Page "Citizenship" Paragraph 21

Scholars suggest that the concept of citizenship contains many unresolved issues, sometimes called tensions, existing within the relation, that continue to reflect uncertainty about what citizenship is supposed to mean.

Some unresolved issues regarding citizenship include questions about what is the proper balance between duties and rights.

Some see these two aspects of citizenship as incompatible, such that social rights have gone too far with not enough emphasis on duties citizens owe to the state.

Another is a question about what is the proper balance between political citizenship versus social citizenship.

Some thinkers see benefits with people being absent from public affairs, since too much participation such as revolution can be destructive, yet too little participation such as total apathy can be problematic as well.

Citizenship can be seen as a special elite status, and it can also be seen as a democratizing force and something that everybody has ; the concept can include both senses.

According to political scientist Arthur Stinchcombe, citizenship is based on the extent that a person can control one's own destiny within the group in the sense of being able to influence the government of the group.

One last distinction within citizenship is the so-called consent descent distinction, and this issue addresses whether citizenship is a fundamental matter determined by a person choosing to belong to a particular nation –– by his or her consent –– or is citizenship a matter of where a person was born –– that is, by his or her descent.