Rokkan elaborated upon the threefold typology and historical development of citizenship rights as presented by British sociologist Thomas Humphrey Marshall (1893-1981) and blended these in their studies on the democratization of Western European states: the development of civil rights during the 18th century included individual protection of arbitrary rule by state authorities, freedom of speech, thought and faith, the right to own property, equality before the law, and the right to justice; political rights during the 19th century encompassed the right to vote and to run for political office; and social rights during the 20th century which included social welfare services and benefits according to an (undefined) standard of living common in society. The authors accorded four public institutions that correspond to the three types of rights: courts for safeguarding civil rights; representative bodies in public decision-making and legislation for the exercise of political rights; schools for basic education; and social service institutions to provide minimum of protection against poverty and underpin social rights.
Rokkan linked the development of these rights and their bearing in public institutions to variances in state formation and nation-building in the political development of western European states. While state formation was seen as a process which involved the
establishment of political order through the use of force by means of extracting resources within a particular territorial entity, nation-building was perceived as reflecting the set of pressures for and couterpressures against standardizing cultural, religious and linguistic distinctions within that territory.
Figure 2 and table 3 indicate how he visualized a four-phased time dimension which spans around a centre-periphery axis that reflects processes of state formation and nation- building: i) the dimension of force initiated the state building process through a penetration phase characterized by extractive and military capacities of rulers; ii) the dimension of culture reflected a standardization phase characterized by processes of nation-building which “brings larger sectors of the masses into the [political] system” by generating
276
This chapter is found in ibid., 89-93. For T.H. Marshall’s original text on “The development of citizenship to the end of the nineteenth century”, see Marshall, Class, citizenship, and social development: essays: 78-91.
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“widespread feelings of identity”277; iii) the dimension of law highlighted the strength of center-imposed legal traditions as well as opposition towards legal centralization; and iv) the dimension of economy reflected the degree of integration or separation of primary economy with / from city networks, as well as the degree of openness versus closedness of the territorial economy.278
Figure 2
Four types of citizenship plotted in Rokkan’s model on state formation and nation-building279
In the original figure, Rokkan identified two forms of citizenship: ‘political citizenship’ and ‘social citizenship’. He linked the establishment of ‘political citizenship’ to the dimension of law which was characterized by ‘the equalization of rights of participation’, and ‘social
277
Rokkan, "Dimensions of state formation and nation-building: A possible paradigm for research on variations within Europe," 572.
278
ibid., 563-72.
279
I have plotted in the four forms of citizenship to the original model. For Rokkan’s original figure entitled “The Time Dimension: A Scheme of Four Phases”, see ibid., 571. For an edited and updated presentation of Rokkan’s original figure, see Kuhnle et al., State formation, nation-building, and mass politics in Europe: the theory of Stein Rokkan based on his collected works: 132. For the Norwegian translation, see Rokkan and Hagtvet, Stat, nasjon, klasse: essays i politisk sosiologi: 355.
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citizenship’ with the dimension of economy whereby the redistribution of resources and benefits occurred.280
To Rokkan’s original conceptual map I add two forms of citizenship – ‘legal
citizenship’ which refers to a process through which individuals are classified as members of the state, and ‘civil citizenship’ that reflects the equalization of civil rights under state law in distinction to political rights of participation.281 With reference to contemporary states in the Middle East, external and internal pressures that seek to equalize civil rights among citizens or maintain existing differences constitute politicized arenas of conflict and violent upheaval that are intimately related to the organization of state power and the distribution of rights within the polity.
I argue that the two additional types of citizenship clarify significant features pertaining to the entanglement of law, religion and state power in contemporary states in the Middle East. These reflect various points of engagement that highlight the relationship between political regime and mosque/church-state relations as reflected in the
institutionalization of the judicial system. Various patterns pertaining to institutionalization and management of religion in different states impact on the distribution of rights and obligations among the citizenry in ways that shed light on the organization and distribution of power in different states.
280
Rokkan, "Dimensions of state formation and nation-building: A possible paradigm for research on variations within Europe," 566-67.
281
The equalization of civil rights encompasses theoretically male and female citizens as well as members of different confessional groups although I focus primarily on the former in this thesis.
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Table 3: A simplification of Rokkan’s table on state formation and nation-building 282
FORCE CULTURE LAW ECONOMY
strength of extractive agencies extent of opposition to such agencies strength of standardizing agencies strength of counteragencies strength of centre- imposed versus local/regional legal traditions Integration / separation of primary economy with / from city network internal versus external resources of military agencies distinctiveness vs sharedness of religious and / or linguistic standards distinctiveness vs sharedness of territorial legal system openness versus closedness of territorial economy penetration state-building constitution of the citizenry standardization nation-building equalization of civil rights equalization of rights of participation redistribution of resources / benefits
Legal citizenship Civil citizenship Political citizenship Social citizenship
By specifying and including ‘legal citizenship’ and ‘civil citizenship’ as two analytical forms of citizenship that differ from political and social citizenship, I seek to emphasize some central points of political dispute that surround the politics of citizenship and the politicization of the demos in contemporary states in the Middle East. While conflicts pertaining to ‘legal citizenship’ are related to the inclusion of non-citizens as members of state, conflicts pertaining to ‘civil citizenship’ are related to the equalization of civil rights under the auspices of the state as sovereign authority.
In the following I point at some of the challenges embedded in Rokkan’s conceptual map with reference to particularly the politics of citizenship in the Middle East as
framework. It is important to emphasize that I do not view characteristics pertaining to citizenship in the Middle East as deviations from a particular ‘standard’ European model regarding state formation and the development of citizenship. The main reason for applying Rokkan’s ‘way of seeing’ is that I find the conceptual maps and theoretical perspectives
282
For Rokkan’s original table, see Rokkan, "Dimensions of state formation and nation-building: A possible paradigm for research on variations within Europe," 567. I have removed parts of the original table and marked my additions in italics. In the original table Rokkan builds further on Talcott Parson’s paradigm of functional differentiation, see Kuhnle et al., State formation, nation-building, and mass politics in Europe: the theory of Stein Rokkan based on his collected works: 125. For the Norwegian translation, see Rokkan and Hagtvet, Stat, nasjon, klasse: essays i politisk sosiologi: 351.
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fruitful methodological guidelines in an attempt at applying citizenship as a level of analysis as reflected in various junctures related to state-building and state formation in MENA.283
I discuss methodological considerations regarding the use of Rokkan’s conceptual maps and variables in section 7 (entitled ‘Methodological considerations’) and concentrate here on the theoretical challenges related to distinguishing the four types of citizenship pointed at above.
6.2 Forms of citizenship in the Middle East within a Rokkanian framework