Page 148 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

134 Citizenship

however, globalization has called a number of the features of the bounded

society into question. In the first place, in accordance with conventional
understandings of his time, Marshall assumed cultural homogeneity
amongst citizens. In fact, the ideal of the nation - state as consisting of a

singular, unified, and self - determining nation has rarely been realized
historically; there have almost always been large cultural minorities in
nation - states, whilst “ countries of immigration ” have long received people
from different societal cultures. In the late twentieth century, the enjoy-
ment of cultural rights to difference came to be seen as an ideal in societies
oriented towards multiculturalism. In addition, there has also been mobi-
lization for changes in the rights of long - term residents who are not citi-
zens, and for states to respect the human rights of migrants fl eeing
persecution. We will look at these issues in section 4.4 , on multinational
citizenship rights, and in section 4.5 , on post - national citizenship rights.
Finally, debates over citizenship at the beginning of the twenty - fi rst century
also concern concrete possibilities for global environmental citizenship,
which we will consider in section 4.5 .
Before looking at the politics of social movements around citizenship,
however, we will look at how citizenship has changed since Marshall was
writing with respect to issues of wealth and poverty. At more or less the
same time that social movements began to make an impact on citizenship
rights, from the 1970s onwards, the neo - liberalization of welfare states
began in response to the crisis created by the rigidities of the Keynesian
management of capitalism. Neo - liberalization involves an emphasis on
freedom from the state, traditionally associated with classical liberalism
and given new life by the New Right, especially in Britain and the US
with Thatcherism and Reaganomics. From these origins, neo - liberal poli-
cies have become part of the toolkits of governments across the world; to
a greater or lesser extent in different cases, securing economic growth now
involves cutting business taxes to attract multinational corporations,
cutting state costs, and trying to pass the costs of social reproduction onto
citizens. Social movements, on the other hand, typically come from the
Left, and emphasize equality and freedom to realize one ’ s full potential.
They generally aim at expanding state regulation and expenditure. It is

difficult to defend and extend citizenship equality in a context in which
markets and consumer choice are promoted as the best way to deliver
public services. The expansion of the market is the context within which

social movement definitions challenge hegemonic understandings of mem-
bership and identity in the civil sphere, with consequent limitations on
claims for rights to equality and difference from the state.