Authors: Hermet, Badie, Birnbaum & Braud
Summary: According to a juridical perspective, citizenship is defined as the enjoyment of civil rights related to nationality, such as vote and eligibility to public offices.
The concept is linked to the origins of democracy. It arose in Ancient Greece as participation to public life (latin: res publica) and re-emerged in modern times with the French and American Revolutions as opposition to dinasties' loyalty and claiming a separation between State and Church.
The famous Pericle's speech mentioned three categories of representation linked to citizenship that are nowadays still valid: active political implication (political participation to public life in terms of vote, interest, public activities, etc...); national attachment and respect of laws; solidarity towards the members of the same community.
Finally the author stresses how the symbolic connotations of the concept such as equality and responsibility, lead to conceive citizenship as an abstract quality hiding real social and political inequalities.