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Examine the extent to which T H Marshalls concept of citizenship has relevance

for todays welfare state.


by Matthew Ott
Understanding of the concept of citizenship is very important in the forming of
Government, law, social policies and their impact on individuals (Drake, 2001).
For this reason there has been much interest and study into the concept of
citizenship as it is a vital factor in societies throughout history and across the
globe. Put simply, citizenship mediates interactions between individuals and the
state; indeed T H Marshall defines citizenship as a status bestowed on those
who are full members of a community. All who possess the status are equal with
respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed.
In his literature Citizenship and Social class (1963), the fulfillment of
citizenship depended on a persons access to civil, political and social rights. By
civil rights, Marshall was referring to rights necessary for individual freedom, for
example freedom of speech, thought and religion, the right to own property and
to conclude valid contracts, and the right to justice (Marshall, 1963). Political
rights denotes the participation aspect of citizenship, e.g. the rights to
participate in the exercise of political power as a member of a governing body or
as an elector and therefore the right to vote and seek political office in free
elections (Marshall, 1950). Social rights concerns the right to a modicum of
economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in social heritage
and to live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in the
society. ( Marshall, 1963)
Yet many recent works concerning the subject of citizenship by other
authors including Phillips (1991), Young (1990) and Lister (1997) argue
that universal citizenship can only be achieved where all members of a society
participate equally in coming to a working definition that specifies boundaries,
privileges and duties.
In addition, Marshalls initial three classes of rights have been
supplemented by Turner (1993) with three more, all of which accentuate the
social element of Marshalls analysis. Firstly, Turner puts forward the idea of
welfare rights, which go beyond Marshalls notion of a modicum of economic
welfare and security; Turner speaks of welfare rights involving some principle of
redistribution and therefore have the capacity to promote an egalitarian
transformation of social hierarchies. In other words, entitlements may go
beyond the idea of rights within a given socio-political structure to include
changes to that structure itself.
In the same way, Marshall is criticised for not dealing with economic rights;
in particular the power that accrues to workers where they enjoy the right of
controlling the enterprises in which they are employed. Lastly, Turner proposes
(with the help of Parsons idea of cultural citizenship (Parsons, 1971, 1966) the
idea of educational rights, which are said to be necessary in order that people
may participate in the complex culture of a particular society.

It is important to note that there have been important changes to the way in
which citizenship is viewed since Marshalls theory, and hence his writings
relevance has become questionable. Firstly, there were large changes with New
Labour and its Third Way in 1997. This concerned a different way of looking at
citizenship as they wanted to mix rights and responsibilities (Dwyer, 2000). Tony
Blair believed in responsibilities, whereas old Labour believed in rights, so a
mixture of the two approaches was undertaken. For example, quite simply, if you
didnt act responsibly, the government would reduce your rights; i.e. the
unemployed aged between 18 and 25 were offered a number of options- they
could go on to higher education, work for a voluntary task force or do training. If
an individual refused to take up these options, they would receive no benefits,
this is what is known as Making work Pay; a well known New Labour policy. This
is another example of a change to the view of citizenship; in that recent society
has seen a greater level of spending on not only benefits and rights, but New
Labour have also increased spending on education on citizenship. Citizenship is
now not only a topic taught to schoolchildren in modern day Britain, but is also
advertised to all in society via marketing schemes which put across the idea of
citizenship, ones rights and even how to be a good citizen ( Lavalette and
Pratt, 2001, www.citizen.org.uk )
At the time of writing, the society to which Marshall was applying his theories did
not encompass rights and responsibilities for women. This was for a number of
reasons, firstly, women were not as large a part of the work force as they are
now, and so their rights and responsibilities were not as prominent as they are in
todays welfare state. They also did not have such a prolific status as men, or as
they do now. This therefore proves Marshalls concept to be less relevant
nowadays than at the time of writing. Gender role changes which have occurred
over time have led to a different view on citizenship and this has been catalysed
by various policies undertaken by recent Governments, for example child benefit,
free care for working mothers children and a general move towards greater
acknowledgement and justice of/for women. As previously mentioned, Marshalls
definition of citizenship speaks of, All who possess the status are equal with
respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed (Marshall,
1963), therefore as women are recognised in society as much more important
and vital citizens their status and therefore rights increase. This has proven to be
a great change in the way citizenship is viewed. In other words, Marshalls
conception of citizenship was based on a welfare state which discriminated
against women. Recent commentators and feminist critics of welfare and
citizenship have shown that assumptions of the British welfare state have been
that the public area of work and politics is dominated, if not entirely filled by
men, this clearly is not the case now. Having said this to a certain extent
Marshalls concept is still relatively relevant, as social citizenship in Britain is still
largely dominated by men, as discrimination does occur, yet on a lesser level.
It should also be noted that Marshall believes that social rights and civil rights
can coexist in liberal society, yet recent commentators such as Barbalet (1988)
and Hay (1996) have argued that the problem with this theory is that in a
capitalist society, civil rights and social rights are inherently contradictory

( Faulks, 1998). This can therefore make social rights vulnerable in times of
recession, which Marshall did not take into account.
As class differences in terms of culture in British society have become greater
over time, Marshalls concept underestimates the extent to which class and
culture division is reflected in the unequal distribution of what Bordieu has called
cultural capital (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1997). In other words; the possession of
cultural resources necessary to make effective use of citizenship rights.
As can be seen, Marshalls thesis has a strong evolutionary element to it. It
appears that he assumes that the three types of citizenship progress through
time, remaining unchanged. Two major critics of this area of Marshalls concept,
Anthony Giddens (1985) and Michael Mann (1987) have pointed out the
previously stated problem. According to Giddens, Marshall writes as if citizenship
grows according to some inevitable inner logic of modernity; class struggle is
hinted at by Marshall, but not really developed as a theory of social change
(Faulks 1998). He failed to consider how future governments and societies would
be willing to accept the inevitable cost of social rights, citizenship itself is never
static but is dependant upon complex processes of social and economic change.
It can therefore be said that Marshalls concept of citizenship bears a certain
relevance to present day society and welfare state, yet many key features of his
theory are no longer relevant, for example the role of women in work markets.
Due to evolution of society, his thesis is less relevant due to the need for further
rights, for example welfare rights, involving a certain level of redistribution, as
put forward by Turner (1993). Yet the core of his concept, the key factors
concerning citizenship are still relevant, and are possible to be applied to present
day citizenship, yet for his writing to be fully relevant, additions and
modifications need to be made.
In conclusion, the concept of citizenship put forward by Marshall is the building
block, the foundation for other theories to be cemented upon as time, society
and citizenship itself evolves. This is still relevant to a certain extent, yet with
changes in gender roles, governments (i.e. New Deal ), and increasing
differences in culture and class (among other factors), his theory cannot be
applied directly and correctly to todays welfare state.

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