Political Discourse of Citizenship

Although citizenship is defined by laws

in most societies, its negotiation is a highly political matter. A study across ages and societies shows how flexibly inclusion and exclusion could and can be practiced, depending on the needs and interests of a given community. Notions of descent, ethnicity and religion may have been important factors, but depending on demographic or economic needs, they could be handled with much discretion. Often underestimated is the influence of the political constitution: democracy not rarely turned out to be a hindrance to the grant of participation rights. Problematic is the notion of ‘generosity’, because a higher level of inclusivity mostly follows the strict logic of economic, political or imperialist interests. Based on my research and personal experience, I plead that matters as central for a society as citizenship and migration ought to be discussed openly (though respectfully) in the centre of society, rather than making decisions behind closed doors and leaving the public discourse to the fringes of society.

Main Publications:

Altay Coskun & Lutz Raphael (eds.): Fremd und rechtlos? Zugehörigkeitsrechte Fremder von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Ein Handbuch (‘Did Aliens have Rights? Legal and Political Inclusion and Exclusion of Foreigners from Antiquity to the Present Day. A Handbook’), Köln: Boehlau Verlag, 2014. See the review https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2016/2016.04.15/.

Großzügige Praxis der Bürgerrechtsvergabe in Rom? Zwischen Mythos und Wirklichkeit. (‘Were the Romans Generous in Conveying Their Citizenship? In-between Myth and Reality’), edited by the Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009 (=Colloquia Academica. Akademievorträge junger Wissenschaftler 2009.1).

Further Publications:

How Generous Were the Romans in Granting Citizenship?, Labyrinth 91, 2010. Open access: https://uwlabyrinth.uwaterloo.ca/labyrinth_archives/roman_citizenship.pdf.

Altay Coskun & Lutz Raphael: Inklusion und Exklusion von Fremden und die Relevanz des Rechts – Eine Einführung (‘Inclusion and Exclusion of Foreigners and the Relevance of the Law – An Introduction’). In: A.C./Lutz Raphael (eds.): Fremd und Rechtlos? Zugehörigkeitsrechte Fremder von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Ein Handbuch, Köln 2014, 9-56. Free download.

Griechische Polis und Römisches Reich: Politische und rechtliche Stellung der Fremden in der Antike (‘Greek Polis and Roman Empire: the Political and Legal Conditions of Strangers in Antiquity’). In: A.C./Lutz Raphael (eds.): Fremd und Rechtlos? Zugehörigkeitsrechte Fremder von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Ein Handbuch, Köln 2014, 85-120. Free download.

Many more publications are listed in the rubrics Athenian Citizenship and Roman Citizenship.

Original Publication on this site:

Roman Citizenship in the Context of Empire Building and Cultural Encounters (First published on 9 January 2022). Free download.