Citizenship, Social Rights and Democracy

Abstract

The chapter investigates into the conceptual, normative and practical link between social citizenship rights and democracy in the EU context: The status and framework of citizenship have practical as well as normative implications for shaping and realising the relationship between citizens and a polity. Social rights are virulent for democracy as they reduce extreme social inequality and thus enable democratic equality. European integration has brought about an EU-related citizenship status and new EU-related political rights, but only a few social rights, and those only set minimum standards. Moreover, the EU’s rules increasingly influence the conditions for implementing and carrying out national citizenship regulations. But challenging and limiting national social rights is critical for citizenship as such and with respect to social rights being one basis of representative democracy.