POS 211 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: The Good Citizen, Totalitarianism, Theories Of Political Behavior
16 May 2019
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Citizenship is the right and the obligation to participate constructively in the ongoing enterprise of self-government. Different political systems embrace different definitions of citizenship. In authoritarian states, people are classified as a citizen only if they reside within the territory of a certain state and are subject to its laws. Opposite of this is citizenship in totalitarian states. In these states, the government seeks to transform society and create a new citizen where people are compelled to participate in the political system, but popular participation is meaningless. In democratic states, citizenship is found in the laws, but the legislators who write these laws are freely elected by the people. One important aspect of political culture, the moral values, beliefs, & myths people live by and are willing to die for, is defining what is good. The only issue with this fact is that each language is embedded into a culture and no two cultures are identical.
