The concept of functional differentiation is used to reformulate citizenship as inclusion in the political system and to describe the effects of the nation-State segmentation of the political system for the evolution of citizenship. In modern (functionally differentiated) society inclusion is system-specific, but not all-embracing. Inclusion in the political system is offered via two types of roles: the lay role of the voter and the professional role of the politician. Citizenship has not only a role, but also a status dimension. Citizenship is attributed to individuals by birth, either based on ius sanguinis or ius soli. In evolutionary perspective, nation-States have been particularly successful in including individuals in the political system by basing State rule on territoriality and by building up centralized State administrations. As a consequence, citizen-State relations are immediate, permanent, and exclusive. Nation-States also mediate the inclusion of individuals in social systems other than the political system. The nation-State as welfare state mediates inclusion in social systems by managing the risks of exclusion. With the emergence of large-scale cross-border migration and the advent of supranational forms of governance the risks of exclusion from nation-State based forms of inclusion increase not only for legal aliens, but for citizens as well. Thus the nation-State reflects the frictions between functional and segmentary differentiation of world society.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Jost Halfmann (1998) studied this question.