Overview

Rights and obligations are confusing. When people really want or need something they call it a right. Can they simply attach this word to anything they want? Can people disregard obligations with impunity? This book argues that they cannot. One must understand those relationships in specific ways to really know what can or can not be done with rights and obligations in public discourse and politics. They must create a web of interaction between citizens so that more long-term social investments may be made. Professor Janoski shows that individual rights protecting privacy, free speech, and legal access are more highly developed in social democratic countries than in liberal countries. On the other hand, obligations in those same social democratic countries are higher. On the whole, rights and obligations are in balance; or, you get what rights you pay for in terms of fulfilling obligations to the state and society.

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9781139174787

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Aiming for nothing less than a synthesis of political philosophy, behaviorist models of social exchange, and state-centered developmental analysis, Janoski proposes an ambitious, wide-ranging but emphatically empirical theory of citizenship. Exhibiting a stunning mastery of scholarly literature, Citizenship and Civil Society critically evaluates and often surpasses recent work. Enormously learned and boldly steeped in the political and civic exigencies of our day, Janoski has set forth a series of hypotheses that must frame the forthcoming research agendas for all serious students of citizenship. Margaret R. Somers, University of Michigan Professor Janoski has here made a substantial contribution indeed to both citizenship theory and comparative political economy. Two fields of major social science advance in recent years, they are rarely brought together. Combining them across a considerable historical sweep and a wide range of societies, Janoski has produced a work rich in original analysis and insight. - Colin Crouch, University of Oxford and European University Institute, Florence Citizenship and Civil Society is the most comprehensive and integrative examination of issues surrounding citizens' rights and obligations since T. H. Marshall's seminal work on the historical progression of rights. Focusing on the advanced industrial democracies, Janoski surveys legal, political, social, and participation rights in countries with different political traditions and institutions. He documents the strong link between divergent conceptions of citizenship and different ways of organizing welfare states. Charles C. Ragin, Northwestern University A bold and comprehensive theory which maps out the complex historical relationship between rights and obligations, Citizenship and Civil Society analyzes the key issues confronting the modern polity. Bryan Turner, Deakin University ...[Janoski's] ambitious attempt to fuse social, legal, and political thought will challenge people to think about the nature and scope of citizenship rights. David Fagelson, Political Science Quarterly There is much more of value in this book than can be outlined here. in particular, the discussion of limited and generalized exchange is excellent, as is the treament of the historical development of citizenship. This book is a valuable addition to the growing library of sociological accounts of citizenship. J.M. Barbalet, American Journal of Sociology

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