The Nature of Citizenship in the United States and Great Britain: Empirical Comments on Theoretical Themes

Abstract

This study examines citizens' conceptions of rights, duties, and civic identities in the United States and Great Britain. By combining an information processing approach with a methodology--focus groups--that has seldom been used in political science, we have begun to explore empirical claims in contemporary theoretical controversies about citizenship. We find that in the minds of citizens citizenship is a complex matter, and that the roles constructed by citizens themselves blend together liberal and communitarian elements in ways unanticipated by many political theorists.