Gender,Citizenship, and Constitutionalism in Zimbabwe: The Fight Against Amendment 14

This article examines the nexus between gender, citizenship and constitutionalism. By using the case study of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, I seek to illustrate how the rights of women with respect to citizenship are manipulated by the state, with this discrimination often couched under African 'culture' or 'tradition'. The article also interrogates the limitations of utilizing the courts in the struggle for gender equality, because of the patriarchal values which are upheld and promoted, often erroneously. In describing the surprising victory by civil society groups and activists in challenging both the courts and the state nationally, this piece concludes with some thoughts on how a broader struggle for gender equality is necessary in the pursuit of social justice.     

Neo-liberal Citizenship

The government of populations within states and the government of states themselves within the international arena are intimately connected. Thus, in order to understand the character of citizenship in the modern world, it is necessary to locate it as part of a supra-national governmental regime in which the system of states, international agencies and multinational corporations play a fundamental role. A brief history of the modern system of states is followed first by an account of liberalism as a project of government emerging within that system, and secondly by an examination of how twentieth-century changes in the system of states have impacted on that liberal project. Where the liberal government of non-Western populations was once predicated on a denial of citizenship it is now channelled through the promotion of citizenship in states that are themselves increasingly subject to the rigours of the market.     

Crowding out Citizenship

The currently accepted theory of collective action presumes that individuals are helplessly trapped in social dilemmas. This has led to a form of policy analysis that presumes external authorities must solve all collective-action problems. The presumed universal need for externally implemented incentives is based, however, on a single model of rational behavior. This model has been shown to be an inadequate foundation to explain extensive empirical findings from the field and the experimental laboratory related to nonmarket settings. Thus, it is necessary to adopt a broader theory of human behavior that posits multiple types of individuals – including rational egoists as well as conditional cooperators – and examines how the contexts of collective action affect the mix of individuals involved. I will briefly review the empirical evidence related to intrinsic motivations and how external incentives may crowd out or crowd in behaviors that are based on intrinsic preferences. I then discuss the delicate problem of designing institutions that enhance citizenship rather than crowding it out. The penchant for neat, orderly hierarchical systems needs to be replaced with a recognition that complex, polycentric systems are needed to cope effectively with complex problems of modern life and to give all citizens a more effective role in the governance of democratic societies.     

保护弱势群体利益的政策调整

社会转型期弱势群体的成因是多方面的,其中政策因素是一个重要的原因。经济体制改革政策目标取向与政策制定模式,在推动我国社会经济发展、居民生活改善、社会稳定的同时,对弱势群体的范围、程度产生一定影响,随着经济体制改革的深化,应以社会政策调整为有力措施,保护弱势群体利益。     

Citizenship gone wrong

This paper examines how and why a deliberate enactment of the state got out of control. It does so by outlining three phases of border management in Tusheti, a highland province of post-Soviet Georgia. In the first phase, control was directly exercised by the local population. At the same time, border transgression for economic and political purposes was encouraged. A second phase of border management was triggered by the Chechen war in the mid-1990s. In order to discredit claims that Chechen ‘terrorists’ were hiding in Georgian territory, the Georgian government, monitored by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, effectively brought border transgression to a standstill. Finally, a third phase was initiated by a mission of the Georgian Orthodox Church sent to Tusheti with the aim of ‘spiritual fortification’. In the end, despite their courageous civic engagement, the locals had fewer entitlements than before. In order to explain what went wrong, I reflect on the downside of performing and incorporating the state and elaborate three different models of citizenship enacted by the key players in each distinct period. Finally, I argue for a temporalisation and hence deconstruction of the notion of ‘post-socialism’.     

重塑公民:当代中国农民公民身份的考察与反思

无论从何种角度考察,公民首先表现为一种资格,权利与义务的内在规定是其本质的要义所在,只有二者统一,才能外化为公民身份.当代中国农民的公民身份在新中国成立后表现出单向度的特点,税费改革后这个特点发生了逆转,但也使农民的公民身份陷入了困惑.当前,农村社会发生了重大变迁,融入许多新的时代因素,新农险以其法理性契约关系的模式给重塑农民的公民身份以启迪,让我们反思过去,审视当下,积极创造条件以塑造新时代理性的农民公民.     

Citizenship and Mediated Society

This paper challenges the idea of the liberating potential of information and communication technologies in terms of their meaning related to citizenship. It shows that the mechanisms that are supposedly conducive to the democratization of society can function as the mechanisms of exclusion of citizens. Adopting the critical-cultural perspective applied to issues of consumerism and their relations to citizens in media environment, the paper addresses the mediated appearances and manifestations of citizenship. The line dividing “old” from “new” media that is commonly used to apply to new media their participatory democratic potential lacks a reflection that would more explicitly admit new media limitations. These, when seen more in depth, appear as comparable to those of mass media. If in the beginning of the 1990s the Internet was embraced as truly enhancing political action, today its consumer realities, together with the spread of racism and xenophobia, need to be critically studied. As studies have shown, the Internet increasingly encourages the individual to look for private solutions to the problems of public nature which contributes to the understanding of citizenship not as a public but predominantly as a private affair. If cyberspace is becoming a vital link for new social movements and different groups of political activists, when seen from a broader citizenship perspective, the Internet has to be discussed also with regards to its limited democratic potential.     

Citizenship and the Constitution

The status of “British subjects”, the relationship between the individual and the State, and the concept of “rights” and “liberties” are relevant to the current political debate about “British identity”, citizenship, “multiculturalism”, a “British Bill of Rights”, and whether there is now a need for a written constitution. This article describes the confused contemporary understanding of what is meant by “British” citizenship and analyses the parallel developments of citizenship and our constitutional arrangements. The Human Rights Act, devolution and Gordon Brown's proposed constitutional renewal are important steps in setting out the ideas and principles that bind us together as a nation. Together with a coherent definition of the rights and obligations of British citizenship, constitutional reform would achieve a stronger sense of what it means to be British today.     

The State of Citizenship

Books reviewed in this article: Luc, Rouban (ed.) Citizens and the New Governance: Beyond New Public Management Wayne, Hudson and John, Kane (eds) Rethinking Australian Citizenship Birte, Siim Gender and Citizenship: Politics and Agency in France, Britain and Denmark     

Commercialisation or Citizenship?

In a recent pamphlet for the Fabian Society, Colin Crouch criticises the use of commercial techniques such as choice within public services. He does this because he says that commercialisation undermines citizenship. In this article, I question Crouch's claim by arguing that careful use of some commercial methods, in particular choice, might actually promote the sort of participative citizenship that he endorses. This discussion has a bearing on an important set of contemporary policy debates.     

Global Citizenship and Empire

Global citizenship is a concept that has been both propounded and critiqued on a number of grounds in recent scholarship, but little attention has been paid to what it might mean in an age of empire. Beginning with an analysis of American empire, the author argues that there has been an important shift in the meaning of imperial rule from what was initially a “realpolitik” version of empire in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to what has become a more “liberal” form of imperial power since late 2003. Whereas the former sought national security in a seemingly anarchical and hostile world, the latter has sought to spread a particular kind of globalized citizenship to the world, particularly in the Middle East. The author argues that the ideological grounding for such an imperial “civilizing mission” needs to be challenged through an alternative theorization of global citizenship. Thus, the second half of the article suggests a new theory of global citizenship rooted in two basic principles: social rights (in order to address the least well off) and shared fate (in order to draw the links between the north/south and east/west). Taken together, they provide a starting point for an alternative theory of global citizenship that speaks not simply against empire but to it.     

Campaign Advertising and Democratic Citizenship

Concern about the state of American democracy is a staple of political science and popular commentary. Critics warn that levels of citizen participation and political knowledge are disturbingly low and that seemingly ubiquitous political advertising is contributing to the problem. We argue that political advertising is rife with both informational and emotional content and actually contributes to a more informed, more engaged, and more participatory citizenry. With detailed advertising data from the 2000 election, we show that exposure to campaign advertising produces citizens who are more interested in the election, have more to say about the candidates, are more familiar with who is running, and ultimately are more likely to vote. Importantly, these effects are concentrated among those citizens who need it most: those with the lowest pre-existing levels of political information.     

Sui Generis and Treaty Citizenship

This article, written from an Aboriginal perspective, explores the problematic invitation to federal citizenship in Canada for Aboriginal peoples. Its focus is on the deficits of such an offering for the constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples, which is characterized by sui generis and treaty citizenship. Informed by Aboriginal and intercultural perspectives, the article argues that the offerings of statutory citizenship for Aboriginal peoples inverts rather than respects the constitutional relationship. It looks at how the Supreme Court of Canada has located and structured sui generis Aboriginal orders, the concepts of sui generis citizenship, treaty federalism, and constitutional supremacy as compared with the idea of federal citizenship, concluding that such 'invitations' to Canadian citizenship are inconsistent with and infringe upon the constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples. By understanding the prismatic nature of Canadian federalism in a postcolonial context, this article aims at reconceptualizing Canadian citizenship in terms of ecological belonging, fundamental rights, and respect for human diversity and creativity.