Global Citizenship

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Douglas Schuler
Public Sphere Project (CPSR)
Lori Blewett
The Evergreen State College

Rights and responsibilities as narrowly defined by citizenship in particular nation-state can result in an "us against them" mindset leading to biased interpretations of information and, even, paranoia and hostility to other countries. This understanding can also be used to deny the reality or meaning of oppression and suffering in other countries and to eschew responsibility from helping to redress these problems. Citizenship also determines access to health care, education, and other rights — rights that arguably should be universal. A narrow interpretation of citizenship implicitly cedes power to national governments whose defense of "national interest" can sometimes be used against its own citizens who have no legal access to a "higher authority," and can restrict the participation of citizens in global affairs and problem-solving.


In the waning years of the 20th century, people worldwide began to increasingly notice the world outside their own. At the same time nation-states, facing the new realities of economic globalization, seemed to be losing their ability — as well as their interest — in promoting the welfare of their own citizens and the natural world. As stated by John Urry: "More generally, global money markets, world travel, the Internet, globally recognized brands, globally organized corporations, the Rio Earth summit, 'global celebrities' living as global citizens and so on, all speak of modes of social experience which transcend each nation-state and its constitution of the national citizen" (1999). We could also add global climate change, natural resource depletion, economic inequity and other vast problems that humankind now faces.




The transnational realm of global capital in a "free market" world, requires global civic response. As national laws are superceded by international treaties and trade agreements, individuals rights and obligations become governed by global institutions—the reality that citizens of debt-ridden nations are well aware of. The question is not whether or not we are global citizens. The question is what form will our citizenship take. What are our rights and responsibilities toward global governing institutions and structures. Should governing bodies be directly elected by the governed? How will the rights of the weakest be protected from the strongest in the global polity? What counts as a right? What responsibilities do global citizens have to one another?



When Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, stated that he was a citizen of the world, he was refusing, according to Martha Nussbaum, "to be defined simply by his local origins and group memberships, associations central to the self-image of a conventional Greek male; he insisted on defining himself in terms of more universal aspirations and concerns" (Nussbaum, 2003). But to some scholars, the nation-state is the rightful and permanent well-spring of citizenship. Michael Walzer, for example, finds it difficult to contemplate the idea since, "No one has ever offered me [world] citizenshipor provided me with a list of the benefits and obligations of citizenship or shown me  the common celebrations and commemorations of its citizens. Walzer provided a useful laundry list of practical objectives that proponents of global citizenship would need to consider.



The concept of global citizenship currently lacks the administrative and legalistic trappings of national citizenship. Nevertheless from Diogenes to the present day, the pursuit and adoption of "global citizenship", however demeaned and under-institutionalized it is at present, continues to provide an compelling vision to millions of people around the world, people who are officially noted as "belonging" to individual, specific countries. The bottom line, however, for everybody interested in these issues, is that people must think beyond the borders of the countries in which they hold citizenship.




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