When we talk about citizenship, we are often talking about two different, but related, things. One is the legal status we have in a country, and the rights and duties to our country which come with citizenship. The other is the social responsibility we have as community members.
The legal rights and responsibilities of an Australian citizen are outlined in Fact Sheet 5.2 Citizenship in Australia. However, the social responsibilities are less easily described. We think of "good citizens" as people actively involved in their society, as volunteers in community groups or service clubs. In this sense, a "good citizen" is a person who is helpful, law-abiding, and takes their civic duties seriously. (Of course, a person involved in civil disobedience as a protest against something they disagree with might also be called a "good citizen".) You don't necessarily have to be a legal citizen of a country, to be a "good citizen".
Citizenship was important in the Ancient Greek and Roman worlds. The Ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, called a citizen "one who has a share in the privileges of rule". If you were a citizen in one of the Ancient Greek cities, which ran themselves as independent states, then you had a share in the public and political life of the city and took part in political activities. But not everyone was a citizen. Citizenship was a privilege kept for the very few, and was usually passed down through a family. Foreigners, women, slaves and peasants were not normally citizens.
In Ancient Rome, being a citizen was also an essential requirement for playing a role in public life. But the idea of Roman citizenship was less to do with participation in government, and more to do with ideas of patriotism and public duty. It also brought responsibilities, such as doing military service and paying tax, and rights, such as the right to vote and hold certain official positions. The Roman idea of citizenship meant that it could be earned. If a person who wasn't a citizen did something very important for the state, then they might be made a citizen as a reward.
Over time, citizenship remained important for identifying who belonged to the city or nation, who had a role to play in deciding how the city or state should be run, and who could claim the rights offered by the city or country. By the late 1700s, citizenship in some countries was seen as a birthright which all people could claim for themselves. During the War of Independence, for example, the colonists in North America broke their political ties with Britain, declaring themselves "free citizens" of their own country, rather than colonial "subjects" of the British King.
In France, the Revolution saw the downfall of the monarchy and the rise of the republic. There would be no more titles and privileges; everyone was a "citizen" of the republic with full civil and political rights. "Citizen" became the normal way or addressing someone, and the term was associated with a belief in freedom, equality and self-government. Citizenship came to mean actively deciding for yourself how you were to be governed.
In 2001, Australia will celebrate 100 years of being a united nation. In 1901, the six separate colonies (now the States) joined together to make one country. This anniversary has made people think more about what it means to be an Australian. So there has also been discussion about what makes an Australian citizen, in both the legal sense and the broader social sense. Some of this discussion has concentrated on reviewing the laws about who is a citizen and how a person becomes a citizen. It has also raised other issues, such as:
In 1994, the Commonwealth Government said that it wanted Australians to participate fully in civic decision-making. To do this, Australians needed to know more about their system of government. The Government therefore asked a group of experts to develop a plan for a program of unbiased public education and information on the Australian system of government, the Australian Constitution, Australian citizenship and other civic issues.
The Civics Expert Group, as it was called, found that Australians had a very successful record of democratic self-government, with a strong sense of civic life and public duty. This was shown through the amount of voluntary work and social activities they were involved in.
But they also found that Australians did not have a good understanding about how the system of government worked. To remedy that, they draw up a model school curriculum and recommended that other educational activities should be encouraged in adult-education and in the community generally, in order to promote informed and active citizenship.
How this is put into practice, and the effect this will have on the knowledge level of Australians and on their sense of citizenship, will be seen during next ten years.
Civics Expert Group, Whereas the people... Civics and Citizenship Education, AGPS, Canberra, 1994.
Derek Heater, Citizenship: The Civic Ideal in World History, Longman, London, 1990.
National Centre for Australian Studies, Teaching Young Australians to be Australian Citizens (an 'Ideas for Australia' program), National Centre for Australian Studies, Clayton, 1994.
Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee, Discussion Paper on a System of Citizenship Indicators, Department of the Senate, Canberra, 1994.
Bryan Turner (ed), Citizenship and Social Theory, Sage Publications, London, 1993.
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