Moral and Civics Chapter 4

Chapter Four: State, Government and Citizenship

4.1. Chapter Introduction 4.2. Chapter Objectives

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
✓ altruism operates that encourages people to set aside their own
interests for the good of their children or elderly relatives
➢ 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 o it fosters an uncritical
reverence for the state
o 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.
▪ state as a mechanism through which class conflict is ameliorated to ensure
the long-term survival of the capitalist system
▪ weakness of the functionalist
o tends to associate any institution that maintains order (such as
the family, mass media, trade unions and the church) 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 the responsibilities of
the state, and enlarging or diminishing its institutional machinery
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 o without population
there can be no state
o 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
o 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 o territory of a
state includes land, water, and
airspace o territorial authority of a
state also extends to
✓ ships on high seas under its flag
✓ its embassies

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 ✓ legations/diplomat’s residence in foreign lands o
size of a state’s territory cannot be fixed o 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
o 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
o form of government may be
✓ monarchical, oligarchic, democratic, dictatorial, etc D.
Sovereignty
o It is the highest power of the state that distinguishes
it from all other associations of human beings
o Sovereignty is the principle of absolute and unlimited
power
o 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
o state may willingly accepts some international obligations o
existence of sovereign authority appears in the form of law o
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

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 ✓ for a state to be legal actor in the international stage; other 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

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 • Modern pluralists/ neo-pluralist theory of the state o By theorists such as Robert Dahl
and Charles Lindblom
o modern industrialized states are both more complex and less responsive to popular
pressures 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,
o 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

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 ❖ 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 o
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 or meddle in every aspect of human
existence
✓ 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 o emanate from society itself through the
mechanism of electoral
democracy
o 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
o those that are internal to the state - the institutions and personnel of the state
apparatus
o 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

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4.4.4. The Patriarchal State
• It is implications of feminist theory
• concentrate on the deeper structure of male power centered on institutions such as the
family and the economic system
❖ Liberal feminists
• believe that sexual or gender equality can be brought about through incremental reform,
have tended to accept an essentially pluralist view of the state
• They recognize that, if women are denied legal and political equality, and especially the
right to vote, the state is biased in favor of men
• believe that all groups (including women) have potentially equal access to state power,
and that this can be used impartially to promote justice and the common good
• Liberal feminists usually viewed the state in positive terms, seeing state intervention as
a means of redressing gender inequality and enhancing the role of women
❖ 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

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 ▪ 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
• state acts as a night watchman, whose services are called upon only when orderly
existence is threatened
• the ‘minimal’ or ‘night watchman’ state with three core functions
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

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 • 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 o focus less upon the generation of
wealth and more upon what is seen as the equitable or just distribution of wealth o 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

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 • 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
✓ 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

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 o It is based on an acknowledged duty to obey rather than on any form of
coercion or manipulation
o 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 authority
o 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 o socialist states - decide to be controlled by the public o
capitalist states - decide to be controlled by the private sector o 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

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 ✓ 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)

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 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
o civil servants have a right not to be dismissed from their job
after a new government comes to power
o 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
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

• 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

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 • 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
✓ Ethiopian citizen has the right to get access to land, vote and to be
elected and get Ethiopian passport
• Citizenship status, however, is not only restricted to persons. Organizations and
[endemic] animals could also be considered as citizens o The term "corporate
citizenship" (CC) has been used increasingly by corporations
o 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
✓ 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 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

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 • 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 problems 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
✓ 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

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 ✓ 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

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 ✓ 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 o refers to the condition of being open and
public
o 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

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 • 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, needs and wants
✓ 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

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 ▪ individuals can get citizenship status of a particular State either
✓ because he/she is born in the territorial administration of that state
✓ 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 Obtain citizenship because he/she was
born in the territorial administration of that country
➢ Jus Sanguinis (law/right of blood)
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 of acquiring citizenship 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
legitimatizatio
n/adoption o
reintegration/r
estoration
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 o 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

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 ➢ 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) o 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 Ethiopian citizenship
• 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

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 ✓ 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) o representative of the Ministry
of Justice (member) o representative of the Federal
Police Commission (member) o 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

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 ▪ denationalization grounds into three categories o allegiance - lack of allegiance, active
disloyalty (for example, treason) o punishment - country may seek to deny such benefits to
people it believes are unworthy of enjoying them
o 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 through deprivation
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. Substitution
✓ when the original citizenship is substituted by another state, where it is
acquired through naturalization
✓ when a particular territory is annexed by another state; the inhabitants’
citizenship within the annexed territory will be replaced by the citizenship of
the subjugator
❖ Ethiopian citizen can lose his/her Ethiopian nationality through
renunciation and upon acquisition of other country’s nationality
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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 ▪ Some people become stateless as a result of government action

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