Page 150 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

136 Citizenship

Marshall linked the historical development of citizenship to the devel-
opment of capitalism. In particular, he was interested in the coincidental
development of citizenship rights as a system of equality with capitalism
as a system of inequality . In conjunction with civil and political rights, he
saw the slow development of social rights as contributing to the develop-
ment of a parallel system of substantive equality which mitigates, and is
in contradiction with, the economic inequalities of capitalism. As Marshall
( 1992 : 33) puts it:

The extension of the social services is not primarily a means of equalising
incomes … What matters is that there is a general enrichment of the con-
crete substance of civilised life, a general reduction of risk and insecurity,
an equalisation between the more and the less fortunate at all levels –
between the healthy and the sick, the employed and the unemployed, the
old and the active, the bachelor and the father of a large family. Equalisation
is not so much between classes as between individuals within a population
which is now treated for this purpose as though it were one class. Equality
of status is more important than equality of income.

Although the only existing inequalities Marshall pays attention to are
class inequalities, at the same time, it is clear from his understanding of
the inter - relationship of capitalism and citizenship rights that he actually

sees class conflict displaced with the development of citizenship. In fact,
Marshall goes so far as to predict that citizens will become less interested
in earning high wages, not only because of high levels of taxes in a welfare
state, but because money will itself become less relevant where the essen-

tials of life – including pensions, unemployment benefit, good education,
healthcare, and so on – are provided equally, by right, to all citizens
(1992: 47 – 8).
The details of Marshall ’ s prediction have not been borne out, but argu-
ably, the development of citizenship rights is one of the factors that has
contributed to the decline of class politics. Citizens orient their political
struggles and claims for greater equality toward the state, while workers ’
struggles with employers have become less important. Of course, class
inequalities in welfare provision could have remained the main object of
citizens ’ concern, as they were in Marshall ’ s time, but in fact, this has
not been the case. It is not only that class struggles at the economic level
have been displaced by the system of status equality constructed in terms
of citizenship rights Marshall analyzed; it is also that class is no longer
the principal identity around which demands for greater equality are
organized.