Gender, citizenship and nationalism in Kuwait

The concept of citizenship in the modem world is complicated by the conflicting claims of individuals, groups and complex organizations. The most important of these is the nation-state, an entity that defines its material existence as coincident with a specific territory (Ruggie, 1986). The apposition of 'state' and 'citizen' is a modem notion. To Aristotle, the state is a plurality of citizens who come together for self-sufficiency in a political association that aims at the highest good (1986). The state today, however, has come to be seen as separate from civil society (Keane, 1988, for example). Political theorists conceiving of state-society relations as the result of a contract between citizens and rulers visualize as discontinuous