The Hidden History of Social Citizenship

Abstract

Many accounts claim that social citizenship has declined during the last 20 years in Britain under the Conservative and New Labour Governments. However, the vague definition of social citizenship as given by T. H. Marshall means that it is difficult to see exactly which concepts best characterise social citizenship, let alone which indices measure the extent of their change over time. Some commentators imply an 'ideal type' model of change from a national statist model of post-war citizenship based on rights and equality to a hollowed-out, civil society model based on duties and inclusion. While there is some validity in these views, they do not represent the whole picture. An alternative account, 'the hidden history of social citizenship', points to a more limited, conservative notion of citizenship. It follows that recent trends do not signal such a sharp decline of Marshallian social citizenship as is conventionally assumed.