who are 'enlightened citizens' in a democracy?
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Citizenship is one of several Enlightenment concepts that together produce the moral / political rationale for the modern nation state. Claims about citizenship, democracy, rights and governance are today at the centre of debates about political hegemony, regime change, public opinion, school curricula and investment in education. This paper attempts to facilitate those debates. It provides an analysis of the concept of citizenship, based in the concept of rights, and an account of how the concept of citizenship operates in Cooper's modern and postmodern states. It is possible a new postmodern concept of citizenship will emerge, but so far attempts to extend the concept of citizenship to achieve this (for example Faulk's attempt) have required that its base links to rights and duties be corrupted, or that its relationship to 'democracy' and 'governance' be unacceptably weakened. One concept of citizenship, based primarily on rights, appears equally applicable in modern and postmodern states. The draft European constitution is based on the Enlightenment concepts and distinguishes between citizenship rights and other rights.