Rousseau, Anderson, Fraser and Gordon: States and Citizens Flashcards
Rousseau: social contract
a sovereign association formed by people in which they alienate their natural liberties in order to ensure the protection, freedom and property of each individual.
since for Rousseau we are born unequal, a social contract equalizes everyone as all alienate the same rights.
general will*
the aggregated will of the members of a social contract. limited to the public interest
Rousseau: what does the social contract provide its members?
civil liberties and property
Rousseau: where is sovereignty located?
sovereignty is located in the members of an association: popular sovereignty
Rousseau: freedom
making your own laws and living by them
for Rousseau, what are the two roles that members of the social contract have?
citizens (rights) and subjects (duties)
what are TH Marshall’s 3 stages of citizenship?
civil, political, and social
What is civil citizenship based on?
On property. Therefore civil citizenship was limited to individuals who owned property.
Fraser and Gordon: why has charity been stigmatized?*
because citizenship was contract-based, thus giving great weight to the idea of exchange value
Fraser and Gordon: what were the limitations of civil citizenship?
it was only given to property-owners, who were white men free to exchange their labor power for wages.
as they owned property and were “free” to exchange their labor, they stood in contrast to slaves, who were considered property.
social citizenship
economic security, universal education and healthcare,
Why is an imagined community sovereign?
because the concept of nation arose during the Enlightenment, a time in which the belief in a divinely organized system was breaking apart, and in which religious pluralism was evident.
Therefore, it is imagined as sovereign because it locates its freedom as a sovereign state.
Why is a community imagined?
because the members of the community imagine others like them, even if they don’t know them
Why is a nation imagined as a community?
because despite any inequality within that nation, it is conceived as horizontally organized.
Why is a nation imagined as a community?
because despite any inequality within that nation, it is conceived as horizontally organized.
