8 most essential Qualities of a good Citizen



According to Bryce, a good citizen should possess three qualities, viz., intelligence, self control and conscience. By conscience we mean a sense of responsibility towards all social groups ranging from family to humanity by a right ordering of loyalties.

Wide ranging commonsense, knowledge and devotion are the basic qualities of a citizen. A citizen should have enough commonsense so that he may be able to understand important problems concerning his role in society.

He should have sufficient knowledge and should have that devotion towards duty which urges a man to work honestly and sincerely.

A typical good citizen possesses the following qualities:

1. Sound Health:

A good citizen is robust and healthy. He is careful about the rules of health and observes them scrupulously. Only a sound body has a sound mind.

2. Intelligence and Education:

A good citizen is intelligent enough to shift good from bad and takes a dispassionate view of everything. He is educated. His education enables him to play his part in the society more successfully and usefully.

3. Self control and Self confidence:

A good citizen is sober in temperament and exercises self-control in his public dealings. He pos­sesses a disciplined character. He does not indulge in vicious habits. He is self confident without being vain.

4. Public Spirit:

A good citizen is ready to take a living interest in all public affairs. He is prepared to fight for the rights of others and takes an active part in all public activities.

5. Self-sacrifice:

A good citizen subordinates his self-interest to the interest of the community. He is imbued with the spirit of service and devotion to the common good.

6. Honest exercise of Franchise:

A good citizen is supposed to be honest in the exercise of his vote. Self interest or sectional interest of the state, class, religion or community does not prejudice his judgment.

7. Sincere performance of Duties:

A good citizen performs his duties sincerely and faithfully. He co-operates with the state officials in the discharge of their duties and makes due payment of taxes.

8. Right ordering of Loyalties:

Good citizenship exists in the right ordering of loyalties. A citizen is the member of various social groups, i.e., family, locality, city, state and the world.

A citizen must sacrifice his narrower interest for the sake of wider interests. If there is a conflict between the interests of the family and the locality, one must sacrifice the interests of the family for the sake of the locality because the latter represents larger interests.