Denizenship and its Discontents

Více o knize

Denizens engage in work, pay taxes, and participate in social and political relationships, all while being subject to the laws of their countries. Their autonomy is intertwined with the self-governance and wellbeing of their communities. Despite nation-states extending more rights to denizens, they remain largely excluded from political decisions that impact their lives. This dissertation examines the legitimacy of this exclusion. The first part explores denizenship, its relationship with modern citizenship and migration, and demonstrates that while rights vary, denizenship operates uniformly across Western democratic nations. It challenges the traditional dichotomy of foreigners and citizens, disrupting established norms of representative democracy. The author argues that the current citizenship and immigration paradigm is rooted in a cosmopolitan nationalism. The second part critically analyzes prominent arguments for denizen enfranchisement, finding them lacking, and proposes an amended version of Rainer Bauböck's All Citizen Stakeholders Principle as a more viable alternative. This principle aims to address the shortcomings of the cosmopolitan-nationalist approach to citizenship and immigration, positioning it as a crucial step toward creating more legitimate liberal-democratic societies, centered on an affirmative, moral cosmopolitan view of denizenship.