignity formed the basis for international human rights documents. The chapter ends with a discussion of how Rawls’ concept of the veil of ignorance and his liberty and equality principles can be used to provide justification for a universal dignity-based value system.