Space and belonging in modern Europe: citizenship(s) in localities, regions, and states

Abstract

Does citizenship exist beneath the level of the nation-state? An enduring historiography insists on the essentially national character of modern citizenship, but this article argues on the contrary that locally defined identities have continued to exercise an important influence on the social and political rights of citizens. These local identities are not just relics of composite states with different membership criteria; rather, spatially complex citizenship is the norm.

Peut-on être citoyen au-dessous du niveau de l'Etat-nation? A l'encontre d'une historiographie durable qui insiste sur le caractère essentiellement national de la citoyenneté moderne, dans cet article on soutient que les identités définies au niveau des localités exercent toujours une influence importante sur les droits sociaux et politiques des citoyens. Ces identités locales ne sont point que les restes d'une ancienne conception de la citoyenneté. Du point de vue spatial, la citoyenneté est presque toujours complexe.

Keywords:

• citizenship rights
• local variation of
• administrative uniformity and diversity
• regions in nation states

Notes

 1. Among the best recent examples for historical studies of citizenship laws are Patrick Weil, Qu'est-ce qu'un Français? and Dieter Gosewinkel, Einbürgern und Ausschließen.

 2. Groeber, Der Schein der Person.

 3. Sahlins, Unnaturally French.

 4. As short-term care has usually been available to travellers in acute distress with little regard for their place of origin or ties to the community in which they found themselves, consideration of long-term access to material relief or medical treatment would seem to be the key indicator of access to social citizenship rights.

 5. Marshall, “Citizenship and social class,” 1–85.

 6. Prak, “Burghers into citizens,” 403.

 7. Sieyès, “Dire sur la question du veto royal,” 237.

 8. Quoted by Forsyth, Reason and Revolution, 152.

 9. Sieyès, “What is the Third Estate?”, 156.

10. Tilly, “A primer on citizenship,” 601.

11. Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood, 42.

12. Esmein, Eléments de droit constitutionnel, e.g. I, 318.

13. See, for example, Hazareesingh, ed., Jacobin Legacy, especially the introduction, and Rosanvallon, Le Modèle politique français.

14. Craiutu, Liberalism under Siege, ch. 5.

15. On Duguit, see Jones, The French State in Question, ch. 6, and Laborde, “Pluralism, Syndicalism and Corporatism.”

16. Kahan, Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe, 117.

17. Journal Officiel, 31 March 1874, Annexe 2320.

18. Archives Nationales C*II 611: Commission relative à l'examen des lois constitutionnelles, 13 January 1874.

19. For example Neuman, Strangers to the Constitution, 70.

20. Hanham, The Nineteenth-Century Constitution, 141.

21. See notably Biagini, Citizenship and Community, 1.

22. Cherwell, 11 June 2004.

23. Seager, The Reform Act of 1918, 48; Disney, A Practical Abridgement of Election Law, 71; Evans, “The political status of aliens,” 29–30.

24. Décret portant constitution des municipalités, du 14 décembre 1789,” reprinted in Aberdam et al. , Voter, élir pendant la Révolution française, 153.

25. For a fuller treatment of the debate and its influence on practice, see Beck, Origins; Komlosy, Grenze; Hennock, Welfare State; Smith, Creating the Welfare State; Gueslin, Les gens de rien; Nathans, The Politics of Citizenship.

26. Hatzfeld, Du paupérisme à la sécurité sociale; Gueslin, Les gens de rien, 29–59.

27. Smith, Creating the Welfare State in France, esp. 86–90.

28. Weil, Qu'est-ce qu'un Français?, 26–37.

29. Kettner, The Development of American Citizenship, 251.

30. Kershaw, Hitler. 1889–1936, 238, 362.

31. Trevisiol, Die Einbürgerungspraxis im Deutschen Reich; Fahrmeir, Citizens and Aliens, 63–99; Kolonovits, “Rechtsfragen des Wiedererwerbs der österreichischen Staatsbürgerschaft,” 66–89; Zedtwitz, ed., Staatsbürgerschaftsgesetz 1965, 14f. and passim. The most prominent documentation of the assumption of the existence of a state citizenship in postwar West Germany is articles 6 and 7 of the Bavarian constitution.

32. Hagedorn, Wer darf Mitglied werden?, 151–69; Weil, Qu'est-ce qu'un Français?, 271.

33. International Herald Tribune, August 26, 2003, 5.

34. See, for example, http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID4070242_REF1_NAV,00.html (accessed July 4, 2006).

35. Blitz, “The Medieval Relic Ruling a Modern City.”