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The relationship between the complex concept of citizenship and political communication has produced a large corpus of literature that can be con-sulted in various languages. In this text, I shall try to show that there are different forms of conceiving citizenship in this context, which explain its con-tents in relation to the development of political communication in various geographical areas.

1. T

heconcepTof ciTizenship

We can say that citizenship is the juridical and legal status in relation to political institutions through which citizens acquire certain rights as in-dividuals (civil, political, social), and also certain duties (taxes, military services, commitment to a cause or to an institution). In addition, as a consequence of the democratic principle of popular sovereignty, citizens enjoy the right to be active in the political life of their respective state or community.

Each citizen is incumbent to a certain number of rights, which are specifi-cally recognised in the corresponding constitution, but at the same time, she/he has to assume certain obligations. These rights and duties include, among others, financial and military on one side, and active political par-ticipation in public affairs on the other. Membership in a political community is a condition for being a citizen.

Citizens are considered to be those who enjoy this condition, according to their constitutional provisions. In other words, they have full rights as members of their state and community, as indicated in the constitution. It is necessary to remark that the concept of citizen has evolved with time and under various circumstances, and today we can say that, in the politi-cal sphere, it has undergone two great transformations, even if the usual concept of the citizen corresponds to the one just described. Therefore, the

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concept of citizen is very much associated with the reality of permanent so-cial change in the political area, and it needs to be emphasised that the ideo-logical influences and changes in the interests of different societal forces also have great importance.

2. T

ransformaTions ofciTizenship

There have been two main changes in the concept of the citizen:

1. the appearance of the concept of globalisation has, in general, attained a special signification. The fact that a great number of activities: eco-nomic, political, cultural, social and so on, have largely became inte-grated in a world-scale strategy through the electronic networks of exchange of capital, goods and information, is what we have come to consider as ‘globalisation’. The paradigm of globalisation is the internet and what is today called the information society. This means that, collectively and individually, human activities are ever more globalised in all respects. The new concept of Europe and its devel-opment must also be included in this movement.

2. Moreover, the various states and their political and social institu-tions are becoming increasingly multicultural and intercultural, and the homogeneity of nation states is competing with the correspond-ing appearance of the concepts of cultural diversity, cultural conflict, cultural pluralism and the presence of the realities of multicultural-ism and multiethnicity. One must not forget to mention cosmopoli-tanism, which is strongly connected to the other listed concepts. Still, we must not forget that citizens have strong feelings about the fact they belong and relate to a specific community and its characteris-tics, positive or not.

At this point, I will not enter into the details of the concept of communica-tion, because this would require a broader analysis, and would exceed the limitations of this text.

3. f

urTherconsideraTions

Instead, I will formulate a certain number of premises needed to clarify the concepts of citizenship in the context of political communication.

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Citizenship rights are linked with the fundamental concept of power, which is exercised by an institution setting up the rights of citizens ac-cording to its constitutional laws. This act requires the pre-existence of a democratic system which, in principle, excludes the possibility of link-ing citizenship with a dictatorship or an authoritarian regime. Therefore, there may be diverse types of functioning citizenship if the legal system, in its various stages, is unitarian or federalist. Nations without a state rep-resent a special case, in which citizenship rights are related to the allowed competencies and their compliance with the willingness of the state on which the nation in question is dependent. In the case of Spain, an autono-mous state, there are the competencies of the state itself, and then there are the concepts of subordinate and dependent citizenship in its autonomous communities. In every case, the responsibility of the institution, either the state or the dependent community, is evidently connected to geographical parameters.

We can formulate the following taxonomy of citizenships according to the constitutional system and its various competencies: global, federal, local, political, cultural, transnational (e.g. European) and universal. As we can see, the territorial approach is the basic criteria in defining citizenship.

In the political development of citizenship we could isolate certain elements, such as history, mentality, ideology, interests, the concept of national-ism, the sense of identity and the prevailing and individual political cul-tures. They may all play an important role. Moreover, particular attention should be paid to the political governance of organisations, and their vari-ous competencies, the role played by political parties, social movements, and in particular, the pressure groups, whether lobbying or not, without neglecting the positions occupied by private firms in the capitalistic struc-ture.

Then there is the influence of the social class, evident in the citizenship of any political community, and bringing about different forms of social and political inequalities requiring corrective actions from civil servants and politicians in their respective areas. Again, the respective public policies have to be taken into consideration.

Next, we enter into the field of human rights and the various types of citi-zens as subjects of rights and duties, either fundamental or social. In fact, we realise that in any political community, there are: 1) citizens enjoying full rights, by origin or by legal acquisition; 2) a large group of immigrants

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of diverse nature and legal status, belonging to different religions, hav-ing different levels and types of education, various cultures and diverse economic systems; and 3) the exiled, the minorities and their rights, the refugees, the stateless and the disabled. From the negative perspective, these situations often entail racism and xenophobia, with their logical neg-ative implications. The actions carried out by delinquents and terrorists of whatever sort deserve special consideration, as they constitute an evident breach of the rule of law, which is naturally essential for any democratic society.

From the personal point of view, the questions of gender, age, education and intellectual contribution have become extremely important in any treat-ment of the complex concept of citizenship. If we place the importance of our analysis on the individual’s socialisation to political and civic culture, we must emphasise the relevance of the content of education in social and humanistic fields, as well as education in the experimental sciences and technology. Moreover, the contribution of universities and teaching insti-tutions has to be taken into account.

In this respect, the role of intellectuals is of the highest importance, a fact that is not always sufficiently taken into consideration. Their contribu-tion is essential in spite of the new technologies of communicacontribu-tion and education, even the on-line versions. Neglecting this fact in favour of the technological approach may often contribute to serious mistakes. In my view, the key function of thinking and reasoning is the conviction that human beings are principally those actors whose objective is thought. Regretfully, this does not seem to be the principal concern in some areas.

The preceding point is related to the function that we should grant to the intellectuals – in spite of the critical situations in which they find them-selves on certain occasions. Their contribution, if formulated seriously, should deserve our greatest attention. Furthermore, it is worth reminding ourselves that they integrate, intellectually speaking, the elitist branch of society, which is necessary for the development of any society, even if their behaviour is not always presided over by specific intellectual ethical standards. We should place scientists of all types in this category. As I will show at the end of this text, ethics have a paradigmatic influence in this field.

In economic terms, the concept of citizenship is linked with the fact that we have to consider capitalism as both the prevalent ideology and the

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nant ideological political, economic and social system. We should remind ourselves that there are rich and poor countries and areas, and indeed the same can also be applied equally to their citizens. Poverty is a reality that affects many citizens, especially in the present phenomenon of immigra-tion flows of various types, generally originating in the widespread dis-advantageous economic situations of many populations, sometimes even in territories that can be considered affluent. In fact, access to a decent economic situation is quite discriminatory for many immigrants. In con-clusion, we can claim that the welfare state is undergoing a great crisis;

not only economic, but a crisis of democratic structure and cultural values as well, which is accentuated by the present economic crisis in many areas of the world.

This consideration can also be applied to the role of consumption in indus-trial societies, and its dependence on the new economies with the pre-vailing realm of financial stock markets and stock exchanges. Although consumption is a basic activity to any industrial society, and the citizen’s role as a consumer is essential; active citizenship is today strongly limited by the so-called new economy. Policy based only on consumption without the understanding of market logic and ethical limitations of market-based policy creates a severe risk to democratic citizenship.

The role of the working environment, the right to work, the quality of the citizen as a worker in its various areas and possibilities, the place of the trade unions as the key representatives of workers—these are the themes that deserve special attention because of their relation to the development of a democratic and non-discriminatory citizenship.

The place occupied by education, with its experimental sciences, tech-niques, technology and new technologies, which are the dynamic elements of economic and social development, must not be excluded. In European terms, the role of the Euro in the European economic, social and political development and its relation with other non-European economies is also worth noting.

In his Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, Will Kymlicka mentions the linguistic, vernacular citizenship, which represents an interesting contribution to the role of languages in the construction of citizenship. Because of the large number of languages, the situation of bi-lingualism or diglossia, affecting many societies is often a cause for social and political conflicts. In this context, the stereotypes and prejudices that

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have a great negative impact on social life and human interrelations are worth mentioning.

Citizenship, communication and informatisation are the three key and in-tertwined concepts that are very much connected to the ever increasing development of the media, particularly in the field of political communica-tion. Communication messages should be informative and fair journalisti-cally. However, in reality, we see they often become a matter of propa-ganda or disinformation. In addition, the ever present public relations, with its positive, and sometimes negative, effects, and advertising, with its link to the economy and the devastating influence it has in many areas, cannot be neglected.

We have already mentioned the place that currently is occupied by the new technologies of communication and information exchange in the develop-ment of citizenship and the increasing use of digitalisation, which allows us to express a new mode of citizenship, specifically, digital citizenship, in terms of a cyber-citizen. In summary, the importance of the internet and its instruments (e.g. blogs) has become a necessity and is unavoidable.

Finally, I would like to underscore that all the preceding considerations, elements and factors always require, on the one hand, ethical, and on the other, deontological reflection, which must preside over the content and behaviour of citizenship in its vast array of relationships with political communication 1.

r

eference

Kymlicka, W. (1996) Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

1 The author would like to thank Pavel Koltaj for his valuable comments on this essay.

PHOTO: ILIJA T. TOMANIĆ