Citizenship and Civil Society Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction to Citizenship
- 2 The Framing of Citizenship Rights: Expansion, Clarification, and Meaning
- 3 Reconstructing Obligations and Patriotism: Limitations, Sanctions, and Exchange in a System of Rights
- 4 Citizen-Selves in Restricted and Generalized Exchange
- 5 The Balance of Rights and Obligations through Nesting, Civil Society, and Social Closure
- 6 Incremental Change in Citizenship over Decades: Power Resources, State Structures, Ideology, and External Forces
- 7 Momentous Change in Citizenship over Centuries: From Wasps to Locomotives in the Development and Sequencing of Rights
- 8 Conclusion and Implications
- Notes
- References
- Subject Index
- Name Index
3 - Reconstructing Obligations and Patriotism: Limitations, Sanctions, and Exchange in a System of Rights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction to Citizenship
- 2 The Framing of Citizenship Rights: Expansion, Clarification, and Meaning
- 3 Reconstructing Obligations and Patriotism: Limitations, Sanctions, and Exchange in a System of Rights
- 4 Citizen-Selves in Restricted and Generalized Exchange
- 5 The Balance of Rights and Obligations through Nesting, Civil Society, and Social Closure
- 6 Incremental Change in Citizenship over Decades: Power Resources, State Structures, Ideology, and External Forces
- 7 Momentous Change in Citizenship over Centuries: From Wasps to Locomotives in the Development and Sequencing of Rights
- 8 Conclusion and Implications
- Notes
- References
- Subject Index
- Name Index
Summary
All authority comes from the People.
But the People can only maintain this authority through its obedience.
For if it allows itself to disobey the Citizens to whom it has given power, then everything is lost, there can no longer be Laws, or peace, or public safety.
The citizen who disobeys public authority disobeys himself.
Jacques-Pierre Brissot (1789)A veteran returning from Korea went to college on the GI Bill; bought his house with an FHA loan; saw his kids born in a VA hospital; started a business with an SBA loan; got electricity from the TVA and, then, water from a project funded by the EPA. …
His kids participated in the school-lunch program. … [They] made it through college courtesy of government-guaranteed student loans.
His parents retired to a farm on their social security, getting electricity from the REA and the soil tested by the USDA. When the father became ill, his life was saved with a drug developed through the NIH; the family was saved from financial ruin by Medicare.
Our veteran drove to work on the interstate; moored his boat in a channel dredged by Army engineers; and when floods hit, took Amtrak to Washington to apply for disaster relief. …
Then one day he wrote his congressman an angry letter complaining about paying taxes for all those programs created for ungrateful people.
Jonathan Yates (1988, p. 12)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Citizenship and Civil SocietyA Framework of Rights and Obligations in Liberal, Traditional, and Social Democratic Regimes, pp. 52 - 74Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998