Sony

Review of “What is Citizenship?” Extracted from Citizenship in Britain. Values, Participation and Democracy. Charles Pattie, Patrick Seyd and Paul Whiteley The extract I am reviewing is the first chapter called “What is Citizenship” it is the opening to a book called Citizenship in Britain, Values, Participation and Democracy. It begins with an introduction and then under further sub-headings covers the “History of the concept of citizenship”, “Contemporary debates about citizenship” and “The theory of citizenship”. I think this highlights to the reader that the citizen and state coincide with each other, I think that it is indicating that the two must have strong relations and understanding of the other and that for the country to run effectively they must support of each other. The article states that in Britain today the role of the citizen is being questioned against the democracy of the government and because of this there is “...a decline in feelings of community and solidarity within the public”. It goes on to highlight that there has been a rise in the interest of citizenship, even so that Citizenship Studies have been introduced as a compulsory subject within schools (Department for Education and Employment, 1999, Crick 2002.) I think this is primarily because there is concern about the relationship between the individual citizens and the state, this is a point mentioned in the article and is again highlighted when the author speaks of citizens going on a protest march, presumably to argue a decision enforced by the state- yet “fewer citizens are willing to turn out and vote...” (Pattie, Seyd, Whitely). Statistics show that in 2001, in Britain, 59 per cent of citizens turned out to vote- this, we are told is the “lowest in modern British history”.

The article goes on to discuss further sources of interest in citizenship, particularly the growth of immigration and how that affects multiculturalism. A view shared here expresses concern that if...