Beyond Dualistic Constructions of Citizenship: T.H. Green’s Idea of Ethical Citizenship as Mutual Membership

Abstract

The standard view is that the ideal of citizenship in the 1880s was that of ‘social gospel’: an active, public-spirited member of society practicing civic duties.1 The standard interpretation of Green’s conception of citizenship fits nicely into this framework.2 Green is said to defend a social service conception of citizenship and a civic republican at that.3 Moreover, the social service conception of citizenship is criticized for assimilating self-realization into social service and subordinating self-realization to the altruist duties of citizenship. Two questions arise: first, does the social service conception of citizenship adequately capture Green’s conception of citizenship? Second, must citizenship as a moral obligation to alleviate human misery override the moral demand of self-realization? Students and critics of Green and British Idealism tend to give a positive answer to both questions. I disagree.